This Boy's Life (urspr publ 1989; utgåvan 1989)

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13155312

Not what I was expecting but compelling reading. ( )

I don't read memoirs often. I don't even much care for the idea of a memoir. But as a fan of Wolff's poignant short stories, I gave this one a try. Surprisingly, Wolff pulls no punches. What's more, the punches are aimed at himself. He ruthlessly recounts his own childhood wickedness, his demented stupidity and the backwoods mentality he somehow nourished back into a keen understanding of human nature. Is this really a memoir? It reads like fiction, and good fiction. It reads like Ethan Canin. It could have been written by Ethan Canin.
I think you will get a lot of enjoyment out of this memoir, even if you don't know who this Tobias Wolff person is. I feel like if I read something like this by say, Don Delillo I'd just scoff. (Ethan Canin on the other hand...) But coming from the down-to-earth, unpredictable, charismatic Wolff, I buy it. ( )

I found myself unable to stop reading Tobias Wolff's memoir of his childhood. That's largely because he is such a good writer, but it is also because I know the Pacific Northwest locales where he grew up. It helps to have spent some time in Chinook, Concrete and Bellingham, where I have lived for 20 years; it helps to have visited Salt Lake City. It also helps to have been a scholarship kid at a rigorous Catholic high school, although we were all commuters. Wolff does not spare himself in this account, and his straightforwardness is a major virtue. ( )

I was a little surprised by the vastness of this memoir. I kept expecting this climatic moment in his life where all the ironies came full circle, but I was mostly let down. As a reader I wanted to be rewarded for my efforts of committing to these stories by feeling like the journey was worth the lesson, but there was no such moment. Instead of a compact coming of age story in unfortunate circumstances, the book feels more like cathartic rambling. It was humorous and entertaining, but not a book I will feel like reading a second time any time soon. ( )