Convivial ‘Booktail’ for ‘This Boy’s Life’

Tobias Wolff’s memoir This Boy’s Life begins in 1955 with a fly-by-night move from Florida to Utah. Relocating is supposed to provide a kind of protection against his mother Rosemary’s abusive boyfriend, but the plan doesn’t work. Despite trauma, little tempers her enthusiasm for a better life. Juxtaposition of irreverent whimsy and realities so harsh they border on absurd is a definitive feature of this coming-of-age memoir. 

While Rosemary dons rose-colored glasses, Toby invents. The boy lies liberally and often gratuitously. Invention is more than a cover for the abuse inflicted by Dwight, Toby’s new stepfather. It’s a kind of flight in itself. Likewise, Toby climbs the ranks of the Eagle Scouts to elevate his status. For the sake of upward mobility, he also attempts check fraud and executes forgeries.

This memoir of reflection and trauma is at times amusing, at others heartbreaking. Knowing that Toby grows up to become Tobias Wolff does not lessen the severity or impact of the trauma we watch him go through on these pages. Instead, it’s a testament to defying the odds. 

The following “booktail” recipe evokes Toby’s youthful shenanigans, with flavors suited to a more grown-up palate. Whiskey of your choice serves as the base of the drink: In this memoir, whiskey is the go-to drink for sad, toxically masculine men but also appears at a fateful moment of youthful optimism in the book’s last scene. It is blended with fruit juices, a nod to the mix of vodka and Hawaiian Punch that gets Toby drunk for the first time, a concoction his friends call “gorilla blood.” (The mixture makes another key appearance at a solemn moment of transition.) Cherry juice lends a red tint, a reminder of Dwight’s son Skipper’s cherry-colored car and the cherry bombs that Toby’s biological father offers him so carelessly. The rosemary garnish is for Wolff’s mother, adding a touch of herbaceous perfume that amplifies the other flavors.•

Join us on October 17 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Wolff will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and special guest Carol Edgarian to discuss This Boy’s Life. Register for the Zoom conversation here.