Fallen Idols

One of my favorite novels is Tobias Wolff's "Old School", which captures the yearning of a young man to meet his literary idols - particularly Ernest Hemingway, the author's own boyhood hero. Wolff told me that his appreciation of Hemingway has grown over the years. "As you get older you understand how complicated were the lives of people you looked up to, and imagined were living untroubled and confident lives. So my feelings for Hemingway increased over the years because I no longer see him as just a legend or an icon, but as deeply flawed, struggling human being. And I'm all the more in awe of what he managed to do with his talent, considering what he needed to get through every day to give it full rein."