REVIEWI had never heard of Tobias Wolff before randomly finding this book in a thrift store, but a little internet research pre-read told me I should have. It turned out he was heavily lauded and showered with awards and adoration, and also published some semi-classics, such as In Pharoah's Army. Fortified with this information, I actually held off on the book, secure in the fact that it would be an interesting read for a later day, and also looking forward to challenging the esteem of such a praised author. Last week, I finally started reading The Night in Question, a collection of Wolff's short stories, and my sceptical hesitation and urge to pop this author's balloon slowly disappeared behind a one-track desire to explore the book. I was not instantly impressed, and warmed up slowly to his methods. Generally, Wolff's style in these stories is to create an interesting character and situation and then to shine light on the character from multiple perspectives, sometimes delving shockingly deep into the human psyche and putting characters which I had never seen written about before on cloud-topping pedestals. Thus, if you aren't that into the character/s/ of a particular story, you're probably not going to be that into the story -- but I'm pretty sure you'll be into them. Other times, however, he creates a story where the main character is obscured or the focus shifted to multiple characters or something less interesting, such as the first story in the book ("Mortals"), and also infuses his stories with a rambling quality, which will often see the introduction and partial exploration of new characters at any point in the tale, including the end (such as in the second tale, "Casualty.") I found the rambling nature very pleasing at times, as if I was on a theme park ride through tunnels of humanity, but also sometimes unsatisfying, whereby some sort of compromise of story length was achieved, with few of the characters being satisfyingly fleshed out or concluded. So what I'm trying to say is that the first two stories in Night, while still good, suffered from too much rambling and character muddling of an inconclusive nature for me to love them (though they also suffered from being first). After that, however, other than Wolff having a penchant for giving his characters immature, revenge-based concluding actions, I found most of the rest of the stories in Night to be brilliant. His stories are deceptively simple at face value, with basic moralistic platforms or cliché'd plot foundations, but are usually told so beautifully, with juicy details and asides, or enough levels of subtle complexity, that they soar beyond mundane heights. He definitely entertained me, definitely made me think, occasionally blew my mind a little, and had me mumbling out loud "oh yeah, this guy's good." I have to admit, I didn't totally understand some of his endings, and I imagine that under intense literature-analysis some may prove to be highly symbolic, but I think some of them may also be rambling bits designed to put the story back in its place in a powerful way; as just one of many in a wide, wide world.I'm not going to tell you anything else about the stories in the review, as I went into them blind, and I think you'll have a lot more fun going in blind too. I will say more about them in a short summary below, which I urge you to ignore until after your reading, due to spoilers -- unless you really like spoiling your own fun or don't like surprises. I encourage conversation too -- feel free to comment on my summaries/notes etc. and maybe we can learn more together. True Rating 4.5 Stars----------------MINI-SUMMARIES/NOTES/SPOILERS-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(view spoiler)[Ordered by Story1. Mortals- The story of a frustrated writer working a job he'd rather not be working -- stuck writing obituaries everyday, a man who calls in his own obituary and ends of up getting the main character fired, and the conversation they have. - I didn't think the story's base message was all that exciting. So the man called in his own death to see what it would feel like, big deal. It's nowhere near as good as witnessing your own funeral, though Wolff seemed to link the two synonymously. So he made a point that you don't have to be a big star to be remembered or matter; that's nice. I also found the main character to be too forgiving of Givens' having him fired, and most of their conversation was boring and too obvious. - On the other hand, I loved how Wolff described the protagonist's boss giving him the axe, and the smile on the character's face which led up to/contributed to it:["Let me get this straight. Just how long has this paper been running unconfirmed obituaries?" "About three months," I said. And as I made this admission I felt a smile on my lips, already there before I could fight it back or dissemble it. It was the rictus of panic, the same smile I'd given my mother when she told me my father had died. But of course the metro editor didn't know that. He leaned forward in his chair and gave his head a little shake, the way a horse will, and said, "Clean out your desk." I don't think he'd meant to fire me; he looked surprised by his own words. But he didn't take them back.] Pg 6- I also loved Wolff's description of the protagonist's learned cynicism toward death:[But there was more to it than that. Since I was still on the bottom rung in metro, I wrote a lot of obituaries. Some days they gave me a choice between that and marriage bulletins, but most of the time obits were all I did, one after another, morning to night. After four months of this duty I was full of the consciousness of death. It soured me. It puffed me up with morbid snobbery, the feeling that I knew a secret nobody else had even begun to suspect. It made me wearily philosophical about the value of faith and passion and hard work, at a time when my life required all of these. It got me down.] Pg 5 --- the last two lines explaining why he didn't bother to check obits for months, and also why he got fired, as well as a degree of his non-reaction to such a traumatic event- I like how Wolff ended with a mime, it reminded me they exist and are fascinating2. Casualty- This was a fairly boring Vietnam tale about two soldiers nearing the end of their tour: BD, who is kind of a motherly figure, and Ryan, a sarcastic clown. Ryan ends up dying because of his big mouth, which is no surprise, and meanwhile various interactions occur which were not overly interesting. Possibly the weakest story in the collection.- I did really like how Wolff described BD's inability to tell the story of Ryan's death to his girlfriend, and the dark message it leaves behind: that we are sometimes grateful when people we know, care about or love, die; and yet we deny it and feel we should cry and act like people do in the movies:[What a surprise, then, to have it all come out sounding like a lie. He couldn't get it right, couldn't put across what he had felt. He used the wrong words, words that somehow rang false, in sentimental cadences. The details sounded artful. His voice was halting and grave, self-aware, phony. It embarrassed him and he could see that it was embarrassing her, so he stopped. B.D. concluded that grief was impossible to describe. But that was not why he failed. He failed because he had not felt grief that day, finding Ryan gone. He had felt delivered -- set free.] Pg 303. Powder- A short, beautiful tale of father and son. Each learn more about the other and have a bonding experience together, the father risking much to pass a roadblock and blocked road, in order to have his son home with his ex-wife on Christmas Eve. - I really enjoyed how the father hummed as he drove the through difficult sections of road. I would say this is the humming of a man who claims to be and demonstrates his status as a 'great driver,' (and cool father) but still nervously hums, the pressures of impressing his son, keeping them alive, not getting arrested, getting home in time etc. weighing on him still. 4. The Life of the Body- The story of a High School English teacher who gets a little too drunk at a bar one night, and totally embarrasses himself by being the asshole in a situation he had never imagined himself being in. From there the story continues in fascinating style, with various repercussions including trauma, race relations in class, potential love affair, stalking, truth vs white lies (pun intended), and a life-continuation conclusion. Not a mind-blowing story, and not terribly satisfying, but quite interesting as a whole.5. Flyboys- Fantastic tale of different family lives and the influence of income on those lives, told through the lens of several boys (narrator/Clark/Freddy) building a plane in 'the good old days of yesteryear.' Also a touching tale of old friends (Narrator/Freddy) who stopped hanging out for reasons which include the tragic death of Freddy's older brother, Tanker. This tragedy hangs from the story's rafters, draping it with its significance. It's kind of heartbreaking to watch Freddy and the narrator, so obviously well-matched as friends, be separated by Freddy's economic and mortal misfortune.6. Sanity- Claire and April walk back from visiting Claire's boring, reliable, and now insane husband, while Claire tells April about her sexy old flame Darsh, who had the 'pent-up sexual energy of a 14 year old,' forever locked in a state of intense, unfulfilled desire due to the enticing inaction of a maid. In the end, April sets Claire up with a fox-like car salesman, a man like Darsh; out to satisfy his own selfish needs. - Nothing amazing here, a little shallow in fact, but enjoyable and nicely concluded7. The Other Miller- A soldier with a strange maternal relationship (he swore to never speak to his mother again if she married a certain man, and then joined the army and ignored her communication attempts) thinks he's getting out of crappy training duty due to the death of the mother of another 'Miller' with the same initials as him. In the end, it is not 100% clear, but appears as if it was actually this Miller's mother who died, which will come as an incredible shock to a man who had no conception of living without his mother, and who came to a change of heart, deciding he would stop hurting himself and return home. - Neat story. Late in, it takes a bizarre twist, whereby Miller and the Privates taking him back to base stop to see a fortune teller. Miller freaks out and won't go in, perhaps scared or in denial of his mother's death. The privates also have odd reactions to Miller; really I found the privates to be weak characters with bad lines. As I say, neat though, for the beginning, maternal cuckoo-ness, and shocking conclusion.8. Two Boys and a Girl- The story of Mary Ann, her boyfriend Rafe, and their friend, Gilbert. They have a memorable summer together wherein Mary Ann and Gilbert develop unspoken feelings for each other, demonstrated by speaking through Rafe to each other while conversing. Rafe goes away to Yale for a while, leaves his convertible and his girlfriend with Gilbert for safekeeping, and Gilbert and Mary Ann fall deeper in love. All the signs are there, but it never quite works out for these (possibly) star-crossed lovers. Mar Ann chooses to ignore her feelings and stays with Rafe, and Gilbert, who perhaps realizes that she really isn't that much of a catch anyway, takes immature revenge on the foolishly-straight girl.- all-in-all its an expertly told tale of 'what could have been,' of the awkward 'almost love' and unquenched desires felt by many of us, and perhaps of immature foolishness. The ending was silly, but maaaaybe appropriate. Arguably.9. Migraine- The story of a highly cynical woman (Joyce) who gets terrible migraines, and whose roommate/lover (Dina) is moving out when she needs her most. She talks about people being unable to give freely, of all of us truly being alone, she rages and complains and is in pain, but in the end she succumbs to love and does not want her lover to go. It also appears as if Joyce is a very difficult person, who perhaps manifests migraines as a way to keep Dina -- who must love to be needed -- around.10. The Chain- Nice story with simple themes, told well. A Jewish man watches in horror as his daughter is mauled by a dog, and then accepts the offer of his righteous Irish cousin to take revenge. Later, the self-loathing, violence-avoiding man returns the favour by denting the car of a drug dealer who had dented his cousin's car. This violent action, in turn begets much more violence, wherein the drug dealer shows up at the house of the man he thought had committed the crime, and accidentally murders a small boy. The Jewish man finds out and realizes his actions caused this, and mountains of Jewish-compacted guilt landslide on top of him. Like I said, pretty simple, but the meat makes for a good read. 11. SmorgasbordA fun, unique story about a poor, sexually-frustrated prep-school scholarship boy, and a muscle-bound loner, who end up going to supper with the incredibly sexy and fascinating step-mother of a rich, dictator-related classmate. It's a simple 'The Graduate/Sexual-Awakening' story, but more than that and unique; with failed love, how the other half live, and awkward friendship too. Moreover, it's full of witty asides and expertly-crafted life observations. It's well-paced, detailed, and tied-up: a very satisfying read. 12. Lady's Dream- Short, brilliant story of mismatched lovers, told in part through the dream of 'Lady,' while she sleeps in their speeding car. She seems to realize her husband, Robert, has slowly shut her up, cut her off from her joy, and molded her into the boring, proper woman he had always envisioned: a proper lady. In her dream (of their early relationship), it's more complex still, as she dreams of Robert and his realization that he chose Lady because she and her family are backward southerner's and would totally piss off his father; simple rebellion. He tells himself he will break up with Lady and confront his father instead of cruelly and unfairly using her this way, but thoughts of her delicious strawberries and her loving touch break his feeble will. She loves him, and he lets her love him until it's too late for them both. Lady knows all this, and tries to remain asleep to gaze as long as she can at the beautiful life she left behind for this...man.- Fantastic13. The Night in Question- Messed up, interesting, difficult to fully understand, but: The story of Frank, Frances, and their father. In short, their father decided to deny everything to Frank, to teach him a lesson. One night, their father slapped Frank, and on that night (the night in question), their mother could have saved them all hardship and pain by standing up for Frank and letting the father know it was not OK to hit their son. But she didn't, she soon died, and the father beat the crap out of Frank and Frances -- who came to Frank's aid as sister/mother/protector and never denied him anything -- for years to come. Frank became an alcoholic, and Frances rescued him many times, then he became a born again Christian. Later, Frank relates to Frances the a tale (another 'night in question') whereby a man was forced to choose between saving his son or a train full of random people. When asked if he would choose Frances or the train, Frank initially chooses the train, due to 'Him/The Father/God,' but Frances knows he would save her, because she's always stuck up for him and no one should be alone.- Is 'He/God' their father? Probably. Frank notes how God sacrificed his son so that others could be free, when talking about the train choice. There's a fair bit of simple theme and a fair bit else going on here. I like it.14. Firelight- A quirky little tale about a broke mother and her boy and their search for apartments. Their searches are all a part of fantasy it seems, as the mother can't afford the deposit/rent etc. and the two of them do many a shopping expedition and open house together, where they try on various things and various lives, but never buy or lead them. The search brings them to a university campus, where the boy falls in love with the place, the mother appreciates it, and they meet a large, bearded, incredibly deep-voiced, possible tenure-denied professor, who is done with the place (a unique and memorable character I've never seen written about). - Wolff sure likes tales of academic/future academic boy and mother together. I wonder if he was a momma's boy?15. Bullet in the Brain- A critic is shot in the head during a bank robbery. - This seems like a very detailed and brilliant way for Wolff to take revenge on book critics, as he describes the life and death of one in his intricately-detailed, delicious-to-read style. He manages to kill the critic in fairly brutal fashion while still highlighting the depth and beauty of his life, thereby making this story quite difficult to criticize. Fabulous. (hide spoiler)]
Man bites dog. Of course the pooch had it coming. In noted memoirist and short story master Tobias Wolff’s third collection of stories, that particular nibble leads to a sequence of events that would have made O Henry nod in appreciation. And this should come as no surprise. Wolff has won three O Henry awards for his short fiction. In addition he has won a Pen/Faulker, a Story Prize and Rea Award. His work is mentioned in the same breath as that of Raymond Carver. They were both on the Syracuse University faculty at the same time so maybe it was something in the water.Wolff is best known for his memoir, A Boy’s Life, and his personal experience informs his stories. One features a sadistic father. In another a mother and her son move from city to city, living in boarding houses, never really settling down. We see a small piece of military life. Another is set in a boarding school much like the one Wolff attended. He knows of what he writes when depicting such lives, such places, such circumstances and it comes across. The title story contains the following line:No one should be alone in this world. Everyone should have someone who kept faith, no matter what, all the way. That sentiment permeates the stories in this masterful collection. Many of his characters suffer from loneliness, a sense of isolation, guilt or regret. A man’s act of revenge goes horribly wrong. Another man recalls a magical moment from his childhood and incorporates it into his adult life in a story that looks at the elements of happiness. Want to know what the world thinks of you? One of Wolff’s characters finds a unique way to ascertain his standing. A soldier places himself in peril by his compulsion to mouth off. An adolescent boy wants to be with a particular girl, and gets a chance to try, but can he really rise in stature from what he is, from how she really sees him? A woman and stepdaughter step outside their isolation from each other, briefly. A dying man sees his life flash by. A woman uses guilt to hold on to a friend in danger of leaving. Connections are lost, sought, endangered or never made. Stylistically, the stories in this collection vary from linear narrative to a mixing of past and present (usually adults looking back on the follies, horrors, or fond memories of youth), from first person narrative to third person. Wolff uses O Henry-like twists in some while other stories primarily show a slice of life, and usually not a particularly happy life. Sadness, loneliness, regret, struggling with moral decisions all live here. There is the odd sign or symbol of hope. There is a laugh or two to be had, but most smiles will arise from the dark irony of several of Wolff’s endings. If there were many literary references here, they went over my head. One sort-of exception is an overt shout out to Richard Brautigan in the story Mortals. But I did not really understand what Wolff meant by it, so maybe it passed by alongside my head instead of completely over it. This work is enjoyable for the strength of its portraits. We see lives in moral peril and sometimes physical peril as well. I found the stories satisfying, even if I did not always feel that I was quite grasping what was intended. So if that is acceptable to you, or more likely, if you are more perceptive and clever than I and see the elements that may lie in shadow to me, this is a strong, worthwhile read.
What do You think about The Night In Question (1996)?
I liked this collection - the first one I've read by Tobias Wolff, a writer that I always meant to read but somehow never did. Wolff is mainly a short story author, which is a declining profession in this day and age - instead of being published in various magazines as they were ages ago, short stories seem to be retreating back to literary journals which hardly anybody reads and fat anthologies which people purchase and put on their shelves. There's real perspective of the short story actually disappearing as an art form if it'll continue its slide into obscurity - which I hope will never happen, as literature would be much poorer without it.Most of Wolff's stories in this volume are concerned with childhood and growing up, with one focused on war; in another story a man bites dog for an actual good reason, which I think is the first time I saw it happen in any medium or fiction (and non-fiction as well). Interestingly, most reviewers here on GR seem to favor the closing story, Bullet in the Brain which I thought had a wonderful idea - a man seeing his whole life flash by - but was also the gimmickiest of them all, and didn't really work for me. There are other stories in this collection which are far stronger. Here are my contenders:"Casualty", about two young men in the army who are nearing their tour in Vietnam; one of them cannot stop needling the new, insecure commander, who in turn schedules him on dangerous patrols - usually spared for those who are about to go home. What struck me in it is the fact the guy genuinely can't stop himself from prodding his superior, even though he is completely aware of the possible consequences. I knew people like that and things didn't usually end up well, but the ending to this story I'll let you discover for yourselves. "The Other Miller" is the other way story in the collection - about a boy who joins the army to punish his mother for remarrying, with his plan turning out not quite how he imagined it to do.The story with the dog-biting-man is titled "Chain", where a father has to literally bite a dog which has attacked his daughter to make it let go. Later, a friend first advises him to kill the dog, and then offersto do it himself, which begins a cycle of violence and search for personal satisfaction.There is a sense of sadness and loss which permeates through these stories, including the two which I think are the best in the whole volume - the opening story, "Mortals", and the one nearing the end, "Firelights". In "Mortals" a man is sacked from his job at the local newspaper for writing an obituary of a person who is still alive - Wolff employs plenty of humor and an O-Henry-esque twist near the end, but the story's essential theme is that of loneliness and the need to connect with others. It is ironic, but also inherently sad, as the characters in this story perhaps will never be able to create these connection, and the ones which were there once have eroded a long time ago.The other story is "Firelight", which features a mother who was abandoned by her husband, and now struggles to survive with her only son. To stay afloat they often have to move, from one boarding house to the other, never setting roots in one place and constantly living on suitcases - but she refuses to give up. To maintain a pretense of a good life, she takes him on tours of apartments to rent that they are always considering, but could never afford - something they both know but refuse to admit. One cold evening they visit an apartment inhabited by a university professor, his wife and their teen daughter. The boy becomes mesmerized by the warmth of the warm firelight in the living room and falls into a trance, imagining himself in the coziness and comfort of this home - as a part of a large, happy family. But his experience breaks the spell, and he soon senses the bitterness of the professors who has been denied tenure at the university, and can't find a new position at other colleges; Like the boy, he also has to move and give the apartment up to others who can afford it. At the end of the story, the narration shifts into the boy's later years, when he is the owner of his own home and sits by his own fire, married and with two children; he is content with his life, yet the childhood fear is still firmly within him; he remembers how he had to leave the warm embrace of the firelight for the cold and indifference of the boardinghouse, and is afraid that one day he might wake up and see that his present existence had been just a dream. This is a touching story which shows how a lost childhood continues to haunt the adult, never giving him a chance to outgrow old fears.I'm looking forward to reading more of Tobias Wolff's short fiction, hoping also to one day have a firelight which I will be able to call my own.
—Maciek
The only thing stopping me from saying "Flyboys" is the best story in The Night in Question is the absolute perfection of "Bullet in the Brain," and the only thing stopping me from saying "Bullet in the Brain" is the best story ever is, well, I don't know. I had the awesome pleasure of getting to hear Tobias Wolff read that story (as well as some of Old School) when he gave a reading in Pittsburgh a few years ago. I had liked the story before, but after his reading I loved it, and I can't say at this point how many times I've read it and tried to figure out how he does it. How does he go from hilarious to heartbreaking in less than a page? The story just works on so many levels - I love how he even has Anders criticize his (Wolff's) writing within the story: "... in a phrase he would have abhorred." By the time he gets to "The bullet is already in the brain; it won't be outrun forever," you feel the whole weight of that sentence. It's perfect, perfect. When I took my copy of This Boy's Life to be signed after Wolff's reading, I got super nervous and just asked quickly for him to put his name on it, and then walked away with a cursory, "I loved the reading." What do you say to someone who writes stories like these?But I don't want to give the impression that "Bullet in the Brain" is the only worthwhile story here. "Smorgasbord" was another great one, at times laugh out loud funny; I think he's at his best when he's in his describing-himself-as-a-little-shit mode. "Flyboys" completely took me surprise - it's one of those stories that you have to read, really read, all the way to the end, and then you have to read it again. The last line makes you shake your head.I think I liked this book better than In the Garden of North American Martyrs and probably equal to Back in the World. He's one of my favorite writers, so my gushing is to be expected, but I really do think this is one everyone should pick up.
—Derek
September/October 2011An obituary writer discovers that one of his subjects is still alive, a soldier takes advantage of a bureaucratic mix-up, boys get side-tracked in their airplane-building project, and one man's retaliation against a dog attack leads to unforeseen but devastating consequences. And others. I haven't read Wolff before, so I don't really share the admiration and excitement expressed by other reviewers (really, I just bought it because there was a train on the cover), but I liked this collection a bit. Some good stories, some decent. Nothing that jumped out of the shadows and grabbed me, but it was still a nice read.
—Jacob
