Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

One of the great contemporary masters of the short story, American writer Tobias Wolff is also well known for his literary memoirs – 1989’s This Boy’s Life told the tale of his precarious boyhood in the Pacific Northwest and In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War continued his story as a reluctant officer in Vietnam.

Wolff’s new book, Old School, is his first foray into full-length fiction yet readers could be forgiven for thinking it another volume of his autobiography. Tackling similar themes of fatherhood, manhood and the written word as a vehicle for self-discovery, it fits snugly between This Boy’s Life and In Pharaoh’s Army, the unnamed narrator of Old School bearing more than a passing biographical resemblance to Wolff himself.

Set in 1960 at a New England boarding school, Old School centres on three intense writing contents between the students to determine who will win a private audience with a famous visiting author. The school – based on Wolff’s own alma mater The Hill – is prestigious enough to persuade Robert Frost and Ayn Rand to visit but it is the promise of meeting with Ernest Hemingway that ultimately undoes the hero.

Old School is Wolff’s finest work to date. It is a literary coming of age story that touches on ideas about family, privilege and ethnicity. The tension between authenticity and disguise is concisely and vividly told, at once hilarious and heartbreaking. A thoroughly satisfying read with a real and beating heart.