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Title details for Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff - Available

Our Story Begins

New and Selected Stories

by Tobias Wolff
Anthony Heald
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

Tobias Wolff's first two books, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs and Back in the World, proved how the short story can "provoke our amazed appreciation" (New York Times Book Review). In the years since, he's written a third collection, The Night in Question, as well as several other astounding works. Now he returns with fresh revelations—about biding one's time, experiencing first love, or burying one's mother—that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary: a retired marine enrolled in college while her son trains for Iraq, a lawyer taking a difficult deposition, an American in Rome indulging the Gypsy who's picked his pocket. In this potent new collection, as with his earlier work, Wolff displays his mastery over a quarter century, once again proving himself "a writer of the highest order: part storyteller, part philosopher, someone deeply engaged in asking hard questions that take a lifetime to resolve" (Los Angeles Times).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 25, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781483082615
      • File size: 377349 KB
      • Duration: 13:06:08

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 9-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Respected writer Tobias Wolff has selected 21 of his favorite short stories and added 10 new ones. Wolff's impeccable, precise style is well served by narrator Anthony Heald, who delivers these works not as if he's reading but as if he's actually "telling" stories. His tone, his voices, and his rhythm all combine to make these works come alive. While many of Wolff's stories have endings that are, well, less than satisfying, Heald makes the listening worthwhile, turning each one into a unique creation. This is a delightful example of how a narrator can enhance the text he reads. K.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 31, 2008
      Wolfe's latest round of philosophical and thought-provoking short stories is a rousing collection that spans a wide variety of genres and time periods. Anthony Heald brings the stories to life with vigor, offering fresh voices and complicated, flawed characters, each as original and believable as the last. Heald has a knack for performance, gifting each tale with his flare for theatrics while never trespassing outside of his range in an attempt to impress. His familiar voice abounds with colorful emotions and a certain melancholic ache. Listeners step inside all 21 tales and see the world as Wolfe himself must have: heartbreaking, hilarious and even a little scary at times. A Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 3, 2007).

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 3, 2007
      Wolff's first story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs
      (1981), was a major salvo in the short story renaissance that included Raymond Carver. The 10 spare, elegant new stories here, collected with 21 stories from Wolff's three previous collections, are as good as anything Wolff has done. In most, there is a moment of realization, less a startling epiphany than a distant, gradual ache of understanding, that changes how the character looks at the world. The retired, 41-year-old female Marine of “A Mature Student,” compares her female professor's experiences in Communist-era Prague and her own son's service in Iraq. “Deep Kiss” movingly chronicles the fractious results when a teenaged boy, infatuated with a promiscuous classmate, neglects to bond with his dying father. A hilarious description of a brash, ignorant thug in “Her Dog” shows Wolff's gift for demotic speech. In an author's note, Wolff says that since he has never considered any of his stories “sacred texts,” he has edited some “clumsy or superfluous” passages in earlier works. In all the stories, Wolff expertly uses irony and empathy to explore facets of contemporary life.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:9-12

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