This Boy's Life (1989) by Tobias Wolff is an account of Wolff's adolescence and early adulthood. The memoir is told through the eyes of the boy, leaving the reader free to draw conclusions and make judgements about events the child could not have fully understood at the time.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the classic novel about another boy whose coming of age is characterized by a tendency to stretch the truth and who must make difficult decisions without much adult guidance.

Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor's darkly comic novella about a misguided preacher's search for meaning and moral certainty.

Dubliners is the collection of short stories by Irish author James Joyce that Wolff often mentions as having a major influence on his writing.

Ellen Foster (1989) by Kaye Gibbons is a novel about a female character whose lonely and unparented childhood...