Old School by Tobias Wolff The narrator of this story never does disclose his name, and the feeling that the author is the narrator permeates this novel. The reader does not find out much about the narrator that is not an immediate part of the story; I was grasping at bits, trying to figure out who was writing.
These things the narrator does say: he is attending a New England boarding school. He is a sixth former, and has been at the school long enough to long to be a sixth former. The time is during JFK's presidency. Our narrator comes from a less priviledged background than many of the boys, but passes as one of the upper class.
The school has a program whereby authors visit the school. Sixth form boys write essays for the priviledge of getting to speak individually to the visiting author. Only one boy can win the priviledge. The winning essay is chosen by the visiting author. Our narrator covets this honor.
The first visiting author is Robert Frost. Frost chooses a piece, written by a boy named George, which he thinks is a parody of his work. Unfortunately, George had meant his work as a tribute to Frost and not as a challenge. The first winner is miserable.
The second visiting author is Ayn Rand, whom the boys are not at all ready for. The winner is Big Jeff, a vegetarian who writes a story about cows coming from outer space coming back and taking revenge on humans. Rand alienates the boys with her brash attitude and crushes Big Jeff by letting him know that she does not take a vegetarian stance; she chose the work because she thought it was an allegory to the human condition. The second winner is miserable.
The third visiting author is to be Ernest Hemingway. Our narrator does not have any idea what to write. Every boy wants the chance to meet Hemingway. For inspiration, the narrator types out Hemingway's stories, trying to understand what it would feel like to write a great story. Reading a story written by a girl from the neighboring girls' school five years earlier, the narrator types out her story. He changes some of the details to make it his own story, and he submits it. He wins. His plagiarism is discovered, and he is expelled.
Happy reading.
