The Night In Question: Stories [Paperback]

Tobias Wolff (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 30, 1997

One of the sinuous and subtly crafted stories in Tobias Wolff's new collection--his first in eleven years--begins with a man biting a dog. The fact that Wolff is reversing familiar expectations is only half the point. The other half is that Wolff makes the reversal seem inevitable: the dog has attacked his protagonist's young daughter. And everywhere in The Night in Question, we are reminded that truth is deceptive, volatile, and often the last thing we want to know.

A young reporter writes an obituary only to be fired when its subject walks into his office, very much alive. A soldier in Vietnam goads his lieutenant into sending him on increasingly dangerous missions. An impecunious mother and son go window-shopping for a domesticity that is forever beyond their grasp. Seamless, ironic, dizzying in their emotional aptness, these fifteen stories deliver small, exquisite shocks that leave us feeling invigorated and intensely alive.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life. Wolff is a master at building tension, as in his description of the machinery threatening the little boy in the title story, or of a father's observing a dog attack his son in "Chain." His naturalistic, powerfully written stories explore the human response to the random and unexpected blows of fate. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Publishers Weekly

While some gifted writers make a show of their virtuosity, others, like Wolff, make what they do seem so artless that only upon reflection is the meticulous craftsmanship and intelligence of their work apparent. Wolff's first book of short fiction in over a decade (after his two acclaimed memoirs, This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army) finds him writing at the top of the form. In each of the 14 stories in this splendid collection, Wolff's tone is unadorned, and a good number of the events he describes are just this side of prosaic; yet they are graced by an unerring sense of just how much depth can be mined from even a seemingly inconsequential situation. In "Firelight," an unnamed narrator recollects looking at rental apartments with his glamorous but impoverished mother; their brief interaction with another family showing them an apartment they can't possibly afford opens up into a meditation on home, family and belonging. The book begins with the wry and surprising "Mortals," in which a journalist is fired for writing the obituary of a man who proves to be very much alive. Other strong stories include "Flyboys," about an uneasy trio of youthful friends, and "The Chain," in which a man's desire for revenge after his daughter is attacked by a dog begets a cycle of violence with unforeseen consequences. In several stories, teenage protagonists and young men serving in Vietnam suddenly experience the instinct of self preservation; they and other characters learn to test the limits of their moral certitude. Wolff's characterizations are impeccable, his ear pitch-perfect and his eye unblinking yet compassionate. 30,000 first printing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 5th Printing edition (September 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679781552
• ISBN-13: 978-0679781554
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent short literature September 20, 2003

By jmz VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

First let me just state that the whole of The Night In Question by Tobias Wolff is really great. Each story is written in such a way that you feel like someone really familiar is just talking to you -- face to face -- and you don't want to leave.

Second, if you can't read the whole book of short stories for some reason (you would really need a good one), then you need to spend some time reading the last story in the collect, Bullet in the Brain. I read this story in another collection of short stories by contemporary authors, and it's always been in the back of my head as one of the best. I just finished reading The Night in Question, and Bullet in the Brain was the ending of Wolff's collection. Having the chance to read the story again without seeking it out was great.

Essentially, Bullet in the Brain is about a man who just can't shut-up during a bank robbery. But then the ending pretty much slaps you in the face because Wolff took one incident that would basically end any story and just moves it right along. I would have to tell the ending of the short story in order to explain this -- and I really don't want to -- but believe me, it's the most creative and interesting ending to a short story like itself.

I was lucky enough to see a reading performed by Wolff at my university, and I will never forget the author's ease with the audience, and his smooth readings. Like he knew us all, and we knew him, and the story he wrote was meant just for us.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful, Moving, Magical May 30, 2005

By J Scott Morrison HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Before I picked up this book I was only vaguely aware of Tobias Wolff, never having, as far as I can recall, read anything of his. I did remember that he had written a memoir of his peripatetic childhood that was praised probably fifteen years ago. I was unprepared for the power and grace of this collection of short stories published in 1996. A little research on the Internet tells me that Wolff is primarily a short story writer -- he has certainly found his niche in that, although I gather he has recently written a novel -- and is a professor at Stanford. But, most of all, he is a born story-teller. This is not to say that one is not also aware of the lapidary quality of his writing. My point is that even absent his writing skill he would still be someone you'd want to engage in conversation, or rather someone you'd like to sit and listen to as he spins yarns about the mundane. The mundane is his subject, but like all good writers, he puts it in such a perspective as to make it new and insightful.

Others before me, here at Amazon, have written about certain of the short stories here. The stories' subject matter is, generally, that of youth and young adulthood, and most importantly, about observation. His protagonists seem to have a preternatural writer's eye, which is part of what I look for in fiction. That's one of the great things about a great writer -- that ability to see things in ways most of us don't.

My favorite story? Probably 'Firelight,' about a boy and his hapless but courageous mother who go to look at apartments. Simple plot, but with deep implications about belonging, what home and family is, and about hope. The coda of this story, with the little boy all grown up and with a family of his own, tells us, as so often in Wolff's stories, how childhood experience colors our adult lives. Beautiful. I suppose now I'll have to go and read everything Wolff has written. Nice to contemplate.

Scott Morrison

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I Wouldn't Change a Comma June 2, 2000

By "[e-mail]"

Format:Hardcover

For fans of Raymond Carver, who wonder how his prose might have evolved had he not died in 1988, "The Night In Question" provides a possible glimpse. Wolff and Carver's close friendship is well-documented. And although Wolff is his own man and my favorite living writer, I believe that there's a tangible link between Carver's final stories, such as "Blackbird Pie" and "Errand," and Wolff's recent work. Wolff keeps Carver's legacy alive in a totally original, compelling way. I have read "The Night In Question" no less than four times. I have listened to the abridged audio version (abridged in the number of stories only) 7 times. There is a sheer mastery of the short story form here that astounds me. Bob Dylan once said of Gordon Lightfoot: "Every time I hear a Gordon Lightfoot song, I wish it would never end." I can imagine Carver saying the same thing about Wolff, for similar reasons. This book makes a great gift and is required reading for anyone serious about the art and craft of short fiction. I wished every story would never end.