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The Night In Question: Stories
by
Tobias Wolff
One of the sinuous and subtly crafted stories in Tobias Wolff's new collection--his first in eleven years--begins with a man biting a dog. The fact that Wolff is reversing familiar expectations is only half the point. The other half is that Wolff makes the reversal seem inevitable: the dog has attacked his protagonist's young daughter. And everywhere in The Night in Questi...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
September 1st 2010
by Vintage
(first published October 8th 1996)
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An obituary writer discovers that one of his subjects is still alive, a soldier takes advantage of a bureaucratic mix-up, boys get side-tracked in their airplane-building project, and one man's retaliation against a dog attack leads to unforeseen but devastating consequences. And others. I haven't read Wolff before, so I don't really share the admiration and excitement expressed by other reviewers (really, I just bought it because there was a train on the cover), but I liked this collection a ...more
These stories exhibit Wolff's strengths: brisk narrative flow, memorable characters that come to life in a few strokes, the odd nugget of wisdom, and pithy metaphors.
I love Wolff, and this collection is no disappointment. There are some fine stories here; my favorite is the title story. In it, Wolff is able to tell a one-scene story that magically, it would seem, conjures up the full lives and histories of a brother and sister and their family history. I also really like "The Li...more
I love Wolff, and this collection is no disappointment. There are some fine stories here; my favorite is the title story. In it, Wolff is able to tell a one-scene story that magically, it would seem, conjures up the full lives and histories of a brother and sister and their family history. I also really like "The Li...more
Ci sentiamo obbligati a sorridere delle passioni dei giovani, e di ciò che ricordiamo delle nostre personali passioni giovanili, come se non fossero altro che una serie di dolci inganni con cui ci siamo baloccati, prima di mettere giudizio. Non parlo solo della passione che i ragazzi e le ragazze provano gli uni per gli altri ma anche delle altre passioni, la passione per la giustizia, la passione di fare ciò che è giusto fare a costo di rigirare il mondo come un guanto. Tutte queste passioni a ...more
Hmm. I don't know. I really don't. These stories are all well-written; Wolff has poise, control, restraint, his characters are efficiently and fully formed, the situations are both believable and resonant/touching, and he doesn't (for the most part) rely on style or unorthodox voice to drive his stories (not that there would be anything wrong with doing so). And yet, though. I think the problem I had most often with these stories was that so often he creates such a compelling context/etc. for th...more
All because of "Bullet in the Brain." The first time I encountered this story was at a Tobias Wolff reading, and those were shimmering minutes (especially the last half of the story). A few years later I was lucky enough to see the premiere of Word for Word's theatrical (and word-for-word) adaptation of the piece. I think of this story often, and it reminds me again and again to be present, to be present, to be awake and to enjoy.
I now feel confident enough to profess my love for Mr. Wolff. This collection of short stories is amazing. Each story is different from the rest, and yet they all fit seamlessly together. They range from tales of war and grief, to the pangs of adolescent love. Each story has a clear purpose and place in the book, and I found that rather refreshing. I found myself relating to several of the stories, and having characters remind me of people that I see everyday.
Let's also not forget e...more
Let's also not forget e...more
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More thoughts, less drama, less to sink your teeth into than Back in the World. But also more experimentation, and of course the same style, economy of language, as always. Here you see Wolff switching point of view a lot more. Often he'll zoom from adolescence to adulthood, or vice versa, to give a story more texture and space. A third of the stories are told from children's or teenagers' perspectives, showing Wolff's growing concern with growing up, which he gives full rein to in This Boy's Li...more
reading these stories felt mostly like this:
chop, chop, chop, stomach knot, chop, chop, slam.
"The Chain" was my favorite until the over the top, hit you on the head, annoyingly obtuse last paragraph.
chop, chop, chop, stomach knot, chop, chop, slam.
"The Chain" was my favorite until the over the top, hit you on the head, annoyingly obtuse last paragraph.
"'I'm a survivor,' I said. But I didn't think that claim would carry much weight in an obituary" (11).
"Through the crazed Plexiglass she could make out some small islands and the white glint of a shit in the apex of its wake" (34).
"Like being in a speedboat, only better. You can't go downhill in a boat" (37).
"At night, after he'd prepared his classes, he drank wine and read nineteenth-century novels. He didn't like modern fiction, its narcissi...more
"Through the crazed Plexiglass she could make out some small islands and the white glint of a shit in the apex of its wake" (34).
"Like being in a speedboat, only better. You can't go downhill in a boat" (37).
"At night, after he'd prepared his classes, he drank wine and read nineteenth-century novels. He didn't like modern fiction, its narcissi...more
The main story I loved from this book was Bullet in the Brain. I loved how Wolff displayed the character Anders from sarcastic ass when living to a young innocent kid who cherishes his life after the bullet entered his brain. It was a twist that I didn’t see coming, a twist that makes the reader hate Anders in the beginning to feeling sorry for him at the end. I learned how to better formulate character progression even if the character isn’t physically living and how to incorporate better twist...more
The good stories (The Other Miller, Two Boys and a Girl, Bullet in the Brain) in this collection can hold their own with the works of short story masters like Hemingway and O'Connor. The weaker ones (Migraine, Lady's Dream) are still enjoyable. And the best stories (Powder, The Life of the Body, Casualty) are stunning.
Wolff's principle strength is the economy of his writing and his precise use of detail. His best short stories cover nearly as much thematic ground as a novel, in fi...more
Wolff's principle strength is the economy of his writing and his precise use of detail. His best short stories cover nearly as much thematic ground as a novel, in fi...more
It took me awhile to get through these stories and I'm glad to be done with them, but in like the best possible way. Wolff has a really brutal touch, and each story sort of curls up inside you as you read it, only to be ripped out once it's finished. I got into the habit of reading a few stories before going to sleep, and I think that's the best way to do it - that way each one can really settle into your bones. Dude's a genius, but I'm not sure I'll seek out his work again, there are only so ma...more
Wolff has this infuriating way of taking a story, introducing tension, and then abruptly ending it in a tangential way that leaves me thinking: What was this story...about...? Not that it's bad writing. On the contrary, at times it is *too* good, too perfect. I love fiction writing that tells me something about myself or the human condition with well-rounded, fleshed out characters. I think Wolff fails, for me, on the account that these stories seem (to me) shallow in those ways, while he is...more
I just finished reading Tobias Wolff's collection of short stories titled The Night in Question. Let me just say right away that Wolff is a masterful storyteller, and deserves all the literary credit that comes his way. I read two of his more famous stories, "Hunters in the Snow" and "The Rich Brother" for my Contemporary American Short Fiction class I'm taking this semester. For my final paper, I had to pick an author and evaluate/analyze a collection of their stories. I wa...more
I've only read Tobias Wolff's short stories--both this book and the ones from "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs"--but this collection left me speechless. Story after story elegantly focuses on the everyday happenings of mostly "ordinary" people with a keen, often whimsical attention to detail that reminds me of eastern poets. Yet Wolff blends his take on things with a distinctly "American" flavor--an American writer at his best. Stories like "The Cha...more
The only thing stopping me from saying "Flyboys" is the best story in The Night in Question is the absolute perfection of "Bullet in the Brain," and the only thing stopping me from saying "Bullet in the Brain" is the best story ever is, well, I don't know. I had the awesome pleasure of getting to hear Tobias Wolff read that story (as well as some of Old School) when he gave a reading in Pittsburgh a few years ago. I had liked the story before, but after his reading ...more
Author of This Boy's Life, Wolff's writing is straight-forward and engaging, with characters who end up in situations that are not quite always what they seem, yet still always strangely familiar. This collection of short stories does not have a single narrative theme or subject matter - but rather is a collection of writing Wolff has earlier published in magazines such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic. My favorites included "The Other Miller" about an American soldier in Vietnam who...more
It's hard to rate any short story collection; there are always the ones you love and the ones you're not so crazy about. But there are too many masterpieces in this collection to rate it anything less than five stars. Flyboys, Two Boys and a Girl, The Other Miller, and Smorgasbord (a little taste of Pemberley) all showcase Wolff's strong storytelling from the male adolescent POV. The Chain and Bullet in the Brain take him to a new and powerful level and make a good collection border on greatness...more
What a masterful book of short stories. I agree with other reviewers who say that Wolff has matured and really found his voice. His first book of stories, while brilliant, had a tendency to peter out, while this collection contains stories that are well crafted and self-sustaining. He is a master at avoiding short story let down (defined as: the feelings of frustration that acompany the end of a short story; once you start to relate to a character and care about what happens to him, the story en...more
So good.
I've been sitting here for a solid five minutes trying to nail down what it is about Wolff's style that I found so engaging, and I'm at a loss. I don't know that I could identify a throughline in these stories other than to say that they were each surprising in some way.
They are mostly really quick reads. I stayed up way too late because I wanted to finish reading it. I woke up, started to put the book in my bad, and was sad when I remembered that there was n...more
I've been sitting here for a solid five minutes trying to nail down what it is about Wolff's style that I found so engaging, and I'm at a loss. I don't know that I could identify a throughline in these stories other than to say that they were each surprising in some way.
They are mostly really quick reads. I stayed up way too late because I wanted to finish reading it. I woke up, started to put the book in my bad, and was sad when I remembered that there was n...more
The only one of these stories that I remember two weeks later is "Powder." I am quite sure it is autobiographical. After a ski trip, a father chooses to ignore a "road closed" sign and, his young son riding beside him, ploughs through the deep snow to return him to his mother in time for Christmas dinner. Love this crazy father--written about by both Wolff brothers--though he must have been some guy to live with.
Excellent short story collection from 1999. Wolff’s stories are in the tradition of Chekov and Hemingway, glimpses of real people at moments of crisis. In “Chain” the story’s title links two meanings of the word, a metal restraining device and a sequence of events, both of which prove to have too much slack for safety’s sake. In “Bullet to the Brain” a literary critic who happens to be on a teller’s line when a bank is robbed can’t suppress his reflexive scorn for clichés and the results are cap...more
This is a short story collection I picked up on a whim and was impressed by. What I found engaging about these stories is how well they captured their subject at a particular moment in their life and often left ambiguous the consequences of the actions and decisions in the story. I found myself thinking about a number of these stories for some time after I read one. Well written stuff.
At first I kept thinking to myself that the writing was a bit too obvious, a bit too desriptive. Possibly because the last collection I read was Raymond Carver. But this grew on me, the stories in themselves keep me reading and by the end of "Bullet in the Brain" I thought, yeah, this is pretty good, I'm pissed this is the last one. So,I'm up for more.
Stories. "Bullet in the Brain" is terrific, but the rest are painfully banal. I think they're what many students / workshop participants aspire to, though--lucid writing, slices of life, artfully unresolved issues, and mild twists--and they'd stand out as exemplars in that context. I just happen to think that kind of thing is super boring.
I read Wolff’s This Boys Life many years ago. I enjoyed it at the time and have never forgotten it.
I bought a collection of his short stories when they were on the sale shelf at the front of Books Inc once. It then sat on my shelf for about a year. I wish I’d picked it up sooner.
Typically I don’t like short stories, but not only did I enjoy these, I added Tobias Wolff to my favorite authors list, bringing the total to two (Kazuo Ishiguro has been a long standing member). ...more
I bought a collection of his short stories when they were on the sale shelf at the front of Books Inc once. It then sat on my shelf for about a year. I wish I’d picked it up sooner.
Typically I don’t like short stories, but not only did I enjoy these, I added Tobias Wolff to my favorite authors list, bringing the total to two (Kazuo Ishiguro has been a long standing member). ...more
Some really solid stories in this, TW’s third, collection.
Somewhere along the time of Carver’s passing, TW and Amy Hempel coming along and TC Boyle’s first 3 collections (but stop after that!!) the short story became…something less than good. One of life’s little mysteries.
Mortals ***00 (3 stars)
Casulaty **000
Powder ***00
The Life of the Body ****0
Flyboys ****0
Sanity ****0
The Other Miller...more
Somewhere along the time of Carver’s passing, TW and Amy Hempel coming along and TC Boyle’s first 3 collections (but stop after that!!) the short story became…something less than good. One of life’s little mysteries.
Mortals ***00 (3 stars)
Casulaty **000
Powder ***00
The Life of the Body ****0
Flyboys ****0
Sanity ****0
The Other Miller...more
A great book if you just want to read a few pages before bed, as short stories provide that. Each story is pretty morose though, not a good book to read if you have "the funk" or aren't high on life. Great writing style though.
I picked this up because I recently read and became obsessed with the story Bullet in the Brain (which I didn't realize had such a cult following). Like that story, many in this collection have the capacity to stun.
Lauri-Ann
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I love the way Wolfe's stories have an organic structure that makes me feel they go on living after I've turned the final page.
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Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.
He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.
Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the direc...more
More about Tobias Wolff...
He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.
Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the direc...more
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“Nor did Anders remember seeing a woman leap to her death from the building opposite his own just days after his daughter was born. He did not remember shouting, “Lord have mercy!” He did not remember deliberately crashing his father’s car in to a tree, of having his ribs kicked in by three
policemen at an anti-war rally, or waking himself up with laughter. He did not remember when he began to regard the heap of books on his desk with boredom and dread, or when he grew angry at writers for writing them. He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else.
”
—
3 people liked it
policemen at an anti-war rally, or waking himself up with laughter. He did not remember when he began to regard the heap of books on his desk with boredom and dread, or when he grew angry at writers for writing them. He did not remember when everything began to remind him of something else.
”
“The bullet is already in the brain; it won’t be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end it will
do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and
talent and love into the marble hall of commerce.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet’s tail of memory and hope and
talent and love into the marble hall of commerce.”
