Rating: 
Summary: Good but rather flat
Review: I got this novel out of impulse because I'm a huge fan of the book "A Separate Peace" but it just didn't live up to my expectations. Old School tries very hard to take a mediocre story, build tension, and overflow with drama. Sadly it just ends as "a good book" without any real substance. I didn't feel myself dwelling on the characters very much. I also couldn't see the characters themselves which is a surprise because Mr. Wolff really develops his characters. It just kind of beats the "boys at a boarding school" line too much and we miss out on the drama that could've been.
Rating:
Summary: Charming Book With a Couple Notable Pitfalls
Review: "Old School" is Tobias Wolff's first novel. It seems strange for such a revered author to have just accomplished this, but it was worth the wait. The majority of this novel, dealing with a New England boarding school, and three writing competitions, which bring to the school Frost, Rand, and Hemingway, is a joy. It conjures up the days when writing was cool, and the novel was America's most respected form of art. The book is a great examination of the trials, anxieties, and pitfalls of wanting to be a writer. Unfortunately, Wolff misses out on creating a classic, because of a couple chapters at the end that seemed almost like add-ons. The narrator, also, is a bit of a tabula rasa.
Rating:
Summary: "Book-drunk boys" and serious writers.
Review: As a literature student at Arizona State University nearly twenty-five years ago, I was like one the "book-drunk boys" of Wolff's first novel, OLD SCHOOL, and "Toby" Wolff was my writing instructor. As a teacher, Wolff not only encouraged us to read important writers--Checkhov, Faulkner, Hemingway, Joyce, Fitzgerald--to improve our writing, but he also inspired us with his notion that "one could not live in a world without stories" (p. 131). Fiction, he said, takes us out of ourselves and into other lives. In OLD SCHOOL, Wolff demonstrates his talent for practicing what he teaches.OLD SCHOOL is written in the form of a fictionalized memoir. Set in the 1960s, Wolff's novel is about a single academic year at an all-male East Coast prep school, in which the narrator and his book-obsessed classmates compete for a private audience with visiting writers, Robert Frost, Ayn Rand, and Ernest Hemingway by writing poetry and stories. Not surprisingly, Wolff's narrator tries to improve his odds by immersing himself in Ayn Rand's FOUNTAINHEAD (which he reads four times) and Hemingway's short stories. In their shameless attempts to win the writing competition, the boys adopt their literary heroes' writing styles. The results reveal that phoney writing can be quite funny. OLD SCHOOL is not only about immersing oneself in important literature, but it is also about the honesty and self-awareness required to write important literature. In his novel, Wolff employs Frost, Rand, and Hemingway as characters to illustrate his point: although each of these writers is something of a phony in person, each is nevertheless capable of creating something authentic in their writing. OLD SCHOOL may be read as a study of this paradox, and what it means to be a serious writer like Tobias Wolff. G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: DOES NOT "Disappoint"
Review: As a long-time fan of Tobias Wolff's short fiction, I opened this, his first novel, with much anticipation, and was quickly rewarded with an elegant, nostalgic tale of a prep school boy losing and then finding his literary footing. The unnamed narrator is a scholarship student in 1960 at an East Coast boarding school where privilege and connections, especially literary ones, are givens. Its Dean is rumored to have been a model for a Hemingway character, and its headmaster once studied with Frost. Boys embrace the decorum of the upper class and churn out mannered submissions to the literary magazine that sound like parodies of their idols despite their honest attempts at originality. In this serious atmosphere, senior boys compete every year for a private audience with a visiting writer. Our narrator set his sights on the prize, hoping first for Robert Frost, then Ayn Rand, and finally, most passionately, Ernest Hemingway.
Wolff's prose flows flawlessly and often with subtle, sly humor. The narrator's earnest assessment of his rivals is hilarious as he describes their work without understanding just how banal their adolescent efforts are. Wolff's literary channeling is the unabashed highlight: Frost's false humility and pretend awkwardness; Rand's self-absorbed and misinformed rant; Hemingway's heavily edited and largely incoherent interview.
Rand's appearance is by far the most brilliant as her anarchist views twist and turn on themselves, staying the course but getting more and more ludicrous with every word. The novel's final chapter can be read as the narrator's literary tribute to the decorum and warmth of his former school.
The narrator's voice is likeable and sympathetic, but unfortunately this novel fails at one of its own goals: honesty. As the narrator mentally chides Rand for creating unbelievable, superficial characters instead of real "beleaguered" people, Wolff fails to get to the guts of his own characters. "Beleaguered" here is school boy stuff, and, while the narrator and his buddies grapple with real issues of integrity and diversity, the heart of their struggles are never fully confronted. It's almost as though the gloss of upper class privilege, even in a scholarship boy, prevents a good look inside. Despite this, OLD SCHOOL remains a very good novel from an exceptional writer.
This short novel is extremely accessible and a true delight for those who love literature. Its nostalgic tone serves it well, as the times are evoked as lovingly as the literary greats. OLD SCHOOL may be flawed, but it makes for an enjoyable, engrossing read.
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Treat
Review: At the risk of making it sound dull (which it isn't), 'Old School' is a primer on the philosophy of literature. As with a good education, good literature doesn't just feed you information and stories, it helps you to think for and about yourself and who you are. Wolff's book is a rare treat. It posed questions about the lives and thoughts of great writers and of each of us as well. What makes a story 'great'? Was Robert Frost's writing more `real' than Allen Ginsberg's? What makes a truer hero: Ayn Rand's Ubermench or Hemingway's wounded soul? And finally, what does any of this have to do with us and our lives?
Wolff's answer is simple. Only when we strip away the masks and are honest with ourselves about whom we are can we be great, or for that matter happy or even comfortable with ourselves.
`Old School' is one of those rare opportunity to learn something while enjoying yourself. Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book.
Review: Don't have much time to write a review, but if you are a fan of well written books with unique plots and/or a fan of contemporary American literature, this is a book for you. I enjoyed Wolff's examination of literary giants Frost, Rand, and Hemmingway with sprinkles of other contemporary American writers. I blasted through this book in two days--the plot moves along quickly. Interesting ending as well....
Rating:
Summary: For Book Lovers Only
Review: For those who love "great books" and literature, I highly recommend Tobias Wolff's Old School. Old School is the story of what perhaps can never be again -- an old fashioned, boarding school where love of books, not sports, gets everyone's hearts pounding. Set in the fifties, Old School is a place where, if you could magically make available to its students all the gadgetry that is the mainstay of modern youth (cell phones, game boys, computers, ipods, etc), they wouldn't be bothered with them, and would look upon anyone who was as a Philistine or a fool. These are serious students who spend their time reading books, talking and writing about them, and, as special rewards, meeting best-selling, literary writers. Elements of class and youthful indiscretions drive this story of flawed but honorable characters making their way in a lost age.
Rating: 
Summary: "Old School" will appeal to English majors, few others
Review: Heralded as a sensitive homage to the struggles of a conflicted teen aspiring to become a writer, Tobias Wolff's "Old School" actually reads as little more than an account of a poor little rich boy who slogs his way through standard teen angst. Wolff's determination to idealize the seemingly insurmountable difficulties a writer must confront and overcome cannot hide the fact that his protagonist doesn't live in the same world as most of us. Ashamed of his semi-pariah status at an isolated, elitist, eastern prep school, ambivalent over his quasi-Jewish identity and alarmed at the level he will stoop to win a literary contest, Wolff's protagonist will appeal to a very limited audience. Both the protagonist and the novel lack authenticity, the real sweat and mess of daily life. Consequently, "Old School" is itself elitist and aloof, appealing only to those who swoon to the oh-so-awful quandaries "real" artists alone understand.
There is no disgrace for young men (and make no mistake about it, "Old School" from front cover to last page is a book solely about men) to love literature. Nor is there anything wrong for aspiring writers to compete for a private audience with the leading literary lights of the early 1960s. To speak with Robert Frost, Ayn Rand or Ernest Hemingway is no small prize. However, the button-downed characters who flit their way through the novel lack depth and genuine character. Even the scholarship students are a cut above everyone else; their problems, as serious as they seem to themselves, are, in the large scope of things, frivolous.
By the time the protagonist fritters his time away, invariably postponing writing and agonizing about theme, form and worth of each submission, "Old School" loses steam. Wolff could have selected any number of issues to develop: an assimilated Jew's ambivalence over identity, what competition does to decent people, how a small, self-contained culture can both exalt and degrade personality. Instead, just as Shakespeare's Romeo loved being in love more than love itself, Wolff rhapsodizes over what the life of the writer is rather than writing itself. The result is a desiccated sentimentalism, an arid mawkishness.
"Old School" does contain several moments of light. Wolff's depiction of Robert Frost humanizes the poet and convinces even the most hard-hearted that poetic form matters. The protagonist's introduction to the complicated nature of adult sexuality and ambition gives wholeness to his teachers. His friend's capitulation to attending chapel instead of holding true to principle reminds us that even the best of the quiet rebels of the early 1960s had feet of clay.
Several strong moments do not rescue the novel. Women are either way over the top (Ayn Rand is more caricature than character) or foils to the protagonist's moral evolution. Wolff's nostalgia over prep school life cannot disguise an arrogant elitism and a frightening presumptiveness that this type of education is superior to public education. Above all, "Old School" is a smug book, certain that a writer's sensitivities far transcend all others. This haughty old-school assuredness vitiates all the lessons Tobias Wolff hoped to teach.
Rating:
Summary: Truth and redemption - a modern classic
Review: It seems to me that good old fashioned writing has gone out of favour while crazy novels that read like the drug induced hallucination of some raving lunatic are shoo-ins for book critics' lists these days. So, it is with genuine relief that I found Tobias Wolff's truly excellent "Old School" on the shortlists for the National Book Critics Circle and the Pen/Faulkner Awards this year. Finally, due recognition is given to a conventionally structured but beautifully written novel that comes as a timely reminder that literary excellence isn't about technical pyrotechnics but coherence, integrity and literacy. Truth, courage and integrity are themes that reverberate throughout Wolff's small but emotionally potent novel.
The study of literature is important because it illuminates and holds the mirror to one's soul. This perspective was never more evident than in a 50s New England prep school where only the best minds qualified and competed for the school's most prestigious annual prize each year which included a personal interview with some loftily regarded visiting icon from the literary world. But when the pursuit of enlightenment through an appreciation of truth, art and beauty is cloaked in so much elitism, it comes as no surprise that the subtly corruptive influence of class and privilege or more pointedly the lack thereof can lead - ironically - to the opposite. In the case of Wolff's unnamed narrator, his less than correct social pedigree becomes a secret that finally explodes to ruin his chances of winning a personal interview with the heralded Ernest Hemmingway. As he dons a self-forgetful mask to find acceptance by his peers, his essays become an exercise in emulation - his poems speak of "elks" rather than deers - he strays further and further from his inner self until the eve of the deadline for the submission of his entry, when desperate for inspiration, he stumbles upon a story published by a student in a girl's school magazine.....
The narrator's crime against his school saved him from a lie. He shows no outward sign of guilt or remorse because in his own eyes, he has done no wrong. The story WAS his very own. In truth, he found redemption and just in time. Much later in life, long after the event, he discovers that Dean Makepeace, the school dean who suddenly quit his position at the time the world tumbled about him, did so for much the same reason, to keep his integrity intact.
The study of literature may have lost much of its shine and prestige today. Yet its value - like the gold standard - remains. "Old School" is highly relevant and instructive in our age and is already a modern classic. A real gem of a novel.
Rating:
Summary: I Don't See a Classic Here
Review: Mr. Wolff's writing is superb. By far it is the best part of this book. Unfortunately, what plot there was was thin as well as the character/narrator. There were passages that made reference to narrator's supposed awakenings and new awareness of his self, but I frankly did not see much progress in him. Parts of the book read as if essays had been patched together. There is an interesting portion of the book devoted to a dean of the school that did not move the plot forward nor give any greater understanding of the narrator. It was probably the best part of the book and the only character delved into with any depth. However, it seemed unrelated to the story line - such as it was - and did not lead to any greater understanding of the narrator. Another portion of the book related to plagiarism. It suddenly happened, was explored very little and seemed to be passed over as a minor incident in the narrator's life. Again, it seemed like an essay patched into the book. As can be seen by the book descriptions, much of the book centers around authors who would visit the school. Students competed to write the winning story or poem. Much of the descriptions and excerpts from these young authors were cleverly done and amusing - not in a comedic sense but in how they related to the celebrity author's works. One aspect of the book I found to be extremely presumptuous. Three authors were came, or were to come to the school: Frost, Rand and Hemingway. Mr. Wolff gives them pages of monologue (especially Frost and Rand) in which they espouse their personal philosophies - some of which were not flattering. I find there is a slippery slope when using real figures in fiction and I thought Mr. Wolff had slid down that slope at his peril. What experience does he have with these people to paint such pictures of them and put those words in their mouths? Especially such unflattering words and pictures? What did not disappoint, however, as noted, was the writing. Mr. Wolff writes a fine clear, concise prose that is enjoyable to read. Although I can not strongly recommend this book, I will read his other works based upon the promise of that writing.
|
