SOURCE: Eder, Richard. “The Child Is the Father of the Man.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (13 October 1996): 2.

In the following review of The Night In Question, Eder discusses how Wolff handles the subject childhood and adolescence.

Like Antaeus, the mythological giant who was invincible as long as his feet touched ground—Hercules defeated him by hoisting him over his head—Tobias Wolff needs earth to stand on. The solidity it gives him liberates an artistry shot through with colors, subtleties, nuances and fantasy. He finds his Antaean earth mainly in two things: war and childhood. On other themes, seeking an equivalent ground, his stories sometimes force their conclusions.

Author most recently of In Pharaoh's Army (war) and This Boy's Life (childhood), Wolff is rarely less than agile and alluring. He will hone and shape a phrase so that the page becomes a jigsaw puzzle into which it locks...