Literary Techniques In This Boy's Life By Tobias Wolff

Tobias Wolff is a strange writer whose work is "so absolutely clear and hypnotic that a reader wants to take it apart and find some simple way to describe why it works so beautifully"(Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life [back cover]). Although sometimes taking place in such foreign locations as Vietnam, Wolff's stories are predominantly based on banal situations and people. The magic in his writing though is the fact he draws the reader into the story at all times. He does so by connecting his characters and their conflicts to the reader, be it through quirks, qualities or quandaries. Wolff perfects these concepts by writing in his own lucid, terse style. "The tales in Wolff's [books] are seamless, their characters relentlessly ordinary"(Joan Smith,

The point is that quandaries are yet another method that Wolff uses to draw the reader into the story. Of course, all these elements would be useless without good writing technique. Wolff's writing style is one in its own, a masterpiece in itself. The two main elements of his style are terseness and lucidity, both of which carry equal effect and importance in Wolff's writings. Their effects on Wolff's pieces are ones of cleanliness; they make his sentences and paragraphs flow more smoothly and they deliver the information in a direct and concise fashion, which makes for easy reading. Lucidity and terseness are also important because they play a large part in drawing the reader into the story. I believe all of Wolff's styles, concepts, and elements that were discussed in this paper are what make him an excellent writer. But, even though I consider Tobias Wolff a fantastic author and I tried my best to explain why and how he is fantastic, I believe that to truly understand Mr. Wolff, you must read his works. Yes, I'm sure that is the same for any author, but I believe it is more so for Tobias