Old School

By: Tobias Wolff

Narrated by: Dan Cashman

The author of the genre-defining memoir This Boy’s Life, the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novella The Barracks Thief, and short stories acclaimed as modern classics, Tobias Wolff now gives us his first novel.

Determined to fit in at his New England prep school, the narrator has learned to mimic the bearing and manners of his adoptive tribe while concealing as much as possible about himself. His final year, however, unravels everything he’s achieved and steers his destiny in directions no one could have predicted.

The school’s mystique is rooted in literature, and for many boys, this becomes an obsession, editing the review and competing for the attention of visiting writers whose fame helps to perpetuate the tradition. Robert Frost, soon to appear at JFK’s inauguration, is far less controversial than the next visitor, Ayn Rand. But the final guest is one whose blessing a young writer would do almost anything to gain.

No one writes more astutely than Wolff about the process by which character is formed, and here, he illuminates the irresistible power, even the violence, of the self-creative urge. Resonant in ways at once contemporary and timeless, Old School is a masterful achievement by one of the finest writers of our time.

©2003 Tobias Wolff (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Not a word is wasted in this spare, brilliant novel about the way that reading changes and forms our lives, and about how one learns to become a writer - and a conscious human being." (Francine Prose, People)

"Wolff again proves himself a writer of the highest order: part storyteller, part philosopher, someone deeply engaged in asking hard questions that take a lifetime to resolve." (Carmela Ciuraru, Los Angeles Times)

"An elegant ode to writers, and to writing, from one of our most exquisite storytellers." (Adrienne Miller, Esquire)

A Window into a World

Poignant truths woven smoothly into this story by the gifted Mr. Wolff. Believable characters I enjoyed spending time with.

listen to this

I picked up a copy of this book In a Boston airport in 2005. it's been a book I visit and take in every few years. For me, it's about all the half truths and lies we allow ourselves to live with and accept to get by. Ultimately, it's about forgiveness and honesty. I'm no critic. I simply love the book. it's one of the books I'll insist my kids read along with Old Man & The Sea.

Beautiful writing. Complex story, real and rich.

Beautiful writing. Complex story, real and rich. Felt true tho I’m not a boy and have no experience of a private school. Not a thing to argue with here! I will listen at least once more.

Perhaps a masterpiece

This is a beautifully written story, emotionally perceptive, and steeped in intellectual traditions. Postmodern and modern influences abound in a compelling narrative that forges an almost immediate and intimate connection between the reader and the narrator. Highly recommended.

Wonderfully Old School

That’s what this novel is. Don’t waste your time if you don’t get starry-eyed over the likes of Hemingway or Frost dropping in the plot like Brad Pitt or Leo DiCaprio. The irony of outsider writers being celebrated in an insular, rigid world of privilege is an earnest pleasure here. The love of literature abounds: writing saves us. This quiet novel often feels like a memoir: intimate with its revelations and close observations. It’s a book about boys, but it’s perhaps better suited for adult readers who can see with clarity how desperately their desires were pursued—and at what cost.

Paused too long on periods

Paused too long on periods. I put 2.5x speed and so much time waste just stopping on the period parts