Day #4 of the Book Review-a-thon! I’m early morning blogging today while Izey and Shaun play with birthday presents. Fun, fun!
The Book: Old School, by Tobias Wolff
The Story: This story takes place in a hoity toity boarding school in New England sometime in the ’60’s. The boys are a little obsessed with authors and writing. Each quarter there is a writing competition judged by a famous author. Whoever wins gets to meet and have a meal with the judging author.
When big names like Ernest Hemingway and Ayn Rand make the bill, the boys kind of go wild.
The narrator (whose name we never learn) attempts to write a piece that will blow the authors away, all the while growing into a man and finding out who he is.
What I Thought: I bought this for a couple of reasons: I cannot resist a good boarding school book, and when I was in high school I was mildly obsessed with Ayn Rand. When I flipped through the book and realized that she made an appearance, I was immediately intrigued.
The story was alright for me. I thought that it started off way, way slow. I wasn’t even sure that I was going to be able to finish it after I read the first 50 pages or so, but I powered through. The last third was better than the rest, but none of it was very arresting. It was one of those books where I found my mind wondering while I was reading and I’d realize that I just read 2 pages and didn’t remember a single thing. This is not a good sign, folks.
I know that I went to public school so things are different, but I literally cannot imagine teenage boys getting their boxers in a bunch over Ernest Hemingway. I can see boys getting competitive about winning the competitions and getting excited to meet someone famous, but seriously to lay around in their room and talk about literature… for fun? I’m not buying it. I almost had to suspend belief to even really get into the storyline.
I thought that in his attempt to write a smart, literary book that the author got really pompous and arrogant. I’ve never read anything else by Tobias Wolff, so I’m not sure if that’s his “thing” or if it was to add to the feel of the too-smart-for-you boarding school? Either way, it kind of grated on my nerves.
I did LOVE, however, the depiction of Ernest Hemingway and Ayn Rand. From the bits that I know about these authors, Wolff nailed them. Hemingway, of course, comes off as being this drunk, wise old man. Ayn Rand just preaches and preaches and is totally unapproachable. I loved seeing them brought to life on the page and I really think that these characters were perfectly done.
And that’s it. While I “got” this novel and enjoyed parts of it and even laughed out loud a couple of times, I thought that overall it was just kind of…. nothing. I didn’t walk away from it changed or even challenged. Even though I read it quickly, it still kind of seemed like a waste of time.
Conclusion: Skip it. There’s way better stuff out there.