What literature class could be complete without a memoir of male adolescence: Tobias Wolff attracted national attention with his own “This Boy’s Life.” His new book, “Old School,” is a novel, but in many ways it is a continuation of his personal chronicle.
In this story, a New England prep school exists as the perfect environment for an aspiring young writer. A place where authors outrank all other heroes, and students compete for the attention of visiting literary icons. Wolff’s young narrator wants so much to be a writer that he types out the stories of Ernest Hemingway just to feel what it was like to have composed them. But his mimicry doesn’t stop there. Our story-teller steals another student’s work and submits it to a writing competition as his own. Fact, fiction and the telling of tales.
Guests:
Tobias Wolff, author