This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff

I am torn over Tobias Wolff. He writes so beautifully, and the stories are enthralling, but duplicity seems to be the main feature shared by his characters. Of course, everyone lies, in ways big and small. I just find it difficult to sympathize with those who are habitual liars. Then again, what some call lies, others call imagination. This is probably why Mr Wolff is a first-rate writer while I've never exhibited any creativity in a literary sense.

This Boy's Life is a memoir of Mr Wolff's boyhood in the 1950's. His family is dysfunctional to say the least. As I turned the pages, I was filled at once with admiration for his survival skills, and with abhorrence for his natural-born dishonest ways. How on earth could the boy in the book someday become one of the best writers of his generation? How much of the book, even if called a memoir, is true? We're talking about someone with an off-the-charts amount of imagination here. It wouldn't be the first time a writer embellishes a supposedly true story.

Ultimately, the book is still fantastic, well worth reading irrespective of how much it stretches the truth.