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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There Must Be a Gene for Literary Talent, July 13, 2002
This review is from: Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father (Paperback)
How else can we explain the phenomenon of Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff, two of our most accomplished writers, brothers raised apart in separate and uniquely bizarre circumstances? Devotees of THIS BOY'S LIFE should also enjoy THE DUKE OF DECEPTION, though the latter has a retrospective, adult tone absent in the former. The opening passage, where the author, now an adult with sons of his own, learns of the death of his dissolute but charming father, is a masterpiece. If I taught writing, I would tell my students, "If you can acheive what Geoffrey Wolff does in that small scene, you have done it all."
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There Must Be a Gene for Literary Talent, July 13, 2002
This review is from: Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father (Paperback)
How else can we explain the phenomenon of Tobias and Geoffrey Wolff, two of our most accomplished writers, brothers raised apart in separate and uniquely bizarre circumstances? Devotees of THIS BOY'S LIFE should also enjoy THE DUKE OF DECEPTION, though the latter has a retrospective, adult tone absent in the former. The opening passage, where the author, now an adult with sons of his own, learns of the death of his dissolute but charming father, is a masterpiece. If I taught writing, I would tell my students, "If you can acheive what Geoffrey Wolff does in that small scene, you have done it all."
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forgive, But Don't Forget, December 6, 2005
This review is from: Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father (Paperback)
For those who have read Tobias Wolff's memoir This Boy's Life, Geoffrey Wolff's The Duke of Deception fills in many gaps. Where This Boy's Life focuses on a rather short period of a couple years in Tobias Wolff's life, The Duke of Deception covers the life of their father, Arthur. The writing style is much more formal than Toby's book. When he describes his often rocky relationship with his mother, it sounds almost like a psychologist's file than a son talking about his mother. "My mother is not cold, and she is not stiff. She has been infailingly warm and loving with my boys, and with my wife. She laughs a lot, teases, likes to be teased. But neither of us, I think, trusted the other's love" (48). The formality adds greatly to the older and wiser narrator, creating a sense of distance. It takes some getting used to, but as the book progresses, it became clearer that this formality is a way of distancing Geoffrey from some of the more painful memories.
The further you get into the book, the further you want to read on. As Geoffrey gets older and older, he begins to understand his father's cons and note them more carefully. The reader is entrapped, anxious to see when Arthur will finally exploit everyone who cares about him, and even more anxious to see how Geoffrey could possibly forgive his father. Even as Geoffrey despises his father's cons, he finds himself falling into Arthur's ways. "As I liked him less and less I became more and more like him. I felt trapped" (197).
The story's a little slow at first, filled with family history, "My father Arthur was delivered by his father Arthur at home on Spring Street in Hartford, November 22, 1907" (13). This history becomes important as Geoffrey begins to untangle his father's life. Wolff keeps the reader's attention by injecting vivid scenes from his childhood into the narration of dry facts. Overall, this book was a fantastic story of a son coming to terms with his father's crimes and then having the ability to forgive him for it.
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