Back in the World: Stories [Paperback]

Tobias Wolff (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 1996

To American soldiers in Vietnam, "back in the world" meant America and safety. To Tobias Wolff's characters, Back in the World is where lives that have veered out of control just might become normal again. Unfortunately, the men and women in these gripping, pungent, and wonderfully skewed stories have only the vaguest notion of what normal is. A gentle priest finds himself in a Vegas hotel with a hysterical, sun-burned stranger. A show-biz hopeful undergoes a dubious audition in a hearse speeding across the California desert. An aging soldier is distracted from a night of philandering by a gun-toting neighbor and a suicidal enlisted man. As he moves among these unfortunates, Wolff observes the disparity between their realities and their dreams, in ten stories of exhilarating lucidity and grace.

Stories included are: "The Missing Person," "Say Yes," "The Poor Are Always With Us," "Sister," "Soldier's Joy," "Desert Breakdown," "Our Story Begins," "Leviathan," and "The Rich Brother."

"Terrific...The magic of his fiction cannot be explained. It is the ancient art of the master storyteller."--Tim O'Brien

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wolff (PEN/Faulkner winner for The Barracks Thief offers tales in the classic mode, maintaining unity of time, place and action. His characters and their dilemmas become recognizable in a few pages. "The voice is crisp, the words are simple, the talk is laconic and everyday, but the questions these 10 stories pose are terrifying ones about good and evil," PW found.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

LJ's reviewer hailed Wolff's collection of short stories as "a brilliant examination of life for those who can stand its grimness" (LJ 10/15/85).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reissue edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679767967
• ISBN-13: 978-0679767961
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Portraits of People Who Live Too Much in Their Heads September 25, 2004

By M. JEFFREY MCMAHON TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

These are great stories, complex psychological studies, all woven into page-turning narratives by a writer who doesn't write to show off his linguistic skills (of which he has many), but to get the reader completely absorbed by the stories without being distracted by verbosity and other annoyances writers too often use to gain attraction for themselves. Wolff is too profound a writer to rely on gimmicks of any kind. Here are some highlights of the collection:

"The Rich Brother": Two brothers, one rich and arrogant, the other a poor drifter, both blame each other for their problems when in fact both are blind to their own pride and their own neediness which makes them need to rival against the other as a distraction from their empty lives.

"Desert Breakdown, 1968": A spoiled brat, now married to a beautiful pregnant woman, has fantasies of leaving his wife to be a single hedonist. He also loathes his parents who have spoiled and enabled him all his life. His delusions catch up with him in a way that I'll leave for the reader to discover in this excellent story.

"The Missing Person": A spiritual cousin to the drifting brother in "The Rich Brother," Leo is a waif afraid of women who sublimates his fears by joining the priesthood where, in an ironic twist, he meets a Trickster and becomes a corrupt hustler upon which, through too many twists of events to chronicle here, he finds his real self.

"Say Yes": A naive young house wife realizes that her husband is a racist and that racism can't be compartmentalized. His racist views contaminate all other aspects of his personality and he must therefore re-invent himself or suffer his wife's contempt and perhaps worse.

These stories are mostly gems, wrought with irony, tales of folly, people's misguided attempts at redemption, predatory tricksters wreaking havoc on the lives of others. His best stories are more richly packed with themes and ideas than most novels.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars one good book June 23, 1999

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

This book is great. What else would you expect from Mr. Wolff. I find his stories refreshingly unique. This man could write about getting your oil-changed and make it interesting. This is a must read for anyone interested in the works of the so-called "Dirty Realists." Also read Ford's Rock Springs and anything you can get a hold of by Raymond Carver. These men write about our lives, not the lives we all wish we had. Wolff is an in-your-face writer that punches home all his points with clear language and just hard writing. Also check out In The Garden of the North American Martyrs and The Night in Question--other collections of his.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars More from the best August 2, 2002

By ChiefSanch

Format:Paperback

As if "The Night In Question" wasn't good enough, I went and bought "Back In The World." Just the first story alone could be printed ten times in between two covers and you'll read it different every time. There is this girl who likes to shop lift, works in a theatre, goes home to her little brother. It's us, beautifully written and immaculately realized. Tobias Wolff is gold and everything he touches turns just the same. Read this, then "The Night In Question" and then read "This Boy's Life." Read his made up words and then read his personally inspired words and found out just what he had to go through, how he triumphed over adversities to become the best short story writer out there today.