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That Room

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That Room

By: Tobias Wolff
Narrated by: Anthony Heald
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About this listen

In this short story by the masterful Tobias Wolff, a teenage boy learns the joys - and struggles - of adult life.

Eager for independence and adult-like freedom, a teenage boy takes a summer job baling hay on a rural farm. Savoring the farm wife’s attention and the extra change in his pocket, the boy feels like a grown man. The fellow hands give him a sense of camaraderie - Clemson, a fastidious boy who attends the same high school; Eduardo, a talkative Mexican seasonal worker; and Miguel, a quiet man and Eduardo’s brother.

One night, after working the fields from dawn until dusk, Clemson and the boy drop the two brothers off at the decrepit hotel they live at during the summers. Eduardo invites the men in for a drink and they all accept. But the room is filthy and reeking of mildew, and as angry words lead to dangerous actions, the boy must face the reality of his situation.

©2008 Tobias Wolff (P)2013 Blackstone Audio Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Short Story
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II love the world of Tobias Wolff, his way of introducing characters and interaction between them with such a reality. But this story, enjoyable as it is and beginning with the same glimpses at that time of beginning to feel grown up, independent, a man, is just too short, leaving a feeling of a story started but incomplete.
Told in the first person, the narrator, Anthony Head, again becomes the young man relating his memories: a fine performance.

Available to download for free through the Audible Plus programme, this ten minute piece, though well done, left me feeling 'Is that it?

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