Thursday, July 08, 2004

Old School by Tobias Wolff is the story of a student at a New England boarding school. The school has writing competitions where the winner gets to meet a famous writer, and the story follows his entries in these competitions and the consequences thereof.

I really enjoyed this book. Part of the reason is doubtless because books about boarding schools have always, inexplicably, appealed to me. Part of the reason is that the kids in this book acted like kids. No angst, no drama, no unrealistic gratuitous sex just so the author can write a sex scene, no "look at me, I'm smoking and drinking, I'm so fucking edgy" (They did smoke and drink, they were just reasonable and unpretentious about it).

The plot itself is small, nothing huge and earth-shattering, but I think this adds to the quality of the novel. Huge and earthshattering things don't happen when you're 17, and the book doesn't pretend otherwise. Robert Frost, Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemmingway all show up, and the protagonist has little to no interaction with them. (Although the book does do me the favour of explaining through its first-person point of view why reading Ayn Rand tends to turn people into assholes, if sometimes only temporarily). It's refreshing to have a protagonist who DOESN'T get to become personally acquainted with the famous personages who pass through his life. There is a decent story arc with a bit of a twist at the end, but nothing superlative happens at all. That's why I enjoyed it, it felt realistic. (As realistic as a period piece in an era and location that I've never been in can be).

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