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Jun 22, 2008

Michelle rated it:

This book is a memoir that involves a young boy, Toby(Jack)Wolff and his personal experience living life on the run. Jack and hisi mother is contantly moving after the separation with Jack's father. The story starts with Jack and his mother moving to Utah to make their fortune by mining Uranium. Jack was very close to his mother, who had a abusive childhod. His mom contantly involve herself with violent and abusive men. As a result, Jack is constantly seeking refuge in his imagination and lies. More...

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Jan 25, 2008

Malbadeen rated it:

I can't very well articulate why this book elicited a 5 star response from me, which is why I enjoyed it so much. Despite not being able to put my finger on it, I found myself wanting to get back to it all the time.
Not a reaction I typically have to memoirs by established authors.
He spoke in away that maintained the feel of adolescence without condescending hindsight or grandiose naivety. The writing seems so simple and concise and yet there were numerous times when I had to fight my More...

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Jan 27, 2008

Kevin rated it:

Some books are good; some of them you read and the word "good" seems almost like an insult to place on them. This is one of the latter.

I picked this up after seing the movie version, specifically after the scene where Wolff's stepdad starts choking him because he didn't get the last of the mustard out of a jar before throwing it away. To this day, it's one of the most realistic depictions of violence I've ever seen in a movie. I wasn't sure how the book would live up t More...

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Mar 10, 2009

Helen rated it:

This memoir would be overwhelmingly sad for me, had I not already read Old School by the same author and know that he becomes a successful author and teacher of literature at Stanford. But if you didn’t know that this child redeems himself in the end, this would be sad, a sad tale indeed.

Tobias’ parents divorced when he was a young boy, and his mother set off looking for a better life, leaving her oldest son with her ex-husband. In 1955 it was hard for a single mother, and life tre More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Jan rated it:

Wolff’s memoir of his nomadic, fatherless childhood searching for an identity and a future is hypnotically engaging. In search of wealth and the right man, his divorced mother moved Toby, who renamed himself Jack, from Florida to Utah to Washington State, where she married Dwight, definitely the wrong man, especially for Jack. "I was bound to accept as my home a place I did not feel at home in,” he writes, “and to take as my father a man who was offended by my existence and would never sto More...

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Mar 08, 2011

Texx rated it:

This Boy’s Life is amazing. It is an honest accounting of Tobias Wolff’s early life. I imagine the temptation is to pull your punches to veer away for conflicts that you know about only in hindsight. If you write a memoir and you are the protagonist, then it is natural to want to be the good guy, the smart one, the one who did everything right. In this accounting, Wolff reveals a kid who was sometimes dumb, stupid, mean, and pitiful. I was drug up during this same time period, and while my More...

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Feb 22, 2011

Michaela rated it:

This Boy’s Life is a memoir dealing with guilt, abandonment, cruelty and lies, but most of all it is a novel about a never dying belief of one’s self. It is an upsetting story about abuse, and about wanting and believing that you deserve a better life. Written in a spare, clear and hypnotic Hemingway-way, a fixating novel.
Toby Wolff, later Jack, and his mother are on the road. They are moving to Utah to start a new life, but unfortunately his mother’s boyfriend Roy comes after them. Jack a More...

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Feb 08, 2011

Andrew rated it:

“Dwight kept on babbling on about the virtues of Concrete but all I could think about was shooting that turkey”. This boy’s life is a masterful memoir piece written by Tobias Wolff, it is written through the point of view of Toby who represents Tobias Wolff as a child. The novel explores the truth of a child’s childhood. At times Toby can be an unreliable narrator; the reader might doubt some of the stories from this young anarchic live wire. Although the memoir is written through the point of v More...

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Sep 05, 2010

Hua rated it:

The book "This Boy's Life," by Tobias Wolff was written through author's lens in which included his memoir. This novel tells about a mother and son moving from place to place looking for a settlement. Caroline Wolff, the mother, wants to find a best place for his son, Toby. They moved to Seattle and met Dwight Hansen who Caroline thought would be best for Toby therefore they married. However everything wasn't like how Caroline thought due to Dwight Hansen's abusive attitute toward toby More...

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Sep 06, 2010

Tony rated it:

From Dave Peltzer to Tobias Wolff, one thing holds true. Growing up independently will forever change the future ahead. Although Toby, also known as Jack, isn't as unfortunate as Dave, he shares the same emotional pain. Facing a divorce at a young age and having to follow his mother around, he has forever lost his brother and father. As his mother continuously moves, Toby is affected severely. He is not cared for by the other men he is exposed to which then makes him develop his own system of ha More...

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Sep 04, 2010

Hui Lin rated it:

This is a really depressing memoir. The protagonist, Toby, who later renamed himself as Jack, went through a tough life. After his parents divorce, Jack is separated from his father and brother to live with his mother. They move from place to place trying to make a living, and life for them was never stable. Jack's mother, Rosemary continues her life meeting various men who are abusive and violent. They didn't treat Jack really nice and as a result, he never got the love from family like normal More...

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Aug 29, 2010

Elise rated it:

This Boy's Life was on a list of books I got to choose from in order to throw together this year's 8th grade ELA reading curriculum. I was interested in adding a more modern memoir to the reading list (the other memoir option was "Night," which I have not taught successfully in the past). I've read some of Tobias Wolff before (Old School, some short stories) and liked it all, so I decided to give This Boy's Life a shot.

Within the first few pages, I started to regret my choi More...

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May 11, 2010

Katherine rated it:

Okay, so it's a complete coincidence that the first memoir I read after Running with Scissors, after which I vowed to go on a search for good confessional memoirs, turned out to be not only a stunning example of how to do it right, but also one of the best books I've ever read, one of those books that lands in your lap like a meteor, that makes you want to yell WHO IS THIS WRITER AND WHERE HAS HE BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

This Boy's Life focuses on how teenage Toby Wolff learned to stand up t More...

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Nov 12, 2009

Cabs rated it:

This book was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It is an autobiography by author, Tobias Wolff. It tells of the beginning of his childhood until he finishes (or is expelled from) high School. Tobias and his mother (Rosemary) moved from place to place in search of job opportunities and a chance to enhance their living conditions. They have lived in places such as Florida, Connecticut, and Utah. The majority of the story takes place in Utah. There, Rosemary and Toby (or Jack, whi More...

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Nov 02, 2009

Alec added it

This Boys Life is written by Tobias Wolff. This book portraits the life of a young boy, Tobias but changes his name to Jack, who goes through many tough times in his life. His mom is always going in and out of abusive relationships and he is constantly getting in trouble. He moves from place to place to escape the relationships and so his mom can find a good paying job and that can put Jack through school. Jack is not the most fortunate boy you will ever see but he is given the opportunity by th More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Cindy rated it:

I read This Boy's Life in one day. It is that rare kind of memoir page-turner that compels not because of blood and gore, or because you have to see what the insane parents are going to do next, but because of the writer's voice itself. This is a boy you just want to listen to. He is so genuine and honest that even while throwing rocks through windows, forging checks, and lying to himself and everyone around him, I found him unbearably sweet and vulnerable.

EXCERPT:
"Her na More...

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May 30, 2009

Kerfe rated it:

So many memoirs have recently been exposed as fiction, it's possible to lose sight of the selective filter that exists in anyone's memories, in anyone's words, in anyone's life.

Tobias Wolff's bittersweet growing up tale circles around truth and lies as an integral aspect of how humans define themselves. "It was truth known only to me, but I believed in it more than I believed in the facts arrayed against it." Time and again he tries to fit the life he hopes for, the child More...

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Aug 12, 2010

Juhi rated it:

This book is about a young Toby Wolff who suffers his times with his new step father after his mom and dad divorced and left him with his mother; his father and his brother were seperated from him. His father is quite rich who lives on the east coast but doesn't care at all to pursue his relationship with Toby. His parents don't care at all about him, they only care about themsleves which is proved difficult for Toby. His mom is very self-centered and doesn't take care fo him at all, she travels More...

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Nov 24, 2009

Chris rated it:

Wow, I loved this one. I had been familiar with a few of Wolff's short stories (Bullet in the Brain is one of my all time favorites) but this is the first of his longer works that I had read. I felt it described the awkwardness, anxiety and tragic passivity of boyhood perfectly. I reltated to it on so many levels even though I grew up in a different place and time and had a completely different personality than the main character of the book.

It is a dark book, however. Which is somet More...

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Nov 30, 2011

707malcolm rated it:

I lead a relatively good life. My family is stable and happy, and though we're not rich money is never an issue. That's why it's always a bit of a shock when you read about someone who does not have a very good life. Toby (Or should I say Jack?) moves around with his mother and never seems to have very much money. His life is not very stable at all. You'd think the book would be sad, but actually, not really. It's funny. It's heartwarming. It's so much. This journey of self-discovery in tough ti More...

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Aug 10, 2010

Meng Qian rated it:

In this memoir, the author Tobais Wolff depicts his unique, but unhappy boyhood with full of hardship. Toby’ father had abandoned his mother and him shortly after he was born. In 1955, he moved to Utah with his mother, Rosemary, attempting to make their fortune by mining uranium. While in Utah, he also attempts to begin a new identity with the name Jack. With the two violent and volatile men, Roy and Dwight, Jack had suffered as much pain as his mother. Fighting for identity and self-respect aga More...

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Apr 22, 2011

Kristy rated it:

This is the story of the author's 1950s adolescence, a time when he struggles to figure out who he is -- and who he may become -- in the wake of his parents' divorce. While reading it, I thought often of the challenges of being a single parent and of being a boy without a father, as both the young Toby and his mom battle loneliness and alone-ness. The apt title refers to the Boy Scout manual he so closely tries to follow and to the confused, searching life he leads throughout junior high and h More...

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Sep 28, 2010

Alejandro rated it:

Book Report# 6
Sparks, Nicholas. The Notebook.USA. Grand Central Publishing: December 1999
Reason, Type and Setting:
The reason I selected this book was because I wanted a change from the adventure, science fiction, and somewhat childish books that I have been reading. So I decided on something more realistic, something that seems possible, something mellow and heartwarming; a romance story is what I chose. The story takes place between the years of 1946 and the present switching More...

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May 07, 2010

Tom rated it:

An interesting memoir about a boy, author Tobias Wolff, who is constantly moving from city to city until he ends up in Seattle with a horrible stepfather. The stepfather beats up Wolff, who in this book is known as Jack, for no good reasons (is there ever?) and because of this the book is a sad story. That being said, Jack isn't the greatest character in the world either, as he is constantly lying to everyone, and stealing from just about everyone. A couple of my friends really liked this book a More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Casey rated it:

Tobias Wolff was a professor at Stanford. He was my friend Laurel's Italian partner. His friends called him Toby. He scared the bejesus outta me. This is technically unfair, as I never once spoke to him or took one of his classes. I think it was the mustache that did it. It was a very intimidating mustache.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the book, which I loved. I just thought you'd like to know.

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Apr 11, 2009

BeckyTalbot rated it:

It's odd and unnerving, but I frequently feel like fiction is more true than memoir. When I read a short story, the writer's cards are on the table: What you are about to read didn't happen. When I'm reading a memoir, I can't tell if maybe I'm being had. I also feel a bit of suspicion about the huge demand for memoirs, but that's another issue.

In This Boy's Life, I felt a vague ring of exaggeration or untruth, compounded by the fact that the boyhood character is always making up s More...

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Feb 14, 2012

Manya added it

This year in English class we read This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff. To be honest English and therefore that memoir was really the only enjoyable thing about school. This Boy's Life was amazingly written, it was so fascinating that I read it TWICE! It is really one of the only school books I have read more then once. I loved it so much. I actually enjoyed reading it. Do you know how few forced books I have ever really liked.

Anyway, its kind of hard to describe This Boy's Life without gi More...

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Jan 12, 2012

John rated it:

Admittedly, the #1 reason why I gave this book 5 stars is that my aunt went to school with this guy during the time the book is set (no, she does not appear in the book). My aunt's recollection of Tobias Wolfe was that he was a weird kid who kept to himself. This book explains the situation from the other side. In some ways, this book potentially describes the secret lives of any number of people you may have gone to school with as a kid.

The town of Concrete in the book comes across More...

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Jun 28, 2011

Leslie rated it:

I enjoyed this book, but as I read it, I realized how few memoirs by men I read. Seems like I didn't have the sympathy for Toby as I do when I read about girls doing self-destructive things that also hurt other people. Wolff does a great job decribing his life, his relationships, the place, time, and his inner life as he understood it then. I especially enjoyed reading about his mother and wondered what it really would be like living back then, in the 50's, on my own with a son to take care o More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Merzo rated it:

I read this book because my mum recommended it to me as she thought it was "...just great..."and I don’t think I could fit in the rest of her praise into this space.
The book is and autobiography of Tobias wolf and his struggle with his family life, school life and especially social life. Tobias finds things to be the wrong way round, and in need of guidance but things only gets worse when his mum decides to settle with Dwight, a nasty man who ends up abusing Tobias and his More...

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