Old School | Old School

At a glance:

Author: Tobias Wolff
First Published: 2003
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: 1960-2003
Setting: A New England prep school
Principal Characters: Narrator, Arch Makepeace, Headmaster, Mr. Ramsey, Jeff Purcell, George Kellog, Bill White
Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
Subjects: Teaching or teachers, 1960’s, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Authors or writers, Literature, Class consciousness, Schools or school life, New England, Novelists, Pretensions, Contests, Private schools
Locales: New England

Old School, Tobias Wolff’s first novel, concerns tradition. Tradition, it shows, is personal, self-made. Accordingly, even the most intellectual of traditions, such as that of a nation’s great literature, comes as much from native illusions and bamboozle as from the succession of native genius as one generation of writers supplants another. Hilarious, tender, discomfiting, and harshly candid, the novel depicts this succession intimately.

Old School takes place in a New England preparatory school for boys. The institution is old, most of the students come from...

Old School | Old School

At a glance:

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