Tobias Wolff's memoir reads more like a coming of age story. Fraught with instability, abuse, broken homes and a boy just trying to find his place - Wolff's recounts his boyhood in 1950s Washington state with his mother. It was in reading Ann Patchett's collection of essays (These Precious Days) that I realized Tobias has a biological brother Geoffrey, who was raised by his father whom ALSO wrote a memoir. Effectively, Tobias recounts growing up with his mother and Geoffrey recounts growing up with his father - an interesting examination of what would have been if the parents hadn't divorced. In any case, Tobias grows through quite a bit of trials and tribulations and his mother is always trying to do the best thing for him - and it doesn't always end up being the best thing. I'm off to read Geoffrey's Duke of Deception to see how the other half lived.