The Warrior’s Joy and Other Short Stories

"..._The Warrior’s Joy_ is an excellent introduction to Wolff’s work. The slim volume of barely two hundred pages can be read in an afternoon and leaves the reader with a desire to delve deeper into the author’s work."

"The collection _The Warrior’s Joy and Other Short Stories_ comprises ten selected short stories that illuminate those small moments of everyday life that only great writers can elevate to greatness."

"...His protagonists resemble other heroes of Hopper’s, so distant from one another yet so close, linked by their inner solitude. Alienated and out of place in an environment that never assimilated them, even when it seemed to define them completely, perfect in their fragility or their apparent strength, and utterly tragic even in their everyday lives..."

"...A book written with the melancholy of maturity, the ethos of subtle irony, the elegance of linguistic refinement and the literary skill of one of the most important figures in American short story writing."

"...It is truly magical how, through the few pages of each story, whatever their simplicity, the simple juxtaposition of events, in such plain language, the author manages to give us a positive message in each one: in the end, life and its continuation always prevail, whatever the cost! We are human beings, vulnerable, full of pettiness, baseness and wretchedness, stuck in whatever life we lead, yet for which it is worth continuing to live."

"...Wolf, with his robust language, stripped of all superfluity, incisive and precise, with understanding and compassion for the human condition, without any distance from his characters, yet with the directness and clarity that make him almost one of them, "he ‘paints’ situations and characters in a way that only great literature can."

"...His perfectionism and penetrating insight into the broad spectrum of human relationships, combined with his unique perspective on serious social issues, highlight this collection of short stories in a simple and meaningful way as an essential experience for every reader. "A mental journey into different worlds."

Tobias Wolff, a master of the short story form, speaks to To Vima about the art of short-story writing, explains why literature is inextricably linked to problematic situations, refers to the Homeric epics and feels ashamed of the new US president.

"...Standing firmly on the glorious tradition of his forebears, Wolfe restores the sacred vocation of the writer to its most essential existential and metaphysical foundations."

"...Wolff is a great American writer who, with absolute simplicity and candour, writes about the ordinary people of his country and their personal struggles. [...] The stories are characterised by bitter humour and depict characters with well-hidden secrets, whose lives are a heavy burden they bear without complaint. Until the moment of personal explosion arrives. The moment when control is lost. Silently! The other America and the shattered American dream are laid bare in Wolff’s short stories. Stories with a strong Chekhovian undertone...”

"...One might say that Wolfe’s characters resemble fictional characters who, without being severed from their overall spatiotemporal literary context, are deliberately thrust by the author into the recording of the centripetal force of his narrative, into the depiction of a zero point or starting point of their journey, which may not be the climax nor even the most significant (and therein lies Wolfe’s formidable mastery) but a liminal point that constitutes both the poetic and the final cause of their textual significations, as individuals and as agents of the action.”

"...this is a commendable publishing endeavour that brings the Greek public into contact with the virtues of Wolfe’s short-story writing, whilst at the same time highlighting the need for his entire collections, as well as his famous autobiographical books, to be translated in the future."

"...The author’s style is imbued with a calm (that prevails) before the storm. Except that he does not spell out the storm in the text, but rather strikes a spark, leaving the reader to determine the intensity and scope of the outburst. The events of the stories teeter on the edge of the precipice, sometimes plunging the characters into the abyss and at other times urging them to find firmer footing. Wolff’s minimalist descriptions possess a contemplative realism, a gentleness, and a de-escalation from any imposed tension. The author’s psychological immersion in the human temperament, in its complexity and diversity, is disarmingly realistic, honest, and deeply human. The final words of each story are the circle that closes, giving substance to what has gone before and to what lies ahead."

"...In just a few pages and words – that is, the length of one of his short stories – Tobias Wolff manages to bring to light some significant, largely hidden aspects of his protagonists’ lives. Simple American language and idioms, people with a multitude of small quirks, both close and distant at the same time, beings brimming with ordinary peculiarities towards themselves and those around them, on a family and social level, sometimes at the mercy of fate and circumstances within a life that nevertheless continues unrelentingly, whatever the cost. After all, quite often the ending of some of his short stories can be interpreted at will by the reader, depending on their own filters. The translators’ rendering, delightful and exceptional, conveyed to us the deeper meaning of Tobias Wolff’s short stories."

“The best collection of foreign short stories of the year.”

"...It is a great pleasure to read short stories by masterful wordsmiths, and the publication of this anthology by the outstanding American writer Tobias Wolff (Alabama, 1945) is a major literary contribution."

"..._The Joy of the Warrior_ is nothing other than belonging to a social subgroup that sets aside life’s disappointments, highlighting what can be experienced (the same motif recurs, after all, in _The Camp Thief_). What could be more cathartic than discovering this, especially through literature?"

"...Whether he is great for his work or not will be judged by the history of literature; in any case, Wolff manages to provoke thought, to move us, to raise many questions about the everyday life we all live, of which, for various reasons, we are either captives or agents, in the way we perceive it, manage it, tame it or accept it."

"...The real America, that of the margins and the failures of the American dream, appears in Wolfe’s short stories laid bare and without hope. Just as it truly is for the outcasts and the have-nots. Ultimately, for ordinary people."

– Dionysis Marinos, Eleftheria tou Tupou

"...Whether he is great for his work or not will be judged by the history of literature; in any case, Wolff manages to provoke thought, to move us, to raise many questions about the everyday life we all live, of which, for various reasons, we are either captives or agents, in the way we perceive it, manage it, tame it or accept it."

"...The leading American short-story writer Tobias Wolff is a master of austere and playful writing that traces the subtle relationships between the characters who inhabit his stories."

"...For the first time, Wolff’s short stories have been translated into our language. Here is an opportunity for the Greek reader to explore the work of one of the finest American writers. Like Carver, Wolff uses simple, unadorned language—though clearly crafted to perfection—with simple, solitary people as his protagonists."

"...Tobias Wolff’s short stories are ‘open’; you can feel it as you read them. Not that the author turns his back on solid storytelling – his short stories are clear narratives, where the inner lives of the characters are revealed through their reflection in external events – but Wolfe seems to let his stories and their characters take him wherever they want to go."

"...All the aforementioned elements characterise the ten stories included in the book. The narrator’s language often blends seamlessly with the characters’ everyday speech, and psychological analysis is restrained without, however, disappearing entirely. The characters move within a constant dichotomy of truth and falsehood – both in relation to others and to themselves. The Warrior’s Joy presents the Vietnam War veterans outside the stereotypes."