Old School

Did Tobias Wolff invent light academia?

Probably not. But Old School comes awfully close.

It’s a compact coming-of-age novel about literary ambition, class anxiety, and the myths young men build around genius. I can see echoes of novels like Stoner in Wolff’s approach: restrained, introspective, and focused on moral consequences rather than plot.

Set at an elite New England boarding school in the early 1960s, the story follows a scholarship student convinced that writing, and the company of great writers, could help him transcend his humble beginnings.

Wolff’s prose does a lot in very little space, and he’s especially skilled at capturing how shame and ambition blur together. The episodic structure, centered on visiting writers, mirrors the narrator’s gradual disillusionment.

The novel explores the cost of wanting something too badly, and how storytelling can become a form of self-deception. The ending, while conceptually sound, doesn’t quite deliver the emotional weight built up earlier. Still, Wolff leaves sharp insights into ambition, self-delusion, and the delicate line between aspiration and obsession.

Ultimately, Old School is a strong, thoughtful book that falls just short of greatness.