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Duke of Deception: Memories of My Father

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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."

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."

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.

Geoffrey Wolff's reaction to the news of his father's death? "Thank God." As the friend who bore the bad news pulled away in revulsion, Wolff realized how deep his feelings ran. The statement was a response to learning that it was his father, not one of his young sons who had died, but a full explantion was required. Wolff, in a series of honest personal revelations, turns an expert biographers' eye to his own family. Duke Wolff wanted to be many things, in fact succeeded in working as an executive in the aerospace industry without having any knowledge of engineering. Duke's self-designed coat-of-arms was supposed to read, "No Apologies," but in the garbled Latin actually tranlated as "Leave No Trace." That was Duke's goal, acknowledged or not, to re-make himself and his family in his own optimistic, dangerous con-man image, a life where improvidence was met with more improvidence, a life where it seemed as though tomorrow would never come. Geoffrey Wolff's *Duke of Deception* is a companion read to *This Boy's Life,* written by Tobias Wolff, his brother. Here is unique opportunity to view the divergent raods taken within the same family. Geoffrey Wolff spares himself nothing, not allowing the full catalog of blame to rest with his father, understanding all to clearly the consequences of refusing to acknowledge and accept yourself

The Duke of Deception is the sad story of a wasted life. Whether visible through this book or through This Boy's Life, Duke Wolff lived a life without focus. Unfortunately, the impact of such a man on the people around him is negative. Both boys and their mother suffered immeasurably, and the suffering is visible here. This book--more a confessional than a memoir--is at times touching, irritating, and embarrassing. I am merely grateful that both of the boys have succeeded as well as they have. The prose is serviceable, rarely inspiring. This is meant to be inspirational, I believe, but it is quite depressing at times. Duke reminded me of the worst parts of Willy Loman.

I don't know how I initially ran into this book, but my son was assigned This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff in prep school - twice. This is a memoir by Tobias' brother, Geoffrey Wolff, of life with their father - a Jew who went to extreme measures to pass as not Jewish. The real story though is not the fathers' life, but the author's incredible insight into a father/son relationship. I bought this copy to give to my son's prep school - I thought it made, at least in excerpt, critical reading if they were going to thoughtlessly keep assigning This Boy's Life. Brilliant writing. It would be a shame for this to be the lost "twin" as it's so rare to get two angles on a life, so well fitted for adolescent dialog in school.

I've read this book two or three times, and enjoy it more and more. I know why it appeals to me: Duke Wolff was like a lot of old men I've known, mostly the fathers and uncles of friends, who grew up in the 20s and 30s. A type of his place and time--a snob who bragged about old school ties when those things meant a lot, a glad-handing hustler and outrageous self-promoter during a time when self-delusive salesmanship and resume-padding were widely accepted as a virtuous means of self-advancement.

As the years go by I reflect less on the character of Duke and more on that of the author. What a sniffy, snobbish, spoiled young man he was duirng his Choate and Princeton years, and how much of that is still clinging to him in his forties as he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his father was a lifelong liar, thief, psychopath and at last a jailbird.

His brother Tobias's memories of Duke (in the memoir, In Pharoah's Army) give a much better picture of their father in his last years, because they describe just a few dinners and conversations, and hence aren't weighted down by the overwhelming sadness and shame that Geoffrey feels. Superficially, Toby may be said to be the better writer-as-craftsman. Geoffrey is far and away the better thinker.

Geoffrey Wolfe's father was the type who could persuade an automobile dealer whom he had just met to accept a personal check for a new car after the bank was closed, and who could launch a successful career as an aeronautical engineer without relevant education, experience, or knowledge. His sons similarly reinvented themselves, one going so far as to submit forged credentials to win acceptance in an exclusive prep school. After the parents split up, Geoffrey lived an interesting if peripatetic life with his father, while his brother Tobias stayed with his mother, suffering poverty and abusive stepfathers. Since the father had the more interesting and eccentric personality, Geoffrey's book is perhaps the more adventurous, although less well written, than his brother's, This Boy's Life: A Memoir, but both make fascinating reading.

I was interested in every single sentence. This book does what the best memoirs do, which is to allow the reader to judge the characters. For example, Wolff doesn't pretend there's anything charming about condemning a social pretender while simultaneously acting like one, but he also doesn't chicken out and preempt you by saying he was jerk for doing it.

He spent around 75% of this book trashing his dad, for good reason, yet, amazingly, I didn't want to join in. The contempt and love that the author shows for his father are both totally sincere. There are a lot of exciting, Frank Abignale-like adventures in here, but they come across as anecdotes. The real story is, will Duke, after a whole lifetime of hard work and earnest application, finally manage to TRULY disappoint his son? It takes a lot, of course.

I was also impressed with the author for exposing himself as such a snob. To be shocked by your father pretending to have graduated from college when he in fact flunked out is one thing, but for you both to be so aggrieved by the prospect of his having gone to Deerfield/Penn instead of Groton/Yale has to be a symptom of truly advanced superficiality. It can't be easy to admit to that.

Anyway, it was a great book.

This is a very good book on its own. It is even better if you have read Tobias Wolff's A Boy's Life. They are companion pieces just as the authors are brothers. For those who have not read A Boy's Life, Toby stayed with his mother and was dumped with an awful stepfather (among others). This is Geoffrey's memoir. He insisted on going with and staying with his father.

His father, nick-named Duke, is the duke of deception. He is an inveterate liar and con man. Obviously a genius, he never is able to corral his personality and later his drinking to stay in one place/one job. He lives off his dishonesty from his completely fabricated resume to his cars that are never paid for but always improving in style and cost.

As Geoffrey grows, we watch him begin to assimilate some of his father's habits and tendencies. Amazingly, he does this in the face of his father's constant teachings not to lie and to always be true to self.

Eventually Geoffrey grows and, after a stint in England and then a semester at Princeton, he begins to see his father as he really is and draw distance from him. After one last year living together, his father pulls one more financial coup that enables Geoff to get his life back on track. Geoff then abandons his father (not without cause).

There is no sweet ending like a novel but, rather, a bittersweet one.

The book often read like a novel due to the elder Mr. Wolff's highjinx. At times a comedy, at times a tragedy.

Mr. Wolff is a good writer whose stark style fits this memoir perfectly. This is an entertaining and poignant book, well worth the time.