Literature lovers can wrap themselves up in Old School by Tobias Wolff like it\u2019s a cozy blanket by a fire.\u00a0 Novels with a writer protagonist may be an overused trope, but then again what better hero can a literati hope for?\u00a0 Wolff draws us into this world with characters many readers can empathize with because they share our love of books.\u00a0 Wolff\u2019s protagonist enjoys, and aspires to create, remarkable fiction.\u00a0At the same time, this novel is a coming of age tale of a boy struggling to define himself through his writing, and encountering the flaws of his own character.<\/p>\n
The narrator of Old School is a student at an all-boy prep school in 1960.\u00a0 During the course of his senior year, several literary masters will visit the school, and the winner of the poetry and fiction contests will get to spend time with them.\u00a0 During the course of the novel, the protagonist strives to win these contests, and must face his failings, which become increasingly severe.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m refraining from elaborating on the substance of Old School to prevent spoilers, but this was a deeply enjoyable reading experience.\u00a0 The atmosphere can\u2019t help but evoke Dead Poet\u2019s Society, but Old School is a deeply personal tale of one boy, rather than the situation of all the students and their teacher.\u00a0 The plot is engaging and builds toward a powerful and unexpected resolution.\u00a0 I took great pleasure reading it.\u00a0 I\u2019ll leave you with a couple passages I enjoyed:<\/p>\n
\u201cRhyme is bullshit.\u00a0Rhyme says that everything works out in the end.\u00a0 All harmony and order.\u00a0 When I see a rhyme in a poem, I know I\u2019m being lied to.\u00a0 Go ahead, laugh!\u00a0 It\u2019s true\u2014rhyme\u2019s a completely bankrupt device.\u00a0 It\u2019s just wishful thinking.\u00a0 Nostalgia.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe life that produces writing can\u2019t be written about.\u00a0 It is a life carried on without the knowledge even of the writer, below the mind\u2019s business and noise, in deep unlit shafts where phantom messengers struggle toward us, killing one another along the way; and when a few survivors break through to our attention they are received as blandly as waiters bringing more coffee.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
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