Old School

by Tobias Wolff

Old School

by
Tobias Wolff

book data

2,354 ratings, 3.74 average rating, 371 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		19%
4		43%
3		29%
2		6%
1		1%

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published

2003

details

Hardcover

isbn

1402576412

description

Tobias Wolff's Old School is at once a celebration of literature and delicate hymn to a lost innocence of American life and art. Set in a New England …more

[close] Tobias Wolff's Old School is at once a celebration of literature and delicate hymn to a lost innocence of American life and art. Set in a New England prep school in the early 1960s, the novel imagines a final, pastoral moment before the explosion of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the suicide of Ernest Hemingway.

The unnamed narrator is one of several boys whose life revolves around the school's English teachers, those polymaths who seemed to know "exactly what was most worth knowing." For the boys, literature is the center of life, and their obsession culminates in a series of literary competitions during their final year. The prize in each is a private audience with a visiting writer who serves as judge for the entries.

At first, the narrator is entirely taken with the battle. As he fails in his effort to catch Robert Frost's attention and then is unable--due to illness--to even compete for his moment with Ayn Rand, he devotes his energies to a masterpiece for his hero, Hemingway. But, confronting the blank page, the narrator discovers his cowardice, his duplicity. He has withheld himself, he realizes, even from his roommate. He has used his fiction to create a patrician gentility, a mask for his middle class home and his Jewish ancestry. Through the competition for Hemingway, fittingly, all of his illusions about literature dissolve.

Old School is a small, neatly made book, spare and clear in its prose. Each chapter is self-contained and free of anything extraneous to the essentials of plot, mood, and character. Near the end of the novel, the narrator, now a respected writer, imagines that he might one day write about his school days. But he is daunted. "Memory," he says, "is a dream to begin with, and what I had was a dream of memory, not to be put to the test." Old School enters this interplay between dreams and the adult interrogation of memory. Risking sentimentality, Wolff confronts a golden age that never was. From the confrontation, he distills a powerful novel of failed expectations and, ultimately, redemptive self-awareness. --Patrick O'Kelley

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Dec 29, 2009

Ellen rated it:

(review of isbn 0375701494)

bookshelves: academia, autobiographical-theory

Owns a copy — Read in January, 2010

recommends it for: Everyone

There are few books that provide this much hilarity, wisdom and grace.

Old School, though categorized as a novel, is a thinly veiled memoir of Tobias Wolff’s own experience as a scholarship boy in an elite prep school. The action largely centers on the boys’ writing competitions. Three times a year, a famous author would visit the school and choose one boy’s writing as the best. As a reward, that boy earned a private audience with the author. In less adept hands, Wolff’s...more

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

28 comments

Jan 22, 2008

Edan rated it:

(review of isbn 0375401466)

Read in January, 2008

I enjoyed this novel very much, perhaps most of all because it reminded me of my own reading experiences in high school--how falling in love with Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Tom Robbins, Sandra Cisneros, and Flaubert shaped my sense of self--or my desire to have a specific kind of self. And just like Wolff's narrator, I had a brief love affair with Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, which ended when I tried to read Atlas Shrugged.
It's a simple novel that does something bold (yet still subtle--how ca...more

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Apr 29, 2008

Erik Simon rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

This was a really good story that I read in an afternoon, but what I liked most about the book is that it imagines a scene with Ayn Rand and her acolytes, and all of them look like the fools I imagine them to be. I know, I know, I'm an idiot and I just don't understand her, and because she's so popular I know I'm alienating myself from legions, but her books are emotionally infantile and intellectually silly, and I've always suspected the same of her readers. So have at me Ayn Rand fans.

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

8 comments

Oct 08, 2007

Becca Uptmor rated it:

(review of isbn 0747571953)

bookshelves: favorites

recommended to Becca by: Rasputin
recommends it for: Literary folks, book lovers, nostalgic blokes

Hot damn. I do realize this was on my 'currently-reading' shelf for one long stretch of time, but I must confess, I had only done a cursory read of a few pages.

Well, last night, I visited the land of IKEA (dreadful place that I rarely venture to) and bought myself a reading lamp. Wanting to try out my latest device, I picked up this book and began to read. This was at Midnight (I'm a bit of a night owl). Well, I got so engrossed in this book that I read the entire thing! Finished aro...more

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

2 comments

Aug 27, 2007

Fred rated it:

(review of isbn 0747571953)

Read in September, 2007

i read this book on the advice of nick hornby after reading a collection of articles he wrote for the mcsweeney's magazine "the believer" which had been compiled into book form. i pretty much hated the nick hornby articles (for their cutesy, self-satisfied tone, i think, and also for the way he kept faux-dissing the believer as an overly fey literary mag and therefore underscoring himself as a salt-of-the-earth regular type of guy; basically the whole book is packed with obvious false ...more

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Oct 06, 2009

Donna rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

Read in October, 2009

I've been to Donald Hall's house, in Charles Simic's classes and had dinner and drove Billy Collins' to the airport on two seperate occasions; I had time to talk to each about this topic. I still wonder, though. Donald Hall talked about Robert Frost quite a bit. I couldn't help but quote this passage from Tobias Wolff's book.

Quoted from the text:

Your work sir, Mr. Ramsey said, follows a certain tradition. Not the tradition of Whitman, that most American of poe...more

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36 comments

Dec 14, 2008

Núria rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

bookshelves: 2009, 5-favoritos, literatura-en-ingles, mios, siglo-xxi

Read in January, 2009

recommended to Núria by: Oscar
recommends it for: los que fueron adolescentes aspirantes a escritor

Ya en la segunda página sabia que 'Vieja escuela' se iba a convertir en uno de mis libros favoritos. Sin duda. El protagonista es un adolescente que está cursando el último curso antes de la universidad en una escuela secundaria pija. Son los años 60 y el protagonista (del que nunca se dice el nombre) proviene de una familia rota y de clase media y su padre es judío, y cosas como ésta son las que esconde a todos sus compañeros, creándose una identidad falsa para encajar. La escuela se ca...more Ya en la segunda página sabia que 'Vieja escuela' se iba a convertir en uno de mis libros favoritos. Sin duda. El protagonista es un adolescente que está cursando el último curso antes de la universidad en una escuela secundaria pija. Son los años 60 y el protagonista (del que nunca se dice el nombre) proviene de una familia rota y de clase media y su padre es judío, y cosas como ésta son las que esconde a todos sus compañeros, creándose una identidad falsa para encajar. La escuela se caracteriza por la atención que dispensa a la literatura y por alentar a los adolescentes a escribir. Tres veces al año se invita un gran escritor y los alumnos compiten en un disputado concurso literario cuyo premio es el honor de poder tener una entrevista privada con el gran escritor en cuestión. El protagonista intentará con todas sus fuerzas conseguir una de estas audiencias, pero se encontrará con dificultades como el bloqueo del escritor, su propia arrogancia frenética, su incapacidad para sincerarse en la escritura por miedo a ser descubierto, y por supuesto también las obras de sus compañeros y rivales.

La descripciones del ambiente y las relaciones que se establecen entre los personajes (y sus sentimientos, sus miedos, sus orgullos, sus envidias, su soledad, su compañerismo, sus errores, sus inseguridades) son tan reales que parece que estén hablando de uno mismo. El protagonista, y también sus compañeros, irán madurando a través de la relación que se establece entre ellos pero sobre todo a través de la literatura, a través de las obras que van leyendo (tanto si son las obras de grandes escritores como si son los escritos amateurs de sus propios compañeros), a través de la visión de la vida de los tres escritores que asisten a la escuela y les dan una conferencia magistral, a través de los comentarios críticos que hacen sus profesores de ciertos libros, y a través de los textos que ellos mismos van escribiendo.

Es una novela sobre como la lectura puede cambiarte la vida. Es una novela sobre hacerse mayor, madurar y dejar atrás el esnobismo y la arrogancia adolescentes, sobre aprender a aceptarse tal como uno es para así poder dejar de fingir, sobre encontrar un lugar en el que encajar, sobre saber valorar con humildad la bondad de los que nos rodean, sobre la vida. Es una novela teñida de nostalgia y ternura, pero también con una gran cantidad de humor irónico y crítico. Es un libro que adorarán no sólo todos los que fueron aspirantes a escritor sino también todos los que han experimentado el poder transformador de la lectura. Es un libro que te hace querer aún más a los libros. (less)

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Nov 27, 2008

marg rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

This author falls under the humbling yet appreciated category of "Why Do I Even Bother?" Wolff's mastership is evident from page one - a sympathetic yet flawed and nameless protagonist is on scholarship in a prep school (this read a bit like a male version of Prep at times) and wants desperately to be counted among the great writers and succumbs to temptation to get there - I loved, loved loved this book. It was beautifully written and moving, and at times hysterically funny (though i...more

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Jun 29, 2008

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0375701494)

Read in June, 2008

I read this a couple years ago on the recommendation of an admired English teacher colleague; I loved it then but lost my copy of it. When another admired English teacher colleague reminded me of it I went and bought another copy, read and finished it in less than 24 hours. This is a book worth buying (and reading) twice. It's an amazing combination of a page turning, compelling read and awesome, literary writing. I'm a HUGE Separate Peace fan but this one is better.
I'm convinced that...more

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Jan 06, 2008

Kirk rated it:

(review of isbn 0747576823)

bookshelves: sentimental-faves

Read in January, 2004

First things first: this is not a movie tie-in. No earmuffs, No "Hank the Tank," no Andy Dick seminars. It is, rather, a nostalgic coming-of-age novel set in the early 60s with a neat conceit: each year at the narrator's exclusive prep school, a literary master visits campus, igniting fierce competition among the preps for the golden opportunity to have their writing evaluated and, just maybe, be discovered. The three luminaries here are Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway. In...more

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Jul 28, 2007

Peter added it (review of isbn 0375701494)

bookshelves: tutoring

Read in July, 2007

Told in the voice of a writer recalling his younger days--though when you begin the novel you believe for a while that the narrator is still in high school--Old School is the story of the trials and tribulations of a prep school boy in 1961 as he sorts through his family, his ambitions, and of course, his relationships with his peers.

As the nameless narrator describes it, the school is very much a "literary place"--Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway all appear at ...more Told in the voice of a writer recalling his younger days--though when you begin the novel you believe for a while that the narrator is still in high school--Old School is the story of the trials and tribulations of a prep school boy in 1961 as he sorts through his family, his ambitions, and of course, his relationships with his peers.

As the nameless narrator describes it, the school is very much a "literary place"--Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway all appear at different points--but whether or not this literary zeal spreads beyond the narrator and his circle of literary-magazine friends, all of whom seem to have writerly aspirations, is unclear. In fact, readers discover that this kind of perception and deception, of others and of oneself, plays an enormous role in the novel, and the narrator's sense of self and others is no exception.

And this is what Wolff does so well. His characterization of adolescent boys is spot on. He recreates their attempts at profundity, their sometimes haughty self-importance, their insecurities, their sense of truth, their appraisals of each other, and more with unfailing and often hysterical accuracy. (Ok, at least it's pretty close to my experience as a boarding school teacher and once-student.)

Of particular note in Old School, however, is the ending. For pages and pages the plot leads us down one road, only to careen off the highway and rocket in another direction. It's surprising and a little shocking, and I've been told it's a classic Wolff maneuver, but for what it adds to the story, it's fine with me!

This is a good, quick read, but there's a lot to hold on to when you're reading and a lot, almost too much, to think about once you've finished.

Do I recommend it? Yep. It's fast, it's smart, and it makes you want to be a writer.
Would I teach it? Perhaps to a creative writing elective. It's treatment of character is terrific, but there are better novels for conveying the craft of writing.
Lasting impression: There are two. First, the plot: it barrels along and then blows itself into some other novel. Second, the accuracy with which he captures the complexities of an adolescent boy: he could be describing people I knew and know.
(less)

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Jul 09, 2007

Simon A. Smith rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

bookshelves: favorites, novels-after-1980

Read in February, 2009

WOW... this is a damn fine book. Some amazing writing here... In fact, I think the best way to prove to you folks that this Wolff guy is "a beast," as the kids say these days, is to quote some passages right here.

"The heat from the fire brought a flush to her face and made her perfume thicker, headier. She turned to Mr. Rice, an English master and a southerner himself, who was tapping his ashes from his pipe into the fireplace. Do you think she'll come tonight? she ...more WOW... this is a damn fine book. Some amazing writing here... In fact, I think the best way to prove to you folks that this Wolff guy is "a beast," as the kids say these days, is to quote some passages right here.

"The heat from the fire brought a flush to her face and made her perfume thicker, headier. She turned to Mr. Rice, an English master and a southerner himself, who was tapping his ashes from his pipe into the fireplace. Do you think she'll come tonight? she asked."

"Patty was his second wife, a friend of my grandmother's who'd married him after Grandmargie died. Patty was boring too. She read him the day's news while he peered at the crossword puzzle through his half-moon glasses. They say they're going to widen the road where the car went off with all those kids. She had covered the floors of their house in thick white carpets that deadened the air and made whatever you said in that woolen silence sound like the sudden caw of a crow on a damp day."

"Though never overtly so, his responses were much more destructive than Purcell's. They left you feeling dazed, flatfooted. It was exactly the way he played squash - never slamming the ball head-on, like I did, but breezily tapping it through some sly angle so it died in the corner."

"We had made ourselves unknowable behind our airs and sardonic courtesies, and the one important truth I'd discovered about him we'd silently agreed never to acknowledge. Many such agreements had evolved between us. No acknowledgment of who we really were - of trouble, weakness or doubt - of our worries about our life ahead and the sort of men we were becoming. Never; not a word. We'd kept everything witty and cool, until the air between us was so ironized that to say anything in earnest would have been a breach of manners, even of trust."

SEE! I had to copy his words down just to get a sense of his rhythm, his mastery with language (just like the narrator in the book does to get an idea for the prose of Hemingway.) Anyway, this is the best book I've read since Revolutionary Road, and Wolff's style here reminded me a lot of Yates's throughout his novel. If you're looking for an action packed, entertaining, plot driven whirl wind of a read, this isn't for you. If you like to sink into good writing and let the characters and story just sort of wash over you, then definitely read this. Do it. Right now. Go.

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Jul 02, 2007

Montambo rated it:

(review of isbn 0375701494)

bookshelves: books-about-books

Read in June, 2007

Old School is about honesty, dishonesty, honor, dishonor, cowardice, forgiveness. I kept feeling like doom was to befall (woah--I just realized that he had no name) the main character and wasn't sure he didn't deserve it.

I was in love with how in love the boys were with their school and with books and authors and writing. Their guilty pop pleasure wasn't People Magazine or US Weekly, it was Ayn Rand.

The last line gave me goosebumps!

Earlier:Ooh, I ...more

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Jun 10, 2007

Casey rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Headmasters, writers, former privileged youths.

If nothing else, this book made me wish I had had an ivy-covered education, smelling of damp tweed and cigars, instead of attending my high school, which looked like a series of carboard boxes left out in the rain, and was positioned downwind from a tannery, hazing our Indian summers with the sharp smell of ammonia and rotten meat.

Though I was afraid it would come across as too nostalgic for a time (early 60's) and place (New England prep school) that most of us have never had acces...more

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Mar 26, 2007

Theresa rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

Read in January, 2005

This book is one of my all-time favorites. I am consistently moved by the way it captures the Prep School boys at its center, and the thoughtful, affectionate way it address some of the greatest names in American Literature through the eyes of teenage boys. It is not just a story of a Prep School with a writing competition-- Its a story about what happens when literature and reality collide, or at least stumble into each other. It makes you think about truth--artistic, emotional and factual. ...more

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Feb 19, 2008

Clare rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Heather and Scott

Wolff's tale leaves you wondering where the bio ends and fiction begins. Very fascinating and well-written. Having attended a competative boarding school myself, I strongly identify with this character, especially how he interacts with other kids - when I 1st arrived at school, I also feel I was in a different world. My peers dressed, talked & walked differently. The author's reaction to this is fascinating.

I also enjoyed the sections describing authors who came to the school to ...more

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Mar 27, 2008

erin rated it:

(review of isbn 0375401466)

Read in April, 2008

the prodigal paragraph

this book had one of the best final paragraphs i've ever read. ever since i finished the book a few months ago, i am oftentimes reminded of it:

"Arch stopped and looked down the garden to where the headmaster stood by the drinks table with another master. The headmaster said, Late for his own funeral! and everyone laughed, then he put his glass down and came toward Arch with both hands outstretched. Though the headmaster was the younger man, and ...more

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Nov 23, 2008

Ruby rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

bookshelves: novels

(Novel—Finalist Pen/Faulkner Award) I read about this author is the LA Times Book Review section; he had just published a new collection of short stories. The review was one of the most glowing I have ever read. I am not a big fan of short stories—if I am going to take the time to get to know characters, I want to spend a whole novel with them—not just a short story. But because the review was so glowing, I decided to check him out. The only one of his works at the library turned out t...more

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Mar 09, 2010

Cori rated it:

(review of isbn 0747574650)

Read in February, 2010

Like a lot of other reviewers, it took me a little while to realize this wasn’t memoir. It felt very memoir-y. And it sort of rolled along, and I when I got toward the end I kept thinking it was a lot deeper than it felt when I was reading it. I took quite a bit away from it once I finished. It was a story of innocence lost and of the obsession of a writer’s mind. It was part Dead Poets Society and part A Separate Peace and part its own story. I liked the characters, or at least I found them...more

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Mar 09, 2010

Kat Hagedorn rated it:

(review of isbn 0375701494)

bookshelves: fiction, reviewed

http://tinyurl.com/6rt5qd

I think I can safely say this is the best book I've read this year.

I do not profess to ever having been versed in or studious of English literature. Consequently, I miss a lot of stuff when I read novels. Themes, metaphors and symbolism frequently (and disturbingly) go right over my head. I freely confess that I needed a small kick (a short snippet from The New York Times Book Review) to get me started with this book-- a tale of a writing-inclined...more