Old School

Author: Tobias Wolff

ISBN:978-0965915175

Publication Information:Vintage

Plot Summary: Wolff creates a book centered around the world of high school boys at an elite prep school. The narrator leads the reader through his final year of high school, as he strives to fit into the elite private school world. While most of his classmates are rich, WASP, Christians, he is is Jewish, from the west coast, and is a product of divorced parents. Over time, he has learned to fit in with his peers, but in the process has distanced himself from any real friendships, because he feels that he can't tell his classmates too much about his past. Like all of his classmates, he lives and breaths creative writing, and desperately wants to win one of the thrice yearly prizes of a private audience with an acclaimed author. After losing the prizes of meeting with Robert Frost and Ayn Rand, he becomes fixated with winning a private meeting with his idol, Ernest Hemingway.

Critical Evaluation: Wolff has created a believable good ol' boys club in this 1960s based novel. The backdrop screams old money, and the reader can instantly smell the cracked leather of the books in the library, and the fresh mowed grass of the prep school's rolling lawns. Wolff doesn't name the author or the name of the private school where the novel takes place, which seems intentional, and creates a collegial atmosphere between the reader and the narrator by being an anonymous person that could be anyone. There is a nostalgia aspect to Wolff's writing, which makes the prep school a perfect background for his novel. Highly recommended to readers who enjoyed The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, but want something a little meatier.

Reader's Annotation: The students at a small New England prep school live and breath creative writing. So when a writing contest is announced with the prize being a private meeting with one of three famous authors, the level of competition is kicked up a notch.

Author Information: Tobias Wolff is a professor at Stanford University in the English and Creative Writing Department. He is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the Schools of Humanities and Sciences. He is the author of two novels, Old School and The Barracks Thief and two memoirs, This Boy's Life and The Pharaoh's Army and three collections of short stories. He has also edited several anthologies and is a regular contributor to several publications, including The New Yorker and The Atlantic, among many others. He currently lives in the Bay Area. He is married and has three children. (Information taken from the author's faculty website http://english.stanford.edu/bio.php?name_id=120 and his wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Wolff).

Curricular Ties: English, Literature

Genre: Historical Fiction

Book talking ideas:

• Why did the boys dislike Ayn Rand so much?
• Which author from the book would you most like to meet?
• Discuss the relationships between the students and the teachers.
  

Challenge issues: N/A

Interest Age:Grades 10 and up

Why I selected this piece: I am a big fan of Tobias Wolff's works and was pleased to see this book in the teen section of the library.