Of the older stories, "In the Garden of North American Martyrs" (for which Wolff received the O Henry Award for short stories in 1981) is a bitter, beautifully written satire on the stultifying lack of freedom of thought in US universities "The Chain" is a morality tale of how bad actions breed more bad actions, both painful and painfully funny "Bullet in the Brain" is a tour de force in which a sour, disappointed, resentful old literary critic gets shot in the head during a bank robbery, because he can't resist laughing at the robbers' clichéd dialogue – and as the bullet travels through his brain, he experiences one final epiphanic childhood memory which takes him back to his true self. It comprises 21 previously published (though lightly revised) stories, plus 10 new ones. Tobias Wolff Tobias Wolff is the author of the novels The Barracks Thief and Old School, the memoirs This Boy’s Life and In Pharaoh’s Army, and the short story collections In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, Back in the World, and The Night in Question. It's right up there with the very best of Raymond Carver, William Trevor and Flannery O'Connor. Before reading this, I knew of the American writer Tobias Wolff by reputation but, to my shame, had never read any of his work. Tobias Wolffs books include the memoirs This Boys Life and In Pharaohs Army: Memories of the Lost War the short novel The Barracks Thief the novel Old.
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