This Boy's Life Writing Style

Writing Style: Sparse, Oblique

Wolff doesn't want to lose us to flowery phrases and poetic lyricism (which doesn't really fit his whole Portrait of the Hooligan as a Young Man approach anyway). His sentences are short and get to the point. "Dwight made a study of me." (11.1) "We were sitting in a corner table overlooking the water." (29.6) "I was a liar." (15.7) Pretty hard to misinterpret that stuff, or get lost in sentences that never seem to end.

At the same time, Wolff sometimes hints at stuff that exists just outside the frames. Feelings and emotions that aren't flat-out stated are still suggested by his prose. For instance, we don't know what happens between Roy and Jack's mom at the end of their relationship, but "she was singing to herself" (4.12) suggests that a great weight has been lifted from his mom. Wolff speculates on other people's emotions, but since he can't say for sure what they are, he lets his writing make the suggestion rather than stating things he doesn't know for sure.