Duke of Deception

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Summary: Renaissance man or con man?
Review: Geoffrey Wolfe's father was the type who could persuade an automobile dealer whom he had just met to accept a personal check for a new car after the bank was closed, and who could launch a successful career as an aeronautical engineer without relevant education, experience, or knowledge. His sons similarly reinvented themselves, one going so far as to submit forged credentials to win acceptance in an exclusive prep school. After the parents split up, Geoffrey lived an interesting if peripatetic life with his father, while his brother Tobias stayed with his mother, suffering poverty and abusive stepfathers. Since the father had the more interesting and eccentric personality, Geoffrey's book is perhaps the more adventurous, although less well written, than his brother's, This Boy's Life: A Memoir, but both make fascinating reading.

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Summary: "Son of Duke of Deception" would be a better title.
Review: Geoffrey Wolff writes quite well, like a good travelogue writer, mixing in his own experiences with what he sees. He establishes early on that his father is the "Duke of Deception," and says he hates his father. But as we go on in the book, we find that little Geoffrey himself is not above committing various deceptions, and we begin to wonder whether we, the readers, are not being deceived. It never became clear to me why Geoffrey now hates his father. True, his father was a deceiver, but as far as one can tell from the book, he gave a great deal of his time and nearly all of his money to Geoffrey. His father may have had a screw loose, but he doesn't seem to have taken it out on Geoffrey. As a result, the author turns out to be something of an ingrate.

Maybe this can be called ultra-realistic biographical writing, but I think it is centrally flawed. If in all the pages of a novel Geoffrey Wolff can't show why he hates his father, then not only is the realism flawed but the entire enterprise is flawed as well. Even so, it's a pretty good read.

Rating:
Summary: "Son of Duke of Deception" would be a better title.
Review: Geoffrey Wolff writes quite well, like a good travelogue writer, mixing in his own experiences with what he sees. He establishes early on that his father is the "Duke of Deception," and says he hates his father. But as we go on in the book, we find that little Geoffrey himself is not above committing various deceptions, and we begin to wonder whether we, the readers, are not being deceived. It never became clear to me why Geoffrey now hates his father. True, his father was a deceiver, but as far as one can tell from the book, he gave a great deal of his time and nearly all of his money to Geoffrey. His father may have had a screw loose, but he doesn't seem to have taken it out on Geoffrey. As a result, the author turns out to be something of an ingrate.

Maybe this can be called ultra-realistic biographical writing, but I think it is centrally flawed. If in all the pages of a novel Geoffrey Wolff can't show why he hates his father, then not only is the realism flawed but the entire enterprise is flawed as well. Even so, it's a pretty good read.

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Summary: A tormented, painfully honest coming-to-terms memoir.
Review: Geoffrey Wolff's reaction to the news of his father's death? "Thank God." As the friend who bore the bad news pulled away in revulsion, Wolff realized how deep his feelings ran. The statement was a response to learning that it was his father, not one of his young sons who had died, but a full explantion was required. Wolff, in a series of honest personal revelations, turns an expert biographers' eye to his own family. Duke Wolff wanted to be many things, in fact succeeded in working as an executive in the aerospace industry without having any knowledge of engineering. Duke's self-designed coat-of-arms was supposed to read, "No Apologies," but in the garbled Latin actually tranlated as "Leave No Trace." That was Duke's goal, acknowledged or not, to re-make himself and his family in his own optimistic, dangerous con-man image, a life where improvidence was met with more improvidence, a life where it seemed as though tomorrow would never come. Geoffrey Wolff's *Duke of Deception* is a companion read to *This Boy's Life,* written by Tobias Wolff, his brother. Here is unique opportunity to view the divergent raods taken within the same family. Geoffrey Wolff spares himself nothing, not allowing the full catalog of blame to rest with his father, understanding all to clearly the consequences of refusing to acknowledge and accept yourself

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Summary: There Must Be a Gene for Literary Talent
Review: How else can we explain the phenomenon of Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff, two of our most accomplished writers, brothers raised apart in separate and uniquely bizarre circumstances? Devotees of THIS BOY'S LIFE should also enjoy THE DUKE OF DECEPTION, though the latter has a retrospective, adult tone absent in the former. The opening passage, where the author, now an adult with sons of his own, learns of the death of his dissolute but charming father, is a masterpiece. If I taught writing, I would tell my students, "If you can acheive what Geoffrey Wolff does in that small scene, you have done it all."

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Summary: Tales Told by Two Brothers
Review: I read Tobias Wolff's "This Boy's Life" first and decided to read his older brother's book to learn about the other half of this family. I couldn't understand how the father, an aeronautical engineer, could be a child support dead beat. Geoffrey Wolff answers that question. Where "This Boy's Life" is a lesson in "never underestimate the charity of women", "The Duke of Deception" is a lesson in "never underestimate the gullibility of merchants, landlords, car dealers, bankers and employers." The father is a Great Pretender, brilliant and charming enough to invent credentials that get him jobs and credit for which he is not qualified. He pulls this scam off not once but many times during a 25-year period in which he and his eldest son live on the run. Geoffrey Wolff explores his love-hate relationship with this man and gives us insight into a type that, in its less gifted state, fills our prisons. It's a testament to the resiliency of children that both Wolff brothers survived their childhood to become productive citizens. The key to Geoffrey Wolff's survival can be seen in a comparison of his writing style with that of his brother. Geoffrey keeps a reader at arm's length where Tobias allows the reader to slip into his skin.

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Summary: A man of his time and place
Review: I've read this book two or three times, and enjoy it more and more. I know why it appeals to me: Duke Wolff was like a lot of old men I've known, mostly the fathers and uncles of friends, who grew up in the 20s and 30s. A type of his place and time--a snob who bragged about old school ties when those things meant a lot, a glad-handing hustler and outrageous self-promoter during a time when self-delusive salesmanship and resume-padding were widely accepted as a virtuous means of self-advancement.

As the years go by I reflect less on the character of Duke and more on that of the author. What a sniffy, snobbish, spoiled young man he was duirng his Choate and Princeton years, and how much of that is still clinging to him in his forties as he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his father was a lifelong liar, thief, psychopath and at last a jailbird.

His brother Tobias's memories of Duke (in the memoir, In Pharoah's Army) give a much better picture of their father in his last years, because they describe just a few dinners and conversations, and hence aren't weighted down by the overwhelming sadness and shame that Geoffrey feels. Superficially, Toby may be said to be the better writer-as-craftsman. Geoffrey is far and away the better thinker.

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Summary: A Life Wasted
Review: The Duke of Deception is the sad story of a wasted life. Whether visible through this book or through This Boy's Life, Duke Wolff lived a life without focus. Unfortunately, the impact of such a man on the people around him is negative. Both boys and their mother suffered immeasurably, and the suffering is visible here. This book--more a confessional than a memoir--is at times touching, irritating, and embarrassing. I am merely grateful that both of the boys have succeeded as well as they have. The prose is serviceable, rarely inspiring. This is meant to be inspirational, I believe, but it is quite depressing at times. Duke reminded me of the worst parts of Willy Loman.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Book on Its Own
Review: This is a very good book on its own. It is even better if you have read Tobias Wolff's A Boy's Life. They are companion pieces just as the authors are brothers. For those who have not read A Boy's Life, Toby stayed with his mother and was dumped with an awful stepfather (among others). This is Geoffrey's memoir. He insisted on going with and staying with his father.

His father, nick-named Duke, is the duke of deception. He is an inveterate liar and con man. Obviously a genius, he never is able to corral his personality and later his drinking to stay in one place/one job. He lives off his dishonesty from his completely fabricated resume to his cars that are never paid for but always improving in style and cost.

As Geoffrey grows, we watch him begin to assimilate some of his father's habits and tendencies. Amazingly, he does this in the face of his father's constant teachings not to lie and to always be true to self.

Eventually Geoffrey grows and, after a stint in England and then a semester at Princeton, he begins to see his father as he really is and draw distance from him. After one last year living together, his father pulls one more financial coup that enables Geoff to get his life back on track. Geoff then abandons his father (not without cause).

There is no sweet ending like a novel but, rather, a bittersweet one.

The book often read like a novel due to the elder Mr. Wolff's highjinx. At times a comedy, at times a tragedy.

Mr. Wolff is a good writer whose stark style fits this memoir perfectly. This is an entertaining and poignant book, well worth the time.