Reader's Corner Book Club: Old School April 27, 2009

This month, the book group joins in the celebration of 'The Big Read: Old School.' The protagonist of Tobias Wolff's novel is a boy at an elite prep school in 1960. He is an outsider who has learned to mimic the negligent manner of his more privileged classmates. Like many of them, he wants more than anything on earth to become a writer. But to do that he must first learn to tell the truth about himself. The agency of revelation is the school literary contest, whose winner will be awarded an audience with the most legendary writer of his time. As the fever of competition infects the boy and his classmates, fraying alliances, exposing weaknesses, 'Old School' explores the ensuing deceptions and betrayals with an unblinking eye and a bottomless store of empathy. Readers citywide will read and discuss this book at The Libraries of Greater Kansas City.