SOURCE: Clute, John. “States of Exile.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4493 (12-18 May 1989): 508.

In the following excerpt, Clute remarks that This Boy's Life is a profound work despite its occasional tendency to subordinate the story to display its own adroitness.

America is a land for the self-made man, the impostor, the teller of tales. From the beginnings of American literature, Huckleberry Finn and his brothers have been inventing themselves, lighting out for new territories they hope to carve in their own image; but a dark twin has always shadowed them, the confidence-man at the heart of the dream of freedom, for whom identity is a sleight-of-hand. As he grows into adulthood, Huck Finn must come to terms with that shadow; he must learn how to fabricate himself. Perhaps, like the young Tobias Wolff in This Boy's Life, he must become a liar.

Now in his forties, and the author...