- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Random House USA Inc; First Edition edition (31 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679402187
- ISBN-13: 978-0679402183
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 14.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,053,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Author most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life. Wolff is a master at building tension, as in his description of the machinery threatening the little boy in the title story, or of a father's observing a dog attack his son in "Chain". His naturalistic, powerfully written stories explore the human response to the random and unexpected blows of fate.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Well before his memoirs This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army were published to great acclaim, Tobias Wolff had already proven himself one of America's foremost short story writers. Now, with his first collection in more than 10 years, he again demonstrates what Tim O'Brien has called "the ancient art of a master storyteller."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before I picked up this book I was only vaguely aware of Tobias Wolff, never having, as far as I can recall, read anything of his. I did remember that he had written a memoir of his peripatetic childhood that was praised probably fifteen years ago. I was unprepared for the power and grace of this collection of short stories published in 1996. A little research on the Internet tells me that Wolff is primarily a short story writer -- he has certainly found his niche in that, although I gather he has recently written a novel -- and is a professor at Stanford. But, most of all, he is a born story-teller. This is not to say that one is not also aware of the lapidary quality of his writing. My point is that even absent his writing skill he would still be someone you'd want to engage in conversation, or rather someone you'd like to sit and listen to as he spins yarns about the mundane. The mundane is his subject, but like all good writers, he puts it in such a perspective as to make it new and insightful.
Others before me, here at Amazon, have written about certain of the short stories here. The stories' subject matter is, generally, that of youth and young adulthood, and most importantly, about observation. His protagonists seem to have a preternatural writer's eye, which is part of what I look for in fiction. That's one of the great things about a great writer -- that ability to see things in ways most of us don't.
My favorite story? Probably 'Firelight,' about a boy and his hapless but courageous mother who go to look at apartments. Simple plot, but with deep implications about belonging, what home and family is, and about hope. The coda of this story, with the little boy all grown up and with a family of his own, tells us, as so often in Wolff's stories, how childhood experience colors our adult lives. Beautiful. I suppose now I'll have to go and read everything Wolff has written. Nice to contemplate.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'The Night in Question' is indeed a brilliant collection of short stories.
I read a few short stories from this book at school, and simply could not get enough! Tobias Wulff has his own very unique style of finishing off each short story, by bringing other characters into the story near the end, the narrative perspective is changed in an instant. He writes his stories with such passion and brilliance, that it will be almost impossible for anyone to lay down 'The Night in Question' before having finished the short story, that they are currently reading.
I read a few short stories from this book at school, and simply could not get enough! Tobias Wulff has his own very unique style of finishing off each short story, by bringing other characters into the story near the end, the narrative perspective is changed in an instant. He writes his stories with such passion and brilliance, that it will be almost impossible for anyone to lay down 'The Night in Question' before having finished the short story, that they are currently reading.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes good short stories, and anyone who likes to lay down the book after each and think it through. There really is a lot more to these stories, if you care to read between the lines - a little less than what you might find in a typical Hemmingway short story, but the language of Tobias Wulff makes up for that.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a lover of short stories I have moved within the genre for many years. I have seen many different styles which in the case of greatness , becomes an author's autograph if you like.
What Tobiass Wolff does is stamp his own individual touch on everyday stories . He brings you beneath the skin of his characters and just when you think you have a bead on the character he is describing he brings elements into their characters which throw you and touch you.
A writer struggles in the condensed form ,that is the short story , to make his characters as real as he possibly can to the reader. If he is lucky he might manage to create that 3D image that sticks in the reader's eye. What Tobiass Wolff does is create virtual 4D characters. They are so vivid they leap out of the pages at you.
Anyhow life is short and I ain't no groupie. Buy the book and see a genius at work.
And then go buy all of Raymond Carver's books and see a completely different style from Wolff's but see the shared humanity that two men can bring to the art form that is literature.
And then.......well you'll work that out for yourself. I find that reading is like a giant paper-chase whereby you are searching for THAT BOOK and THAT AUTHOR which will bring some enlightenment . We'll maybe never find THAT BOOK or THAT AUTHOR but in the meantime enjoy the chase.
And hey , maybe I've just reviewed THAT BOOK by THAT AUTHOR.
Maybe..........
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
short stories
The Night in Question is a collection of 15 short stories by American author Tobias Wolff. The subject matter is quite diverse -a man biting a dog, a reporter writing an obit of... Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2008 by Samba V
My favourite short stories
Wolff's stories don't finish with a bang; they are rounded up with the last in a series of short and precise shocks, the effects of which refuse to leave the reader, lingering like... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2008 by mrchris
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