The Night In Question: Stories

by Tobias Wolff

Tobias Wolff has earned the deep respect of his many readers for direct, compelling stories marked by honesty and insight. The Night in Question is a collection of fifteen short works tied together by Wolff's upright style and unyielding interest in those moments when moral confusion crystallizes into clear, shining action and understanding. His characters, situations, and themes become familiar over children recognize the failings of their parents, men and women attempt to bridge the distance between themselves, and singular events shape everyday feelings into a new and more meaningful reality.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, American

206 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 1995

About the author

Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.

He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.

Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.

Reviews

[Glenn Sumi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was familiar with some of these stories from magazines, anthologies like The Best American Short Stories series, and The New Yorker podcast. And I’m a big fan of The Vintage Book Of American Short Stories, which Tobias Wolff edited and which contains some of the best short fiction from the past half a century. (Note to self: I need to finish that book some day and review it properly.)

But I’d never read a Wolff book all the way through. My loss. This is a very strong collection of 15 stories. These are clear, urgent tales that often set up moral dilemmas that aren’t easily solved.

In the opening story, “Mortals,” a hack journalist who spends most of his time writing obituaries is fired after it’s discovered that he hasn’t been checking whether his subjects are in fact deceased. An encounter with a very-much-alive man holding up his own obituary leads to a meditation on mortality and the well-lived life, with a conclusion that’s refreshingly open-ended.

In the timeless story “Two Boys And A Girl,” Gilbert, the narrator, is left to take care of his best friend Rafe’s girlfriend, Mary Ann, while Rafe goes on a fishing trip for a couple of weeks. As you might expect, Gilbert and Mary Ann become more than friends; the ending is surprising yet perfect.

In “The Other Miller,” a bored soldier gets pulled from training when his superiors inform him his mother has died. Miller knows they’ve made a mistake – there’s another soldier in the company with the same name – but he goes along with the error for the break from boredom. And as his fellow soldiers express shock that he’s not properly grieving, we learn about his estrangement from his own mother. The ending, another ambiguous one (is he, in fact, the other Miller?) goes deeper than you might imagine.

Strained relationships with parents pop up in several stories. No surprise if you recall that Wolff’s best-known book, the memoir This Boy’s Life, chronicled his relationship with his abusive stepdad.

In “Powder,” the narrator’s irresponsible father keeps them skiing just a little too long, even though a storm’s coming and the road home is going to be closed off. This night (another "night in question"?) will change the protagonist’s life forever. He knows that after this his parents will split, but he learns a lot about his reckless father and himself, all detailed in a few pages.

In the title story, two siblings’ disturbing past with their abusive father is dredged up when the adult sister visits her scarred and manic brother, who’s become obsessed with repeating a sermon to her.

And in “Firelight,” the young narrator and his mother are looking for better accommodations – they’re tired of living in bleak boarding houses – and visit an apartment with a fireplace. The boy’s imagination – it’s pretty clear he’s going to become a writer – is stoked by this apartment and the little drama they encounter in it.

Wolff knows that life is made up of significant moments that – seen through a genuine artist’s eye – can shed light on destiny.

A dog attack at the beginning of the story “The Chain” has major repercussions – it starts off a chain reaction, if you will – in the lives of other people.

The brief and much-anthologized story “Bullet In The Brain” begins ordinarily enough, as a jaded book critic is waiting in line at a bank. I don’t want to spoil where it goes, but it defies all rules about story structure and character. Like Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” it contains dark, savage humour and brutal violence, and yet it ends in a moment of pure grace, suspended in time.

And one of my favourite stories, “Flyboys,” is a coming-of-age tale about friendship that takes in class differences, death, illness, luck and a small but significant instance of betrayal. It’s one of those stories that defies synopsis, because each detail reverberates with meaning.

Like many of the book’s stories, it made me reflect on my own life, how individual moments can open up to suggest the course of an entire life in all its ordinariness and profundity.

I’ll definitely be rereading many of these stories, and am going to seek out more of Wolff’s work.

[Charlie Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved Tobias Wolff's writing but this is the first book of his short stories I've read. These stories pack an enormous punch, full of damaged people and screwed-up families, and horrendous situations that people make worse through selfish and self-righteous actions. Wolff has an incredible gift for depicting the internal monologues of people who are convinced they're doing the right thing in spite of all the available evidence. The best stories in here are often the ones that draw on Wolff's military experience, like "Flyboys" (in which a soldier in Vietnam nearly murders his commanding officer to save a friend from being sent on a dangerous mission), and "The Other Miller" (in which a soldier is told his mother is dead, but decides they got the wrong guy.) There are also a lot of great stories from the viewpoint of kids, coping with the inadequacies and delusional thinking of adults (and Wolff skilfully shows how those kids, in turn, will grow up to be delusional.) The weakest story in the collection, for some reason, is the first one, "Mortals," in which a newspaper writer is tricked into running an obituary for someone who's not dead. Also interesting: this book was published in 1996, and the stories were written in the late 80s and early 90s. It's fascinating to see just how much literary fiction has changed in the past 20 years. Wolff's writing is crisp and strong but feels nothing like the prose you'll find in most literary mags and collections nowadays. He's much more ready to come out and say what his characters are thinking and feeling, even editorializing here and there, and to go a bit over the top in the service of a good moment, than any literary writer nowadays. But every aspiring author, lit or otherwise, should read this, as with all other Wolff.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Night in Question over a few weeks, one story at a time. So some of the stories are already hazy in my mind. But I do remember that I looked forward each time to picking up this collection and once I started the story, I needed to finish it right then. Wolff is a short story master and this collection is consistently good - perfectly paced and very satisfying.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this collection - the first one I've read by Tobias Wolff, a writer that I always meant to read but somehow never did. Wolff is mainly a short story author, which is a declining profession in this day and age - instead of being published in various magazines as they were ages ago, short stories seem to be retreating back to literary journals which hardly anybody reads and fat anthologies which people purchase and put on their shelves. There's real perspective of the short story actually disappearing as an art form if it'll continue its slide into obscurity - which I hope will never happen, as literature would be much poorer without it.

Most of Wolff's stories in this volume are concerned with childhood and growing up, with one focused on war; in another story a man bites dog for an actual good reason, which I think is the first time I saw it happen in any medium or fiction (and non-fiction as well). Interestingly, most reviewers here on GR seem to favor the closing story, Bullet in the Brain which I thought had a wonderful idea - a man seeing his whole life flash by - but was also the gimmickiest of them all, and didn't really work for me. There are other stories in this collection which are far stronger. Here are my contenders:

"Casualty", about two young men in the army who are nearing their tour in Vietnam; one of them cannot stop needling the new, insecure commander, who in turn schedules him on dangerous patrols - usually spared for those who are about to go home. What struck me in it is the fact the guy genuinely can't stop himself from prodding his superior, even though he is completely aware of the possible consequences. I knew people like that and things didn't usually end up well, but the ending to this story I'll let you discover for yourselves. "The Other Miller" is the other way story in the collection - about a boy who joins the army to punish his mother for remarrying, with his plan turning out not quite how he imagined it to do.

The story with the dog-biting-man is titled "Chain", where a father has to literally bite a dog which has attacked his daughter to make it let go. Later, a friend first advises him to kill the dog, and then offers
to do it himself, which begins a cycle of violence and search for personal satisfaction.

There is a sense of sadness and loss which permeates through these stories, including the two which I think are the best in the whole volume - the opening story, "Mortals", and the one nearing the end, "Firelights". In "Mortals" a man is sacked from his job at the local newspaper for writing an obituary of a person who is still alive - Wolff employs plenty of humor and an O-Henry-esque twist near the end, but the story's essential theme is that of loneliness and the need to connect with others. It is ironic, but also inherently sad, as the characters in this story perhaps will never be able to create these connection, and the ones which were there once have eroded a long time ago.

The other story is "Firelight", which features a mother who was abandoned by her husband, and now struggles to survive with her only son. To stay afloat they often have to move, from one boarding house to the other, never setting roots in one place and constantly living on suitcases - but she refuses to give up. To maintain a pretense of a good life, she takes him on tours of apartments to rent that they are always considering, but could never afford - something they both know but refuse to admit. One cold evening they visit an apartment inhabited by a university professor, his wife and their teen daughter. The boy becomes mesmerized by the warmth of the warm firelight in the living room and falls into a trance, imagining himself in the coziness and comfort of this home - as a part of a large, happy family. But his experience breaks the spell, and he soon senses the bitterness of the professors who has been denied tenure at the university, and can't find a new position at other colleges; Like the boy, he also has to move and give the apartment up to others who can afford it. At the end of the story, the narration shifts into the boy's later years, when he is the owner of his own home and sits by his own fire, married and with two children; he is content with his life, yet the childhood fear is still firmly within him; he remembers how he had to leave the warm embrace of the firelight for the cold and indifference of the boardinghouse, and is afraid that one day he might wake up and see that his present existence had been just a dream. This is a touching story which shows how a lost childhood continues to haunt the adult, never giving him a chance to outgrow old fears.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Tobias Wolff's short fiction, hoping also to one day have a firelight which I will be able to call my own.

[Rana · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتابو تو انبار گردانی نشر چشمه خریدم؛ چرا؟ چون به قیمت قدیم و شیش هزار تومن بود :)) و طی یک کشیک خوندمش. چون ۱۵۰ صفحه بود؛ حجم مناسب یک کشیک خلوت.
اما فراتر از انتظاری که از یک کتاب رندوم داشتم بود و دوستش داشتم. مجموعه‌ی ۹ تا داستان کوتاه و نسبتاً عجیبه. عجیب نه به لحاظ سیر اتفاقات و پایان خاص لزوما، بیشتر بخاطر موقعیت های درونی و بیرونی که آدماشو توش قرار میده.

[SARAH · Rating 4 out of 5]

واقعا مجموعه داستان فوق العاده ای بود. لذت بردم بیشتر از شیوه روایت که محشر بود...یک دنیاتشکر مجدد ازمهران نجفی برای اینکه این اثر را پیشنهاد کردند.با اجازه رعنا ولیلی دوستا خوبم میخوام از شیوه شان استفاده کنم و هر کدام از داستانهای این مجموعه را ستاره باران کنم.:)داستان قربانی واقعا داستان جذابی بود...شیوه سادستیک راوی در روایت محشر بود که در داستانهای دیگه به نوبه ی خود با تفاوت هایی تکرار شد.داستان قربانی 2ستاره ناقابل با اغماض می گیرد.داستان برف 3 ستاره؛ واقعا داستان دوست داشتنی بود. من واقعا لذت بردم. داستان پدر و پسر وروابط عجیبشان....میلردیگر2 ستاره. زنجیر4ستاره�� واقعا داستان جذابی بود؛گرچه قابل حدس بود کمی از ان دست داستانهایی که یک تصادف سلسله رویدادهایی رو منجر میشه خط سیر رویداد قابل حدس بود....داستانهایی، رویای لیدی و شب مورد نظر با اغماض 2 ستاره وشعله ی اتش4 ستاره گلوله ای در مغز که شاهکار بود واقعا 5 ستاره.....در کل من واقعا لذت بردم از این داستانها. نویسنده نشان داد چطور می تواند از اتفاقات ساده موضوعات جذابی بسازد ... منظورم اینه که حوادث جزیی و ظاهرا بی اهمییت رو به شیوه ی جذابی در داستانش ذکرکرده و حتی گاهی بن مایه ی اصلی داستانش رو بر ان بنا نهاده....

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot of this short story goes something like this: a man who is in a bank when it gets robbed at gun point is so jaded that he has a hard time taking it seriously.

If I'm ever in a bank that gets robbed at gun point, I really hope I will not be standing next to anyone like this character. He is among the most annoying character I have come across, but I do like the story. I think it is pretty good. It gives the reader a story that is well beyond its word count. The main character wasn't always the person he has become when he ends up in that situation, and we get a glimps into who he was before, into his past.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

A book of short stories. Some were very good, some had you scratching your head wondering what you just read and others made no sense.

I think my favorite of the 15 stories was the very last. A man impatiently waiting in line at the bank realizes that the bank is being robbed. He cannot stay silent when told to do so. He ends up one on one with one of the robbers. He still will not comply. A bullet is put in his head. The rest of the story describes exactly what he thinks prior to death. Did his life flash before his eyes? Strange little story.

I am not sure that I have ever read Tobias Wolff before. Not being a great fan of short stories, I will reserve judgement until I have read a full length novel by him.

[Rebecca Timberlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I'm probably missing the real point here, or at least, not catching all of the meaning, but what I got from this was the critic's lack of interest in things he once enjoyed, causing him to see cliche in everything- and that's what kills him. I'm not even sure if I can explain what I mean well. I was just taken by the idea that he hates all of these things because they are tired and typical and predictable, but it's when the bank robbers are spitting out horribly cliche phrases that he's able to "enjoy" it again. He laughs, and that's what gets him killed. And even as he's dying, he's not remembering the things people normally "remember", he fixes on a time when someone's speech went off the track and surprised him.

I don't know, I really think I'm probably missing a bigger meaning here, but even with what I'm taking away from this short story, I give it four stars. I think it was well written, and it certainly makes you think, as there's not a clear meaning the first time reading it (at least not to me).

[صان · Rating 3 out of 5]

از کتاب‌هایی بود که سال‌های پیش توی قفسه‌های پشتی نشر چشمه با قیمت نازل پیدا کرده بودم. ۵،۶ تومن مثلا.
داستان‌هاش خیلی شگفت‌زده‌م نمی‌کرد، اما بد و خسته‌کننده هم نبود. دو سه تاشون هم عالی بودن و درگیرم می‌کردن.
یکی قصه‌ی پدری بود که سگی بچه‌شو گاز می‌گیره و حالا می‌خواد انتقامشو از سگ بگیره ولی این انتقام منجر به اتفاق‌های بعدی می‌شه که دومینو‌وار پیش میان و مثل اثر پروانه‌ای به اتفاق عجیبی ختم می‌شن.

دومی داستانی بود که توش قصه‌ای از مردی سوزن‌بان‌طور داشت که باید بین سرنوشت مسافرین یک قطار و بچه‌ی خودش دست به انتخاب بزنه.

داستانی درباره‌ی مادر و پسری که خونه ندارن و تظاهر به خرید می‌کنن و به خونه‌‌های مختلف سر می‌زنن. ولگردی می‌کنن و توی یکی از این خونه‌ها لحظه‌های گرمی رو تجربه می‌کنن.

و قصه‌ی آخر که به نظرم از همه عالی‌تر بود و درباره‌ی مردی بود که توی یک دزدی بانک قرار می‌گیره. این داستان باعث شد به مرگ فکر کنم و نیروی عجیبی، من رو به سمت مرگ سوق داد. به فکر می‌رفتم و مرگ‌خواه می‌شدم و خودم رو جای شخصیت مرد قرار می‌دادم.

داستان شروع هم موقعیت جالبی داشت، مردی که اشتباها آگهی مرگش در روزنامه ثبت شده و حالا با زنش اومده دفتر روزنامه شکایت.

در کل نویسنده‌ی دوست‌داشتنی‌ای بود به نظرم ولی یه جاهایی هم نمی‌فهمیدمش و سرتکون می‌دادم و رد می‌شدم.

[Conor Ahern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection of short stories. I kept thinking of how much of it reminded me of other narratives that I have enjoyed--"Smorgasbord" reminded me of Lorrie Moore, with its weird, unexplained quirkiness and strong femininity, "The Chain" recalled a Coen brothers script, and "The Life of the Body" felt like a George Saunders story (though this last comparison should not be too surprising, given that Wolff served as a mentor to Saunders). Really good stuff, and better than the long-form memoir/fiction of his that I have read.

[Rick Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this collection of short stories in the small library in my co-op's laundry room, and what a happy chance meeting it has been. Every story in this collection made me say to myself: Damn, I wish I could write like that! Clear, unpretentious, economical, wry, emotionally authentic, and with unexpected twists and developments that knocked me on my mind's ass and made me think about the stories for hours after reading them. The last story in the book, Bullet In The Brain, stays with me every day since I finished it. Its context switch from describing an episode in the afternoon of a book critic - given to savaging his subjects and the people around him with biting sarcasm - to an event presented with unexpected and almost unbearable poignancy, and that makes sense in further defining his character, practically took my breath away.

Very highly recommended.

[Mercedé Khodadadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

کوتاه و دلنشین
داستانها لزوماً پایان خاصی نداشتند، اما خوب بودند

[Gianni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quindici racconti, più o meno della stessa lunghezza, il cui motore è essenzialmente l’istintiva ricerca della soddisfazione del piacere e l’istintiva presenza della morte nell’agire dei personaggi, in una tensione che vede il prevalere di uno o dell’altro aspetto o il conflitto tra essi, a seconda che i personaggi siano giovani o adulti. Storie poliedriche dalle molte sfaccettature, che aprono molte porte con apparenti divagazioni che non sono mai casuali.
Sono racconti dalla scrittura fluida, concentrata, mai cupa e mai banale. Man mano che procede la lettura sembra di essere di fronte al racconto perfetto e rappresentativo ed è difficile indicare una preferenza; fra tutti Una pallottola nel cervello, forse perché è l’ultimo della raccolta, in questo momento mi sembra il racconto “magistrale”.

[cordelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

دو داستان «اموات» و «شعله آتش» را خیلی دوست داشتم.

[j2c6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando leí todos los cuentos de Carver, me quedé huérfano. Y siempre escuchaba los duetos Carver-Cheever y Carver-Wolff. Por motivos diferentes supongo. Pero me daba miedo ponerme con Wolff, decían que era incluso, a veces mejor. Me daba miedo por si no me gustaba. Pero me ha encantado. Los cuentos son buenísimos, menos lacónicos que Carver pero con una sensación inquietante de fondo y con ideas muy sorprendentes. No ha habido ninguno que no me guste. Por apuntar, Smorgasbord, Cordura, El otro Miller, Mortales, Polvo, Una Baja, La Vida del cuerpo. Qué guaay. Tengo por ahí otros dos libros esperándome y este lo he alargado todo lo que he podido. Qué alivio y qué gusto Sr. Wolff, encantado de conocerle.

[Mohammadreza · Rating 2 out of 5]

مجموعه‌ای از نه داستان کوتاه آمریکایی است.
----------
تنها قسمت دوست‌داشتنی برای من
«عاشق دختری مثل لیدی شدن، طغیانی ناخودآگاه بر ضد پدرش است. چون آدم عاشق نمی‌شود. نه. زندگی که شعر نیست. آدم انتخاب می‌کند که عاشق شود و برای انتخابش هم دلایلی دارد، درست مثل هر انتخابی که اگر به عمق آن برسی دلایلی دارد. یک‌بار که دلایلت را برای خودت روشن کنی، انتخاب‌هایت را در اختیار خودت خواهی گرفت. به همین سادگی است.»

[mona aghazade · Rating 4 out of 5]

به کتاب با داستان های کوتاه زیبا ، هیجانی و گاهی پند آموز

[Mahek · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was an interesting scene of discussion about this story in the recent episode of a meditative tv show called "Rectify", where the wise and thoughtful protagonist, who has befriended himself with books during his relatively endless time in a prison, defends why Tobias Wolff's "Bullet In The Train" is so close to him that he has memorized it. His very lines in the episode, and I quote this not just in praise of this story or the show, but to make a note about how a story can salvage a life:

"Well, it was... it was during a period of my life where I was having some difficulties dealing with the passage of time in a traditional sense. And since Mr. Wolff's short story deals partly with the bending of time, well, in memorizing it, or in taking the action of memorizing it, I, too, was able to bend time, in a way. Or at least experience it... differently."

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

All because of "Bullet in the Brain." The first time I encountered this story was at a Tobias Wolff reading, and those were shimmering minutes (especially the last half of the story). A few years later I was lucky enough to see the premiere of Word for Word's theatrical (and word-for-word) adaptation of the piece. I think of this story often, and it reminds me again and again to be present, to be present, to be awake and to enjoy.

[Rosaleen Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaded and critical we can lose our patience with the world and the joy with it. Language for the writer can lose its novelty and spark and become lifeless unless a metaphorical bullet in the brain clears the way through the debris of cliche, banality and routine to find those words that give our thoughts and lives meaning.

[Elyse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Wolfe is amazing in how he understands human nature. This book was first published in 1996 but the stories feel to me like they're set in the 1950's and 1960's.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man bites dog. Of course the pooch had it coming.

In noted memoirist and short story master Tobias Wolff’s third collection of stories, that particular nibble leads to a sequence of events that would have made O Henry nod in appreciation. And this should come as no surprise. Wolff has won three O Henry awards for his short fiction. In addition he has won a Pen/Faulker, a Story Prize and Rea Award. His work is mentioned in the same breath as that of Raymond Carver. They were both on the Syracuse University faculty at the same time so maybe it was something in the water.

Wolff is best known for his memoir, A Boy’s Life, and his personal experience informs his stories. One features a sadistic father. In another a mother and her son move from city to city, living in boarding houses, never really settling down. We see a small piece of military life. Another is set in a boarding school much like the one Wolff attended. He knows of what he writes when depicting such lives, such places, such circumstances and it comes across.

The title story contains the following line:

No one should be alone in this world. Everyone should have someone who kept faith, no matter what, all the way.

That sentiment permeates the stories in this masterful collection. Many of his characters suffer from loneliness, a sense of isolation, guilt or regret. A man’s act of revenge goes horribly wrong. Another man recalls a magical moment from his childhood and incorporates it into his adult life in a story that looks at the elements of happiness. Want to know what the world thinks of you? One of Wolff’s characters finds a unique way to ascertain his standing. A soldier places himself in peril by his compulsion to mouth off. An adolescent boy wants to be with a particular girl, and gets a chance to try, but can he really rise in stature from what he is, from how she really sees him? A woman and stepdaughter step outside their isolation from each other, briefly. A dying man sees his life flash by. A woman uses guilt to hold on to a friend in danger of leaving. Connections are lost, sought, endangered or never made.

Stylistically, the stories in this collection vary from linear narrative to a mixing of past and present (usually adults looking back on the follies, horrors, or fond memories of youth), from first person narrative to third person. Wolff uses O Henry-like twists in some while other stories primarily show a slice of life, and usually not a particularly happy life. Sadness, loneliness, regret, struggling with moral decisions all live here. There is the odd sign or symbol of hope. There is a laugh or two to be had, but most smiles will arise from the dark irony of several of Wolff’s endings. If there were many literary references here, they went over my head. One sort-of exception is an overt shout out to Richard Brautigan in the story Mortals. But I did not really understand what Wolff meant by it, so maybe it passed by alongside my head instead of completely over it.

This work is enjoyable for the strength of its portraits. We see lives in moral peril and sometimes physical peril as well. I found the stories satisfying, even if I did not always feel that I was quite grasping what was intended. So if that is acceptable to you, or more likely, if you are more perceptive and clever than I and see the elements that may lie in shadow to me, this is a strong, worthwhile read.

[Alix · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories failed to leave an impression on me. There were a few that stood out from the lot, such as "The Other Miller", or "The Night in Question", but even from those I expected more. The writing felt unnatural, overly polished. Quite disappointed by the book.

[Margaret Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as short stories go, this is up there with my favorites (John Murray's "A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies" and Raymond Carver's "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?"). There are some sexual things scattered throughout that I disliked, but I still have to give this collection five stars for the incredible character development alone. Some of the stories are very short, but EVERY character in them feels like a real person. The way Wolff articulates peoples' emotional and mental journeys has me in awe; how can something so intangible be described so perfectly? The endings of a lot of these felt like a gut punch (in the best way). The metaphors are precise and beautiful.
Some of my favorite quotes and phrases (there are many more):


"Your problem is, you think everything has to mean something." That was one of my problems, I couldn't deny it.

B.D. had some ideas as to how this might happen, acts of impulse like going after a wounded man, jumping on a grenade, other things he'd heard and read about, and in which he thought he recognized the possibilities of his own nature.

...the glitter of windshields...

Claire had the gift, mysterious to April, of knowing what she looked like even without a mirror. April's face was always a surprise to her, always somehow different than she'd imagined it.

He...stares through the snapping plastic window...

The boy's hands lay twisted in his lap like gloves somebody dropped there.

Unconditional enthusiasm generally had a wearying effect on Gilbert, but Mary Ann gave praise, it seemed to him, not to shine it back on herself or to dissemble some secret bitterness but because that was her nature.

In fact everyone was alone all the time, but when you got sick you knew it, and that was a lot of what suffering was -- knowing.

...the clinging trap of crust beneath the new snow.

The logs settled in the fireplace, very softly, like some old sleeping dog adjusting his bones.

[Kate Laws · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story Flyboys in the collection The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff is without a doubt one of the finest short stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It's a very simple story about some boys and their friendship. It's also about grief and growing up and how we relate to one another. Wolff has this ability to inhabit his characters in a way that brings you right into their lives, you think their thoughts and feel their emotions. The writing is rich and layered and deceptively simple. The author clearly understands the human condition at a deep level and has the ability to bring us along as he explores it. These are stories that make you feel alive and present, they remind you how tenuous and miraculous consciousness is. This is the kind of writing I am always looking for but rarely find.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading a collection of short stories. I loved 6 of them, liked 8 of them, and only didn’t care for one, so for that it gets 5 stars.

My rankings if you care:
1. Lady’s Dream
2. Flyboys
3. Two Boys and a Girl
4. Bullet in the Brain
5. Casualty
6. Powder
7. Sanity
8. Firelight
9. Migraine
10. The Other Miller
11. Smorgasbord
12. Mortals
13. The Night in Question
14. The Chain
15. Life of the Body

[Emma Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one’s a puzzler for me, sometimes I liked it sometimes I didn’t. I always struggle when I know that a book is really good or an author is talented…but I just can’t get into it? I do think there are a few good stories in here but most of them probably won’t stick with me too long. I’d be very interested in reading a novel by this guy though

[Ehsan'Shokraie' · Rating 4 out of 5]

مجموعه ای از ۹ داستان کوتاه که قطعا ارزش خواندن دارند،توبیاس وولف آن ظرافت لازم داستان کوتاه نوشتن را دارد،داستان هایش خوب پرداخته شده و جالب توجه اند،حرفی را که برای گفتن دارند می زنند و خللی در انتقال حس ندارند.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. I don't know. I really don't. These stories are all well-written; Wolff has poise, control, restraint, his characters are efficiently and fully formed, the situations are both believable and resonant/touching, and he doesn't (for the most part) rely on style or unorthodox voice to drive his stories (not that there would be anything wrong with doing so). And yet, though. I think the problem I had most often with these stories was that so often he creates such a compelling context/etc. for the reader, invests us in the characters, makes us care, blah, and then just completely leaves the story behind, leaves so many questions unanswered, basically leaves the reader hanging for the sake of dramatic tension, and for the sake of a sometimes gorgeous/poetic concluding paragraph or sentence. (This last point isn't always the case, though. "Powder," one of the stories whose context engrossed me more than others, ends with a total cliche: "If you've never driven in powder, you've never driven." which completely wrecked, for me, everything Wolff had worked so hard to create.) That tactic of leaving things unresolved is pushed too far for me to accept. A successful story (or novel) should, I think, resemble life in that not everything should be nice and tidy and resolved by the end; unless a story is working toward some sort of epiphany or moral or whatever, it's totally OK to leave the reader hanging a bit. Infinite Jest is an obvious and overt example of this. I just felt like Wolff leaves too many of his stories with too many unanswered questions and unresolved tensions. As in like why create these situations if you're just going to leave them dangling in the end; his refusal to tie so many things up seems to imply that it doesn't matter whether or not they're tied up, ever, which makes me, the reader, think: Why do I even care. As in, why am I even reading this.

Some of the tales are overtly moralizing, like "Chain," whose cliched and simplistic moral is: Violence begets violence. Which, if you can say it in three words, say it in three words. If you're going to take up almost twenty pages of my time, tell me something more. "Lady's Dream" is the one story that seems to rely on style more than just story/character, and it seemed a bit anomalous to me. Nothing really stuck.

Again, though, on a sentence level, the collection is excellent. Tonally, it kept reminding me of Pigeon Feathers, maybe because it often deals with youth, but also because of the poise and reserve I mentioned earlier. The last two stories are, I thought, the best, though "Firelight" still runs into that problem of leaving the reader hanging at the end for the sake of that poetic/etc. ending. It's hard to say anything bad about "Bullet in the Brain," though. This is a classic.

I'm definitely still not convinced that Wolff is up my alley, despite his being constantly associated with Carver and Ford. I'll keep trying.