don't miss this one - Rated 
I read this book a few years ago but had to write a review now because the other reviews of it really didn't do justice to just how funny this book is. Tobias Wolff is one of those writers who leaves his ego at the door. His writing is clean, concise and evocative of the times - growing up in the vibrant post-war America. Like Bill Bryson's Thunderbolt Kid, This Boy's Life encapsulates the period, but from the point of view of a very different boy - selfish, deprived, deceptive and painfully at odds with the world. His book has more shape to it than Bryson's memoir, and comes from a much darker place, but he recounts his chequered childhood with great wit and warmth and This Boy's Life lights up mine every time I re-open it.
The movie was better - Rated 
It's a good story but the writing is very basic. There are no real capturing details or scenes that will stick with you well after you finish the book. I stopped reading it after the fight scene with the 'sissy'. The scene was weakly done and just brushed over. In the movie, which was brilliant, the scene let you experience the tension between the two, the peer pressure of Jack's friends, and the hurt and embarrassment of the characters. You actually get fuller, psychological characters in the movie than the book, which should never be the case. A book is always disappointing when the movie is better than it.
"When we are green, we believe that our dreams are rights." - Rated
Leaving Sarasota, Florida, in a run-down Nash Rambler in 1955, Toby Wolff, then ten, and his mother are looking forward to a new life in Utah. Not long after arriving, however, the two make a sudden, night-time departure for newer pastures in Seattle--the mother's abusive relationship in Utah having become intolerable. Later Toby and his mother gravitate to Chinook, a remote village in the Cascades. His mother marries a tough man who cruelly punishes Toby (who has changed his name to Jack in honor of Jack London) for infractions, sells some of Toby's treasured belongings, and tries to impose military discipline on him.
Wolff's story of his grim life from age ten through high school is a breath-taking recreation, filled with the sorts of longings that motivate sensitive young boys everywhere, but also filled with an a self-awareness that is rare in such autobiographies. Jack (Toby) is a rebel--a sometime kleptomaniac, thief, cheater, liar, and schoolboy miscreant who loves his mother, hates his stepfather (and generally tries to avoid him), and hangs out with similarly alienated, hell-raising schoolmates, who often "escape" through alcohol.
When his brother (who remained with his father), encourages Jack to apply as a scholarship student to an eastern boarding school, thereby escaping his stepfather, he is intrigued with the idea, though he has had few academic interests until then. The story of how Wolff manages to attend a prep school is a classic. (The fictionalized story of his boarding school life appears in his recent novel, Old School.)
Throughout this self-examination, hilariously funny in many places and remarkably astute, Jack sees himself as the "Jack" he invents to suit circumstances, while simultaneously revealing himself as he really is, the hidden "Jack." Like many his age, he often takes the easy way out, and he recognizes this, too. As he grapples with perennial issues of growing up, needing to be accepted, learning what is "right," and changing his behavior to meet the differing expectations of peers and family, he comes to new understandings about himself and his place in the world. One of the best and most honest coming-of-age stories ever written, This Boy's Life is a modern classic. Mary Whipple
a damn good read - Rated 
I just finished reading this yesterday, i read it in a day and a half. i love the way tobias wollf writes, he has a captivating matter of fact way of telling his story. unlike many autobiographies i found this one to be less of the "pity me" variety and more of the "this is who i am". he offers no apologies for his sometimes destructive behaviour and doesnt try to gloss over his actions by using hiw own life hardships as an excuse, I have alot of repsect for this writer as this book was truly a lesson....i think the overall message is ...it isnt where you've been...its where you are going that counts!
A captivating tale of an escape from poverty - Rated
Tobias Wolff remained with his financially unsupported mother after his parents' divorce, stuck in the sticks at Concrete High School. Through an audacious act of forgery, he won acceptance to an exclusive prep school and Ivy League university. He subsequently became a university professor, and his book's articulate prose reflects his educational achievements. Especially memorable are his retelling of a friendship with an effeminate but pugnacious classmate and his account of finding a patron who purchased for him the new wardrobe necessary for hobnobbing with the upper classes who inhabit the east coast of America. As a published memoir writer, I can wholeheartedly recommend this work as a superior example of the genre.
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