Our Story Begins

Tobias Wolff is one of the finest short story writers alive today and I was eagerly awaiting his latest collection Our Story Begins. I was a little disappointed to see that it was “new and selected stories”-mostly selected stories. But it turns out that he has re-edited the selected stories and there were several from the one collection I have yet to read: In The Garden of North American Martyrs. This includes the excellent title story, which was the first Wolff story I ever read in an anthology of contemporary short story writers in a creative writing class in college. The other stories were: “Next Door,” “Hunter in the Snow” (in which the setting is my hometown of Spokane, Washington), and “The Liar.” I also forgot how many Spoakne/Washignton state references were in his stories, especially those from Back In The World: “Soldier’s Joy,” “The Rich Brother,” “Leviathan,” “Desert Breakdown, 1968,” and “Say Yes.”  The new stories show how he has progressed and have varieties of themes and points of view. I think this would be an excellent introduction into the world of Tobias Wolff.