Wolff isn't proud of little-known first novel
By RENEE TAWA
LOS ANGELES TIMES
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Tobias Wolff's first novel, "Ugly Rumours," was published in England in 1975, unbeknownst to his current publisher, Wolff says. On his new book's jacket, Knopf mistakenly refers to "Old School" as his first novel. "I was a little abashed at that," Wolff says. "It wasn't their fault. It was mine."
Wolff leaves that novel off his list of published works because "within two or three years of having written it, I couldn't read a word of it without cringing. So I don't call attention to it."
He never is quite sure that he can pull any piece of writing off, Wolff says. Last year, on leave to finish the book in Rome, he told his wife that he wasn't sure that "Old School" was going to work out. "You always say that," she told him.