Rating: 
Summary: One of American's finest writers
Review: I went into my local bookstore, sat in a comfy chair, and read Old School straight through. Then I bought it, because it's a book I'll definitely read another time or two. I've read Tobias Wolff's short stories and memoirs, but this novel, his first, makes me hope he'll write more and more and more of them.
Set in the 60s in a private school, the narrator, who comes from a working-class family and is a scholarship student, longs to fit in among his more upscale and privileged classmates. The school hosts a writing contest in which the winners are granted private audiences with one of three visiting pros: Frost, Ayn Rand, and Hemingway. Of course the narrator (unnamed) determines to win a spot with his favorite, Hemingway, and the process by which he tries to achieve this goal is the territory upon which the story is built.
Written from the perspective of the adult looking back on his adolescence, Old School gives readers a lesson not only in superb writing but also in the art of character formation, and the ultimate message is, as with much great literature, that we are each of us alone in our own world - and often that world is one of our own making.
Rating:
Summary: Wolff is simply the best
Review: With this novel Tobias Wolff cements his status as one of the greatest writers of our time. 'Old School' - his first full length novel - does not lose any of the impact of his short stories and proves that he is an author capable of taking on any format (including his autobiography 'This Boy's Life'). At a prestigious boarding school for boys in the early sixties we meet our narrator as he begins his senior year - a year which will bring him successs and great consequences. 'Old School' masterfully weaves a variety of themes including friendship, honor, betrayal, and the loss of innocence with a palpable love of literature. This admiration for the classics and also for the craft of writing adds a heartfelt layer to a book that was already amazing simply based on its story. And how appropriate that Wolff pays tribute to classic authors like Hemingway and Ayn Rand as 'Old School' itself is an instant classic (not to mention a joy to read). Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond boring!!
Review: This book is one of the worst I have ever read. It is boring beyond belief and just rambles on. I simply don't understand how anybody can consider this good writing. The story is very difficult to follow primarily because there is no character development nor anybody you care about in the book. Also, why or why did this author not use quotation marks when people were talking. I think it would have helped a bit, but then again the conversation was so insipid it probably doesn't matter. Between this and the equally boring Empire Falls which our book club also read last year, I will be hard pressed to ever read anotheer book about life in New England.
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: A Flawless Masterpiece
Review: Those of us (and I am one) who have read Tobias Woolf's wonderful memoir, THIS BOY'S LIFE, will no doubt love OLD SCHOOL, but, also like me, they will probably have a bit of a problem seeing OLD SCHOOL as fiction, rather than as a continuation of Wolff's days at Hill School, a prestigious, private boys' academy in the eastern US. OLD SCHOOL takes place during the early 1960s, and, though the school and narrator are not named, they feel so very much like Hill School and Wolff, himself, but that's fine. THIS BOY'S LIFE was such a wonderful book, that the fact OLD SCHOOL resembles it so much didn't present any problem for me at all. The boys featured in this book are very literary and life, for them, revolves around a yearly writing competition, the winner of which gets to spend the day with the prestigious, visiting judge who was usually a writer recognized nationally or internationally. Only sixth formers, or seniors, can compete in the writing contest, something the narrator dislikes intensely. In comic and touching scenes, the narrator watches as first Robert Frost and then Ayn Rand are visiting judges at the school. I think Woolf did a wonderful job of catching what were, supposedly, Frost's and Rand's eccentricities and integrating them into his story. Robert Frost and Ayn Rand seem like the last characters one would expect to be funny, but Woolf manages it and he manages it wonderfully. I loved the characterization in OLD SCHOOL. Woolf manages to make the boys quite different and each one, competing feverishly for the right to spend the day with an eminent figure, writes in a different style. George Kellogg is very, very traditional, formal and proper; Jeff Purcell, who comes from a very moneyed background, loves to write about people who will never have more than a dime in their pocket; the narrator and his roommate, both of whom have Jewish fathers, do their best to copy Hemingway and put everything even remotely Jewish aside. And, speaking of Hemingway, he is the catalyst that sets the events of the second half of the book in motion when the boys find out he will be the guest judge of the writing competition. Two very important events occur after the announcement of Hemingway's arrival: one revolves around the narrator while the other revolves around the dean of the school, Dean Arch Makepeace. To tell you what either of these events is would be cheating, but they are wonderful. I think, with OLD SCHOOL, Tobias Wolff has proven that he is a writer of the highest order. Not only has he woven a wonderful story in fluid, flawless prose (Wolff has a very distinctive voice), he's also given that story a twist, and then, right before the book's close, he's twisted it yet again. This is difficult to impossible to do and do convincingly, yet Wolff pulls it off without so much as a misstep. The details in OLD SCHOOL are also wonderfully evocative. I really felt like I was at a private school for privileged boys. OLD SCHOOL is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I loved it and I would recommend it highly to anyone. My only complaint might be that it wasn't longer. I definitely came away wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Literary Nostalgia
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: Very well written
Review: A compelling story, written well and with reverence for old schools and old friends, while managing avoidance of sentimentality. Highly recommended, particularly for Wolff's excellent send-up of Ayn Rand.
Rating:
Summary: A Love Letter To Books
Review: Tobias Wolff's novel, "Old School", has a lot of levels to it. It's a gentle satire of elite New England prep schools and the unacknowledged class system they represent. It's a touching coming-of-age story about how one comes to terms with human fallibility. It's a funny probing of teen-age faddishness and pretension. It's crafted in some of the most beautiful, terse prose you can find (I doubt there's a single word out of place.) The chapter on the visit of Ayn Rand to the prep school, "Ubermensch", is falling-down funny. Wolff also provides marvelous parodies of Randian sci-fi, Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway (Frost and Rand make appearances in the story; the presence of Hemingway broods over it like a fallen god.) But fundamentally the book is about two themes: how do you use memory to make sense of your life? (And how books can aid you and fail you in this.) It's also Wolff's version of "the most beautiful story ever", Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. This novel is written in the spirit of a love letter to literature, with an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of the loved-one's failings. Don't miss this book if you love American fiction.
Rating:
Summary: deeply moving and elegaic
Review: Tobias Wolff's Old School is a heartfelt love song to a bygone age that never becomes trite or dusty. You'll want to be a writer yourself by the time you've inhaled the bookish spirit of the unnamed narrator, who wants to be an author so badly he cuts a few corners along the way. I'd rank this up there with A Separate Peace as one of the best books on prep school ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: It seems strange to me that a writer who could pen such a searing memoir of childhood in 'This Boy's Life' could turn out such a flaccid novella as 'Old School'. Perhaps Wolff has grown too old to remember what life in an all boy's boarding school is like, but the scenes of boys breaking into song and directing warm smiles at their loving Masters feels more like a treacly version of 'Goodbye Mr Chips' or the 'Dead Poet's Society' than any genuine attempt to convey the day to day happenings of an Eastern Prep school. The nameless narrator is just one of a school crawling with aspiring writers. Instead of a book of characters, the boys seem like slight distortions of the same reflection. With a similar love of books, contaminating everyone from lowest pupil to headmaster, you could well imagine that you have been dropped into fantasy land. School as a heavenly library. There is, in short, no friction in the fiction, an almost total lack of drama. Wolff puts nothing at stake, making even the threat of expulsion from this perfect world something that you end up thinking might be a boon to anyone wishing to experience life beyond the page.
|
