Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Dec 12, 2012 Blair rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, favourites, read-on-kindle, 2012-release

I swore to myself I would write a proper, in-depth, meaningful review of Lamb: something that actually had some meat and substance to it, not one of the one-paragraph rush jobs I've often done when I don't have the time or inclination to get into a proper-write up. Something that would make people sit up, take notice and think, 'wow, I really want to read this book'.

Of course, it hasn't materialised yet because I find it really hard to write about books I love. And I don't know how I can possibl...more I swore to myself I would write a proper, in-depth, meaningful review of Lamb: something that actually had some meat and substance to it, not one of the one-paragraph rush jobs I've often done when I don't have the time or inclination to get into a proper-write up. Something that would make people sit up, take notice and think, 'wow, I really want to read this book'.

Of course, it hasn't materialised yet because I find it really hard to write about books I love. And I don't know how I can possibly do Lamb justice.

This is a story about David Lamb, a man in his mid-fifties who finds himself at a crossroads of sorts. His father has died; he has split with his wife, but doesn't know if he's made the right decision; he is half-heartedly embroiled in an ill-advised affair with a younger female colleague, who is besotted with him. In the midst of this confusion he meets an eleven-year-old girl, Tommie, who both disgusts him and arouses some kind of paternal instinct when he sees that she is the butt of a joke made by her savvier 'friends'. His interest awakened, Lamb finds himself drawn back to Tommie again and again, and a plan begins to formulate in his mind: he will liberate her from the drudgery of her life, take her on a trip to the country, teach her about nature and the great outdoors.

So this is a story about a seemingly ordinary man in the grip of a mid-life crisis making a strange, rash, confused, risky decision. It is also a story about an extremely manipulative fiftysomething man grooming and then kidnapping a pre-pubescent child and taking her halfway across the American Midwest to a remote, snow-bound cabin.

There have been (and I'm sure there will continue to be) the inevitable comparisons to Lolita, but Lamb is a far more opaque story. The slippery, shifting narrative is like a voice whispering in the reader's ear, inviting them to be complicit in Lamb's actions ('there was nothing wrong with that, was there?'): but crucially, the story is not actually told from his point of view. (view spoiler) Tommie is no Lolita, but Lamb is no Humbert Humbert either - he is constantly trying to convince himself that his actions are motivated by a desire to do some good for a neglected child, trying to suppress and then justify his other desires. This obviously doesn't make what happens any less disturbing or uncomfortable, but it encourages complicated reactions from the reader. I found myself in a state of disgust and morbid fascination throughout, and I was so compelled by the story that it was difficult to put the book down, or to stop thinking about it whenever I did.

There are other layers to pick apart here. The contrasts and the similarities between the way Lamb treats Tommie and how he treats Linnie, his 'girlfriend': the manipulation, the patronising, cajoling language. The character names, loaded with meaning: Lamb and Tommie are the obvious ones, but Nadzam gives us, for example, minor male characters called Alison and Clare. The intriguing narration, which is intimate but distant: it gives glimpses, suggests reasons, but never fully answers the questions the plot throws up (does Lamb have a history of child abuse? Are his actions spontaneous, or the result of months, years of careful planning? Is there ever a sexual element to his 'relationship' with Tommie?) And who is telling the story? There is a sense that the narrator's ambiguity is deliberate (I mean deliberate on the part of the narrator rather than the author), and that the aim of the narrative may not be what it seems to be. This is most evident when the narrator speaks directly to the reader.

I could carry on like this for some time. The final thing to be said about this book is that it's wonderfully written. Lyrical, brisk and evocative, Nadzam's prose brings the environment and details of the story to life, to gorgeous effect.

Lamb is a phenomenal debut. Just read this book.(less)

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Oct 18, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) added it

Bonnie Nazdam's dual degree in literature and environmental studies shines in her debut novel about human desire and dependency, and about the beauty and decline of the landscape, resplendent in its rawness and fragile vulnerability. Nature and humanity form a synergistic elixir that permeates the pores of the story.

David Lamb is a disturbed fifty-something man whose private aches are both diminishing and conquering him. His life collides with Tommie, who is only eleven-years-old, when she appro...more Bonnie Nazdam's dual degree in literature and environmental studies shines in her debut novel about human desire and dependency, and about the beauty and decline of the landscape, resplendent in its rawness and fragile vulnerability. Nature and humanity form a synergistic elixir that permeates the pores of the story.

David Lamb is a disturbed fifty-something man whose private aches are both diminishing and conquering him. His life collides with Tommie, who is only eleven-years-old, when she approaches him on a dare in a parking lot. Soon after that, he has abducted her through his calculated and unctuous intrusions, but she believes in her prepubescent mind that she has consensually agreed to his proposals. He offers to show her the true beauty of nature, and they abscond on a road trip from Chicago to the Rockies without Tommie informing her mother. He promises to return her in a specific amount of time.

What follows is an account, from an unknown narrator, of their trip. The intimacy of the narrator, and the almost oblique and quiet ferocity of narration, brings the reader to a suspenseful, uncomfortable place that is both familiar and alien. It is appalling and suggestive at intervals; the question of personal boundaries lurks on every dangerous, winding road.

The rack and pinion relationship between Tommie and Lamb is both complex and ineluctable. Tommie is not even developed yet, but matures biologically day by day; David Lamb regresses, and his sickness reduces him to predictable behaviors as an outgrowth of his need and desires. He uses reverse psychology and mimics a state of innocence and wonder through his delusion and grandiosity.

"How powerful she was as long as she asserted no will of her own" is the theme of this book, a dynamic conundrum that blends nature, the human need for connection, the question of will, and the paradoxical power of relationships. Nature and people are like that sometimes; leaving us and Mother Earth alone allows a ripe bloom, aggressive intervention can wither us. However, ignoring our personal and physical landscapes can lead to decay. There is a balance and a tipping point. Nazdam's awareness of the environment's impact on nature and humanity (and vice versa) is psychologically and scientifically acute.

Suspenseful drama and murky territory keeps the reader edgy and off-balance, but there were some pages that stagnated and recycled the drama a bit. Fortunately Nazdam usually aimed in a steady and ultimately propelling course. Even when the human drama occasionally crawled, nature's way continued to pivot and flourish from the narrative.

The narrator is an enigma, and it is left to the reader to decide who is telling the story. However, the voice was also vague, with an ambiguity that was equivocal and unintended. In lesser hands, it would have undermined the story itself. But the author kept us gripped to the characters and events of the story's time period, enough to give less weight of importance on the storyteller.

Similarities to Lolita are shallow and inadequate, easily a first observation but dispensed with as this story is more deeply analyzed. The names of many characters are provocatively utilized, also, in all their androgyny. This book merits discussion and debate; there are no concrete, handy answers--only steep steps to further examination and inquiry. (less)

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Dec 18, 2011 Caroline rated it 5 of 5 stars

The fact that so many readers here note the unsettling experience of this book speaks to successful writing. The only way you won't feel a visceral reaction to Lamb is if you're not paying attention or not reading thoughtfully. This book is just the perfect proportion of fuckedupedness to gorgeousness, and totally riveting. As I neared the end I kept rationing my reading so it wouldn't be over so quickly. Thank you, Bonnie Nadzam, for such an amazing reading experience, and kudos on the Flaher...more

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May 06, 2013 Theo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During those times I'm not sick of the sound of my own voice, I can be heard proclaiming "If something is X, it has to *BE* X." Bonnie Nadzam is an author who understands this and I salute her for it. The pacing of Lamb's character reveal is done brilliantly and although I had criticisms at first, the character paid off. There are moments where credibility should be stretched, but it works for me - the characters have fidelity.

That said, I had a few problems with this. Although ostensibly writte...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Esmeralda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lamb hits a mid-life crisis when his wife divorces him for infidelity and his father passes away. Just after his father's funeral, he meets Tommie - an 11-year-old girl who desperately needs guidance. Lamb is strangely attracted to the girl - he wants to help her seize life, he wants to buy her presents and make her happy. Then, with Tommie's consent, he abducts her.

I had a really hard time deciding how to rate Lamb. The narrative was intriguing - almost addictive - but the subject matter was v...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Charlie Quimby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LAMB is a breathtaking novel that some readers will hate, which should make it a terrific book club selection.

I read it in a single day in the Kindle edition with pagination turned off, so when I reached the end I was surprised and stunned, the way you might be when a speeding car nearly hits you in the crosswalk and all you can do is watch it disappear as your heart thunders.

David Lamb is a 50-something partner in a vaguely defined business whose main occupation appears to be the anticipation,...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Melissa Crytzer Fry rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’m not sure words can accurately depict how I feel about this novel, other than to say that I really liked it DESPITE its severely disturbing nature. Nadzam’s literary voice is stunning; I’ve never read a novel that so accurately characterized its cast through mostly short, snappy dialogue. It was utterly genius because the purpose it served was to truly illustrate the manipulative nature of child predators. That Nadzam was able to get into the mind of someone this twisted, and illustrate his b...more I’m not sure words can accurately depict how I feel about this novel, other than to say that I really liked it DESPITE its severely disturbing nature. Nadzam’s literary voice is stunning; I’ve never read a novel that so accurately characterized its cast through mostly short, snappy dialogue. It was utterly genius because the purpose it served was to truly illustrate the manipulative nature of child predators. That Nadzam was able to get into the mind of someone this twisted, and illustrate his beguiling nature is rather incredible to me.

I was equally awestruck by the lovely, moving descriptions of the Midwest and the Rockies – such beautiful, literary prose, it took my breath away. The mix of gut-wrenching dread I felt for the 11-year-old girl, Tommie, combined with the natural beauty of the surroundings, created a seesaw of emotions that kept me off-balance, never really sure if Lamb, the main character, was a bad guy or good guy (though my gut was guiding me in a particular direction throughout the novel. How could it not?)…

This is a story about a middle-aged man who thinks he’s doing the right thing by rescuing a girl from her mundane urban experience in a loveless home surrounded by concrete. The book’s focus on the erosion of our natural landscape to buildings and “progress” – and the loss of innocence that children suffer as a result – resonated with me. Again – the environmental descriptions were lush.

Warning: this is NOT an easy read, especially because of the themes of child abuse/abduction. I have no psychology degree, but I have to think, from what I’ve read/researched, that this is an accurate portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome (in which abductees form emotional attachments to their abductors). All books that shed light on the horrific realities of child abuse are important books, even if they are extremely difficult to read. This novel leaves so much gray area that I am still scratching my head. Thought-provoking and disturbing ... I couldn't put it down. (Many have compared this book to Nabakov’s Lolita).
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May 27, 2012 Katy Major rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Katy by: Sheryl Wilson

Shelves: 2012, american-culture, borrowed, contemporary, dark, fiction, light, local

I read this in less than four hours, with a phone call in between. (I had to take a break at some point from the disturbing content.) At one point I told my friend that I had to take a break from the book I was reading. She asked, "Why?" I said, "Because I'm finding myself in the mind of a pedophile."

Lamb was lent to me by a friend who told me that it was about a pedophile. Before she read it, she had read a review on it also saying that it was about a pedophile. I'm curious as to whether either...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Norma Wright rated it 1 of 5 stars

Lamb was a very disturbing book to read. On the surface it appeared to be a story about a connection between a middle age man and a 12 year old girl. There was no overt sexual abuse involved. But under the surface, Lamb was a pedophile. He stalked and subsequently took a vulnerable 12 girl to groom for his obsession. Their 7 days on the road discovering exciting places was in fact a slow preparation of Lamb's ulltimate plan. In the end Lamb, for some reason, did not complete his plan. Instead he...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: beautiful-prose

LAMB is essentially a modern retelling of Nabokov's classic LOLITA. It sticks close to the formula: middle-aged man; prepubescent girl; road trip through the beauty and decay of rural America. What Nadzam accomplishes frighteningly well is getting into the mind of a man who'd always thought of himself as a good guy, someone who'd never hurt a child, and what happens when his wish to rescue a disadvantaged young girl turns into an exercise in self-gratification.

It isn't an abduction at first. The...more LAMB is essentially a modern retelling of Nabokov's classic LOLITA. It sticks close to the formula: middle-aged man; prepubescent girl; road trip through the beauty and decay of rural America. What Nadzam accomplishes frighteningly well is getting into the mind of a man who'd always thought of himself as a good guy, someone who'd never hurt a child, and what happens when his wish to rescue a disadvantaged young girl turns into an exercise in self-gratification.

It isn't an abduction at first. The girl goes with him willingly. And he's helping her, isn't he? Feeding her well for the first time in her life, buying her the clothes and shoes she needs, showing her a beautiful world outside the TV screen. Lamb is even so sure he's a good guy that he tells her upfront that she's the one in control. Constantly reminds her she calls the shots. He's just offering to help. He's just a vehicle for her, a means to an end. She can go home any time she wants. And over the course of the novel he convinces her of that lie so well that the girl succumbs completely to Stockholm Syndrome, utterly adoring her abductor.

Nadzam is so adept at evoking Lamb's gentle rationalizations that I as a reader felt myself wanting to believe he really wasn't a bad guy, just like he said. Even when he crossed the line with the girl, farther and farther each time, it could be explained with increasingly complex justifications. He wanted a daughter to dote on. He'd never had that, and she'd never been the adored daughter. They filled a need for each other. At what point did it go too far? At the beginning, when he pulled her into his car as a prank on her friends? Or was it somewhere on the road? Lamb's change is so subtle and blurred that it's difficult to detect when he became a monster, or if he always was.

Nadzam's prose is gorgeous. She conjures the wrecked beauty of the Midwest and the sere majesty of the Rockies with a poet's touch. Lamb himself is a storyteller, painting vivid scenes in the girl's mind--and in his own. And storytellers are excellent liars.

LAMB is not a novel for those who find the topic of child abduction and molestation too difficult to read about. While the novel never gets graphic--it is, in fact, more horrifying in its omissions and implications--it is decidedly dark and tragic. Nadzam's novel is a chilling, lyrical exploration of the mind of a post-Lolita predator.(less)

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Mar 13, 2012 lana rated it 2 of 5 stars

I also read this on the recommendation of the bookstore employees, and now I am thinking that I don't trust them anymore.

When I read Nabokov's Lolita (and here the comparisons are inevitable), I was stunned that a pedophile could make a sympathetic character. In Lamb, it's unclear if sex with a child actually occurs, though there's no question that the relationship at hand in inappropriate. Perhaps it's the shock of the subject matter that makes this book alluring, because it's definitely not t...more I also read this on the recommendation of the bookstore employees, and now I am thinking that I don't trust them anymore.

When I read Nabokov's Lolita (and here the comparisons are inevitable), I was stunned that a pedophile could make a sympathetic character. In Lamb, it's unclear if sex with a child actually occurs, though there's no question that the relationship at hand in inappropriate. Perhaps it's the shock of the subject matter that makes this book alluring, because it's definitely not the characters. At times, the writing is lovely: when Nadzam is describing the countryside, or when Lamb slips into storytelling mode.

Lamb is an aging man who is having an affair with a younger woman at the firm where he has worked for nearly twenty years. His wife has left him, and he goes on a three-week leave from work to let things cool off. He lies to everyone- his former wife, his boss, the younger woman, the child he meets, and ultimately, himself. While initially his contact with Tom, the young girl, seems like a desperate man looking to connect in the worst of places, as the two of them spend time together, and at the cabin, Lamb starts to come unhinged. His ego, desperation, and lying make him hard to sympathize with, and you can't help but feel that he's brought everything upon himself. He knows that he's hurt Tom, that he's probably irrevocably damaged her young psyche, and yet he can't help himself. He doesn't get caught, which made me feel even less sympathetic- here's one more thing that this man gets, despite the wake of damaged women he leaves behind.

Tom is seen through the eyes of David, and as such she is more a vessel and less her own character. This is a poor move, as it makes it hard to understand and like her beyond sympathy with general troubled-young-girl tropes. I suppose what's important to the novel is what Tommie is to David, and her role in that regard is very clear. But it's a little unsettling to read a novel like this where the victim remains so blank, where my dislike for the protagonist is so much stronger than *any* feeling I have about his victim.

Ultimately, I think the book is more of a gimmick that relies heavily on the shock value of its subject matter, and doesn't quite deliver in the depth of its characters. I feel as though I know the landscape better than the people. (less)

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Feb 13, 2012 Jenny Shank added it

http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.2/a-forb...

A Forbidden Road Trip

Lamb
Bonnie Nadzam
275 pages, softcover: $15.95.
Other Press, 2011.

After his marriage dissolves over an affair with a coworker and his father dies, David Lamb drives to a parking lot near his Chicago home to think. "Nothing before him but the filthy street and bright signs announcing the limits of his world: Transmission Masters and Drive Time Financing and Drive-Thru Liquors. ... If there was something beneath, something behind, it was h...more http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.2/a-forb...

A Forbidden Road Trip

Lamb
Bonnie Nadzam
275 pages, softcover: $15.95.
Other Press, 2011.

After his marriage dissolves over an affair with a coworker and his father dies, David Lamb drives to a parking lot near his Chicago home to think. "Nothing before him but the filthy street and bright signs announcing the limits of his world: Transmission Masters and Drive Time Financing and Drive-Thru Liquors. ... If there was something beneath, something behind, it was hidden from him." Then, a freckled, inappropriately dressed 11-year-old girl named Tommie walks up to him and says, "I'm supposed to ask you for a cigarette."

Lamb obliges Tommie and asks, "Now what do I get in exchange?" And so begins Colorado writer Bonnie Nadzam's crisp, startling and psychologically intense debut novel Lamb, which just won the prestigious Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. Lamb sees Tommie as someone fresh, vivid and full of potential, a relief from his burnt-out and busted-up life. Tommie laps up the attention, and agrees to accompany the older man to his cabin in the Rocky Mountains.

The parallels between Lamb and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita are evident. Both sets of characters have a similar age difference and respond to their troubles by hitting the road, moving from one hotel to another to avoid legal trouble. But Tommie is more innocent than Lolita, and although Nadzam includes several uncomfortable scenes in which boundaries are almost crossed, Lamb's intentions toward the girl are not sexual.

Instead, Lamb wants to rescue Tommie from her dispiriting urban apartment life of half neglect, with its outgrown shoes and dinners of Cap'n Crunch cereal, and to re-create his ideal childhood -- spiriting her away to the Rocky Mountains, stuffing her with nutritious food, even dressing her in an old-fashioned nightgown. He teaches her to build a campfire and takes her hiking through landscapes that Nadzam describes with characteristic precision: "The passing day was marked by ravens calling, by constant twittering of song sparrows in the trees and on the fence posts. Acres of dry grass banded by red and gold ribbons of fireweed and yellow gumweed."

Throughout the novel, Nadzam keeps the reader off-balance, veering between sympathy and repulsion for Lamb and his actions. Lamb puts an original spin on the traditional myth of the West through modern-day characters who long to be "saved" and renewed by the Rocky Mountain landscape.(less)

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Oct 10, 2011 The Joy of Booking rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lamb reminded me quite a bit of Nabakov’s Lolita, so if that type of relationship skeeves you out, this may not be the story (or the review) for you. That said, Lamb’s relationship with Tommie is not NEARLY so disturbing as Humbert Humbert’s is for his Lolita, so if you’re bothered by it but not completely uninterested, there are some interesting things here. Minor spoilers throughout this review, but the read itself is more about the language and the interior thoughts than the plot, so I don’t...more Lamb reminded me quite a bit of Nabakov’s Lolita, so if that type of relationship skeeves you out, this may not be the story (or the review) for you. That said, Lamb’s relationship with Tommie is not NEARLY so disturbing as Humbert Humbert’s is for his Lolita, so if you’re bothered by it but not completely uninterested, there are some interesting things here. Minor spoilers throughout this review, but the read itself is more about the language and the interior thoughts than the plot, so I don’t think I’m ruining anything here.

David Lamb has just buried his abusive father, his marriage is over, and his job is at risk because he’s sleeping with a coworker. In the middle of all this, he’s approached by a garishly dressed girl who asks him for a cigarette. After pretending to abduct her to help her get back at the friends that put her up to it, Lamb strikes up a friendship with the girl, which culminates in another “abduction” – one that is totally consensual (inasmuch as an 11-year-old can give consent) and designed to break them both out of their rut.

Lamb and Tommie’s road trip is punctuated by his stream-of-consciousness ramblings about whether they should turn back or think about it in the morning, his repeated attempts at getting her to leave and go back on her own, and a make-believe world in which Lamb describes their destination with such imagery and prose that you’re certain it can’t be real. Their friendship deepens into something father-daughter-like but also something of equals – it’s not remotely sexual at this point.

Once they reach the cabin, things get a little weird, and my semi-fondness for Lamb began to deteriorate pretty rapidly. He starts to isolate Tommie and, it appears, tries to initiate an intimacy well beyond the boundaries of their agreement. He had invited his coworker girlfriend out to visit, which I thought was a cover for his absence, but she comes, and Lamb’s treatment of Tommie during this section is completely unforgivable. His thought processes become increasingly bizarre until finally, finally, he returns Tommie to her home, where he speeds off with her in his rearview mirror, with hardly any compassion for what her life will be like going forward.

It’s hard to say what I think about this novel. The relationship between the two main characters is twisted, but I think the author was trying to show that such a relationship can be sincere. By the end of the story, I rather think she proved the opposite. The language is beautiful and haunting, and there are passages that really stand out, such as the first morning breakfast they have at the cabin. It’s a lovely read, but not an easy one to stomach.(less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Viviane Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars

David Lamb is a middle-aged man disappointed in life, having recently been asked to take a long break from his job, suffered the death of his father, and having failed in a romantic relationship. So he's got a lot of pent-up hurt and anger inside; at least that's how it feels to the reader. It's not too long before the reader realizes he or she is not breathing often with fear and puzzlement. For David Lamb initially decides to teach 11 year-old Tommie a lesson when she, while her friends are wa...more David Lamb is a middle-aged man disappointed in life, having recently been asked to take a long break from his job, suffered the death of his father, and having failed in a romantic relationship. So he's got a lot of pent-up hurt and anger inside; at least that's how it feels to the reader. It's not too long before the reader realizes he or she is not breathing often with fear and puzzlement. For David Lamb initially decides to teach 11 year-old Tommie a lesson when she, while her friends are watching, sashays up to him and asks for a cigarette. How he does it is shocking and mind-numbing, eliciting from the reader frantically passing questions about his sanity and her audacity. This is the pace and tone that unremittingly flows in the following pages.

Nadzam has presented what would be a character study of an innocent man trying to simply respond to life as it appears, to find some sense of normalcy in life. Giving something of that nature to Tommie is how David sees something valuable he has to offer. However, kidnapping an 11 year-old girl and rationalizing his way into her life as providing some love and stability, given the lack of some in her own background and present family life, is debatable and never quite convincing as the reader's mind keeps thinking this is all wrong and rather perverse, albeit not overtly so sexually.

Off they travel to the West where David seeks to introduce Tommie to the wild and free wilderness or camp life that turns out to be quite different from what both expect! His girlfriend even manages to show up and become a temporary part of this "family." David says it best, "There is a small person inside of him wishing to tell Tommie all about it and then another person inside of him crushing the wishes like empty beer cans against a cinder-block wall." But still he tries, knowing he will return Tommie to her mother. As their journey proceeds, other memories keep interfering with his plan and make him say things wise, foolish and confusing to Tommie's young ears. At the same time, this is more attention and care than Tammy's parents have given her in her entire life. Perhaps a glimpse inside this complex man or would-be Daddy (and more?) will touch this young girl's life in a positive way forever? Will she ultimately love or hate David long after she returns home? Read and decide!

Lamb is not a novel to like or dislike. It is a thriller that is more about inner thoughts and feelings, about communicating same to another hungry to hear and feel worthy of attention. It makes the reader begin to fully ponder the depth of character in humanity, not easily definable and yet more worthy because of the effort to understand and let the complexity lie as it is without judgment. Lamb is a risky but gripping read for sure!(less)

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Sep 01, 2011 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hmmmmmmmm, work-review-related-reading

This is a very strange, mesmerizing book by a relatively local author. She describes it as being told in "first-person, albeit a distant one." It is the story of a middle aged man and an the eleven year old girl whom he adopts, though most would say abducts, for a cross country ride from Chicago to the very rural and mountainous west. It's not nearly as "Lolitaish" as it sounds, though there is an element of innocence mixed with corruption to both the man and child. You cannot make assumptions a...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

David Lamb is a middle-aged man who has been asked to take a little time off from his job after an affair with a much younger woman at the office. His wife has finally left him, and his father has just died. One day he is approached in the street by a provocatively dressed young girl who asks him for a cigarette. It turns out she has been put up to this on a dare from her “friends,” two attractive bullies who enjoy pushing her around. Tommie is a freckled, ordinary, lonely and neglected eleven-y...more David Lamb is a middle-aged man who has been asked to take a little time off from his job after an affair with a much younger woman at the office. His wife has finally left him, and his father has just died. One day he is approached in the street by a provocatively dressed young girl who asks him for a cigarette. It turns out she has been put up to this on a dare from her “friends,” two attractive bullies who enjoy pushing her around. Tommie is a freckled, ordinary, lonely and neglected eleven-year-old. To give her a scare and prevent her from agreeing to such dares in the future, Lamb pushes her in his car, drives her home, and gives her a lecture.

Although he succeeds in frightening Tommie, nonetheless the next time they see each other they begin a relationship. They begin to seek each other out. Tommie is loved but neglected by her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend. Lamb feels compelled to pay her some attention, feed her, buy her a new coat to keep her warm. Slowly, their relationship builds until Lamb begins to spin out a fantasy for Tommie in which they run away and take a vacation together in the west. Eventually, the fantasy turns into reality and the pair take off in Lamb’s car after a carefully planned exit.

Lamb is the debut novel by Bonnie Nadzam. It tells the story of the car trip Tommie and David take and details their growing intimacy. Lamb is a creepy psychological study in which very little happens, and yet I still had trouble putting it down. There is no graphic sex or violence, but the increasing dread of what is going to happen next propels the story forward. David Lamb takes few steps to prevent others from seeing him with the girl and doesn’t even bother to keep their story straight. Sometimes she is his niece, while other times his daughter. Because of the main character’s incautious behavior, I became very fearful about where the story line was going.

At every step, Lamb reassures himself (but not the reader) that he isn’t doing anything wrong. Everything is being done to help Tommie, to make her a stronger and more confident girl, to give her experiences she’ll never have back home in Chicago. As I was reading Lamb, I actually reached a point where part of me really didn’t want to keep reading. However, if I put the book aside I picked it up again almost immediately.

I found Lamb a very compelling read, and now that I’ve finished the book I can’t help thinking about the characters. There are aspects of the plot that are a little thin – for example, it’s hard to believe once Tommie goes missing that someone would not have seen and reported Lamb and the girl, especially since the author even mentions the presence of security cameras – but they do not significantly undermine the believability of the book. The characters of David and Tommie feel both real and true. Lamb will get you thinking about age, love, life, and experience.(less)

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Aug 30, 2011 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-2011

Closing the last page of Lamb – Bonnie Nadzam’s psychological thriller – I realized I had been holding my breath for the final half-hour. It’s that kind of book…similar to a one-act play where the narrative keeps getting racheted up and screwed tighter, and the audience can never, ever even conceive of an intermission.

David Lamb – an innocuous and gentle name if I’ve ever heard one – is a seductive, narcissistic, and damaged man on the sunny side of 50, who is experiencing a heck of an existenti...more Closing the last page of Lamb – Bonnie Nadzam’s psychological thriller – I realized I had been holding my breath for the final half-hour. It’s that kind of book…similar to a one-act play where the narrative keeps getting racheted up and screwed tighter, and the audience can never, ever even conceive of an intermission.

David Lamb – an innocuous and gentle name if I’ve ever heard one – is a seductive, narcissistic, and damaged man on the sunny side of 50, who is experiencing a heck of an existential crisis. He turns his attention to a young barely adolescent girl named Tommie, “a pale little freckled pig with eyelashes”, who is awkward and socially inept. He advises her and questions her and “the girl answered all of his inquiries as if Tommie were some other person in whom they were both extraordinarily interested in.”

By weaving mind-pictures of a fantasy life in the Rockies, he manipulates her into taking a road trip to the Rockies with him. “And there was nothing wrong with that, was there? It was good for her. It was just a little tonic for his poisonous heart. Right?”

The book never crosses over to the physical dark side. David Lamb is not your traditional pedophile; he wants something far more dangerous from Tommie. He wants her to absolve him, to testify to his goodness, to give him back some of the innocence of his lost adolescence. He says to her, haven’t always had nice people in my life. It makes me behave a little erratically, right?”

In the Rockies, David (calling himself Gary) continues his manipulation and mental seduction of the young Tommie. Bonnie Nadzam wisely makes a plot choice of briefly interjecting David’s girlfriend, Linnie, into the scene. The reader can then contrast how the mental seduction plays out with an adult – and with a child. One of the very creepiest scenes in the entire book is one in which the three come together, Linnie and Tommie intertwined far more than either of them know. “I;m afraid everyone’s in on something really wonderful, Linnie,” David says to her. “…and I don’t know what it is and I can’t be in on it.”

Another bold choice Ms. Nadzam makes it to “get out of voice” – increasingly more as the novel progresses. Whose voice is it? The author’s? David’s? Or the grown-up Tommie’s? There is evidence that points to the last theory, especially when we briefly learn what grown-up Tommie thinks about her transformational experience.

Once the story takes hold, this book is unputdownable. Anyone who has ever had experience with a narcissist will immediately understand the self-centered, self-focused seduction techniques. “You’re my twin,” David says to Tommie. “Your heart is hewn to mine. Isn’t it. Don’t you see?” And that’s the scariest line of all.

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Sep 08, 2011 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

This is a sick making book. It’s about a child molester named David Lamb who kidnaps an eleven year old girl named Tommie. It’s inevitable that with this theme Nadzam’s “Lamb” will be compared to Nabokov and his “Lolita”. It was a daring choice that Nadzam made. She had guts to invite the comparison. Shoot maybe she even welcomes it. She doesn’t live in Nabokov’s literary neighborhood though she sure lives in his same small town. She can write! Unlike “Lolita” “Lamb” is almost exclusively about...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Kiki rated it 2 of 5 stars

Review for Amazon Vine/advanced reader copy

Primarily, I'd like to say that Ms. Nadzam is a very accomplished writer, and I did love her prose in this first novel. It was truly gorgeous, I LOVED the writing. That being said, I found the content of the book, the story line, to be so disturbing to me personally, that is was quite painful for me to read.

The protagonist of the novel, David Lamb, is a middle aged man going through a major midlife crisis. We meet him when he is dealing with the passin...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Dave rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: somewhat-disturbing, 2012-audio, 2012-read, 2-star

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 16, 2011 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-fic

This character-driven novel fascinated me. It was a subtle sort of horror novel, and like a train wreck, it was hard to look away. Despite that, the book had a lot of factors working against it. Its major downfall to me lay with the setting. It really bothered me. Having lived in and around Chicago my entire life, I am always happy to see Chicago portrayed in fiction. Unfortunately, this book had a very tenuous grasp on the reality of Chicago and its suburbs. Highways were incorrectly named and...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Karen Blinn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very unusual but well-written book. The author wrote it in a "distant first-person narrative", and she stated that eve she was unsure as to who actually narrates it. The book begins with the death of David Lamb's father. Lamb stops at a street corner after the funeral to collect himself, and he is approached by eleven-year-old Tommie, who asks him for a cigarette on a dare from two of her friends. She is dressed very skimpily in an outfit she stapled together herself. She is a latch-ke...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Will Byrnes rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Bonnie Nadzam has written an insightful, fascinating character study, supported by a gift for landscape description, but marred by some inconsistency.

David Lamb is middle-aged, a liar and a loser, a narcissist and a dreamer, a kid who never really grew up. Living alone in a hotel with other marital flotsam, he pines for his ex, thinks about having been with her sister, then calls his girlfriend, a Princeton grad he bangs in hallways. Dave is full of promises, and espouses idealized aspirations,...more Bonnie Nadzam has written an insightful, fascinating character study, supported by a gift for landscape description, but marred by some inconsistency.

David Lamb is middle-aged, a liar and a loser, a narcissist and a dreamer, a kid who never really grew up. Living alone in a hotel with other marital flotsam, he pines for his ex, thinks about having been with her sister, then calls his girlfriend, a Princeton grad he bangs in hallways. Dave is full of promises, and espouses idealized aspirations, but he always runs rather empty on delivery. After his father’s funeral, Dave is sitting in a parking lot, wallowing in his existential crisis when a child approaches.

Tommie, not the prettiest rose in the bunch, lives in a world where supper might be a bowl of Cap’n Crunch, and tailoring one’s shirt entails liberal use of a stapler. Her mother’s bf is the slovenly Jessie, not enough interested in Tommie to look up from his TV sports. On a dare from not-really friends, she walks up to Dave as he ponders life and bums a cigarette. He is drawn to her. Not in the creepy way you are probably figuring about now. He sees that this innocent is being toyed with by cruel children and offers to help her get back at them by pretending to kidnap her. A sort of friendship grows between the two. He tells her “I don’t exactly have any friends in this town.” “That makes two of us,” she says. Tommie’s innocence appeals as a salve to his corruption, their loneliness a bond. Dave wants to help her, teach her, show her things, buy her things. It is unclear just what it is that Dave wants from this pre-adolescent girl. In some of his imaginings they are like father and child, in others, odd-couple pals. But dark thoughts bubble through about wanting to destroy her tiny beacon of light with his emptiness. And there is cringe material as well, as Dave is not always exactly appropriate with his very young companion. Tommie is eager to experience something of the world beyond her stultifying enclave.

This is one of the odder buddy books I have read. Both Dave and Tommie are living lives of quiet desperation, and Nadzam has a gift for using landscape description as the expression of their hopelessness. The book opens with:

We’ll say this all began just outside of Chicago, in late summer on a residential street dead-ending in a wall. It was the kind of wall meant to hide freeways from view, and for miles in each direction parallel streets ended at the same concrete meridian. No trees on the lawn, no birds on the wires, Northern shrikes gone, little gray-bellied wrens gone. Evening grosbeaks and elm trees and most of the oaks and all the silver brooms of tall grass and bunch flowers and sweetfern and phlox gone. Heartsease gone. About the tops of upturned trash bins, black flies scripted the air.”

I was hooked from word one. Nadzam’s gift for description litters the rest of the tale, a presence. In one passage, she uses landscape to ironic effect.

While the girl was in the bathroom at a Chevron in a travel stop off I-80, Lamb bought two postcards and walked outside to the edge of the broken asphalt where trash and weeds grew in a ragged line and broken glass glittered in the daylight. It was hot, and everything looked new, lighter, open.

In another she captures Dave’s sense that he is missing out on life:

he scanned the horizon and the ground beneath his feet for something green, for a place where he could press his cheek against warm dirt, for anything like a loophole, a chink, a way out. Nothing before him but the filthy streets and bright signs announcing the limits of his world: Transmission Masters and Drive Time financing and Drive-Thru Liquors and Courtesy Loans and Office Depot and a Freeway Inn and a Luxury Inn and a Holiday Inn. If there was something beneath, something behind, it was hidden from him.

But Dave has a vision of a purer place and time, a place in the Rockies, with “a line of broken-toothed mountains…a swimming hole. A river. Trees and clear skies.” Later, “The kid couldn’t know what she was missing, the depths to which she was being duped by a world she had no hand in making.” He really does want something better for her.

It is this something that the pair hit the road to find. Of course, this is an America in which even the Rocky Mountain high has been brought low. The idyllic mountain pastures Dave promotes are filled with cow patties, broken fences, a shortage of indoor heat and suspicious neighbors.

The triumph of the book is in its portrayal of Dave Lamb. In Dave’s vision of himself, or his vision of a moment, he sees a truthseeker

“Look at me. I might be a lot of things, but I’m not a liar, okay?”
“Okay.”
“There’s precious little truth in this world, and I am one of its most enthusiastic spokespeople. Okay?

saith the liar.

Like all narcissists, Dave objectifies the people he encounters. He describes his nominal girlfriend thus:

A heart-stoppingly beautiful young woman. An expensive and well-educated system of reactions and responses, and he knew them all. Had known them, frankly, since years before she was born.”

Yet, his affection for Tommie seems genuine. Is it? Or has he created a virginal ideal he can use to gain some feeling of power by conquering? His narcissism causes him to believe his own BS. He sells Tommie a fantasy, but even that pitch is off, beginning with natural beauty in a high, sage-filled valley, but mixing in oddities like a cooler full of Mexican beer and a braided rug on a concrete floor.

A lot of the book is Dave’s internal debate.

“That wasn’t kidnapping. It had been a favor, right? A lesson. He hadn’t kidnapped anyone. She was back in her apartment, having dinner with her parents, her girlfriends perhaps chastened of whoring each other out for laughs in parking lots. It wasn’t kidnapping when the kid ended up safely delivered home in better shape than she left in the morning. It was like he found a loose bolt out there in the world and had carefully turned it back into place. It was fine.”

Dave’s whims, his impulses rule and his gift of professional level bullshit lets him get away with the most ridiculous actions. One could certainly think that the author asks us to accept too much acceptance on the part of the people Dave cons. But those of us who have known people of a narcissistic bent can attest to their uncanny powers of persuasion. That is a characteristic that Nadzam has portrayed to perfection here. Dave told Tommie that his name was Gary.

“Gary”
“Yes, dear.”
“I think I maybe want to call my mom.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“In the morning?”
“Sure.”
“What do you want to tell her?”
“Just that everything is okay, and I’m okay, and don’t worry.”
“Do you think she’ll probably worry anyway?”
“Yeah”
“Do you think a phone call might make her worry more?”
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe we should think about that.”

Dave has a lawyer’s ability to take your words and make them seem to mean the exact opposite of what you intended. He could be a camp guard telling the inmates that everything was ok, and would they please hurry along to get their delousing showers.

So do they or don’t they? There is one scene in which I suspected they had, but a GR friend whose opinion I respect believes otherwise. So, it is ambiguous. I confess that I did have certain standard expectations for the ending, but I was surprised at the direction the author chose.

For those who see Lolita here, the author says not so much. But she was influenced by another Nabakov work, one about Don Quixote.

Don Quixote, he writes, “is a kind of treatise about how meaning gets into things and lives. It is a book about enchantment, the inappropriateness of enchantment in a disenchanted world.” (http://harpers.org/archive/2011/08/hb... )

The author also was expressing in this book regret at the pain she has caused:

Lamb vows to show her what’s left of the imagined America he’s been describing. He plays with the child not because he is a predator, but because he is himself a child; his fantasies of life as a cowboy, of entitlement and adventure, have eclipsed what should be responsible adulthood, only to hurt all those he claims to love. It was that kind of hurt — and the despair of realizing I’ve caused as much as I’ve received — that most influenced the shape of my book

While this book could have used at least one more edit, it does succeed in making a character come to life, in painting a portrait of a contemporary America that has passed its sell-by date when it comes to fulfilling idyllic dreams, and in sustaining a very engaging level of tension. It is a good book that could have been better, but is not half bad, and a very impressive first novel.

PS - and for fans of The League of Gentlemen, my inner voice kept hearing Papa Lazarou throughout, asking “is that you, Dave?”

A few sites are worth a look. There is an interview at Other Press and another at Harper.

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Dec 03, 2012 Maria Phillips rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's hard to say how I feel about this book. I was both moved and disturbed by the thought process that Lamb displayed throughout the book, as he tried to convince Tommie and himself that nothing weird was going on and that he was just doing her a favour. So many times, I caught myself thinking of him as a decent human being... and then immediately I had to remind myself that the woman with him was just a girl, so the whole thing was totally inappropriate. With the exception of a few really unco...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: Other Press provided this book for review.

It's easy to see why so much of the discussion around Bonnie Nadzam's Lamb is about Nabokov's Lolita. Both novels are about middle-aged men who head off on roadtrips with young girls. To draw a line between the two novels, though, is oversimplistic and misses much of what the novels are truly concerned with. In Lolita, it's time and memory and the ways Humbert Humbert marks himself not only as an unreliable narrator, but as one actively (and...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Tuck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: oh-loyd-i-wanna-be-hearkbroken, western-rural-with-tractors-horse

a doozie debut novel. A troubled "successful" lawyer sort of kidnaps an 11 year old girl and takes her to a mountain cabin hideaway. Fantastic tension of "father/daughter" binding with humbert humbert sexual yearnings (and consummation?!?). A must for early spring/ mid-life crisis illicit love affairs lovers.

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Oct 24, 2011 Lupdilup Duffy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I received a copy of this audio book from Blackstone Audio for
reviewing purposes.
How to begin to describe a book that was superb, but about one the most disturbing subjects I've read or listen to? And the mere thought of using a good adjective when describing this book makes me feel extremely uncomfortable.
The story of middle age David Lamb, a man sickly and perversely infatuated with an 11-year-old girl it’s one of the most uneasy but captivating listens I have ever experienced. Ms. Nadzam bril...more

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Oct 10, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, nook, midwest-america, chicago, identity, sex-as-power

With seductive lulls and the artificial logic of manipulated consent, Lamb creates trust where none should exist, illuminating the almost unconscious -- and not insincere -- mechanisms that David Lamb, in his mid-life years, uses to convince 11-year-old Tommie to accompany him on a road trip from Chicago to Colorado. Most unsettling is how the reader himself begins to believe David's stories, and we, like young Tommie, are never quite sure where to stand. The constant tension, in ourselves and b...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-american

A compelling but disturbing debut in a beautiful style, reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates and T.C. Boyle. Nadzam describes the road trip of the unreliable fifty-something David Lamb and the eleven-year old girl Tommie. Lamb wants to teach her the beauty of camping and the unloved girl is more than willing to come and absorbs all the attention he gives her, all the presents, stories and lessons. After some shock and struggle, their love grows more physical than they intended and they are both unwi...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Kristine Brancolini rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

It's difficult to convey the power of Lamb without giving away too much of the plot. The bare-bones outline is in the description: At age 54 David Lamb of suburban Chicago is having some sort of mid-life crisis, but it's also clear that he's a pathological liar and a very strange man. A strange upper middle-class man who appears normal to most people. He is recently divorced from his wife, but he's been having an affair with a young woman named Linnie at work. He hasn't bothered to tell her that...more It's difficult to convey the power of Lamb without giving away too much of the plot. The bare-bones outline is in the description: At age 54 David Lamb of suburban Chicago is having some sort of mid-life crisis, but it's also clear that he's a pathological liar and a very strange man. A strange upper middle-class man who appears normal to most people. He is recently divorced from his wife, but he's been having an affair with a young woman named Linnie at work. He hasn't bothered to tell her that he is now divorced. It's now October and he's been divorced since July. But when she finds out, she doesn't seem to mind. She still want to have sex with him in the stairwell at work. What is it about David? He's the most charismatic, manipulative man I've ever encountered -- in fiction or in real life. Emphasis on manipulative. We don't see how he did it to Linnie, but we are there the first time he meets 11-year-old Tommie. She is a vulnerable young girl who bums a cigarette from David on a dare from her "friends," who are really the seventh-grade girls from hell. David is drawn to Tommie and tells himself that she needs him. But in reality, he needs her. He seeks her out again and they become friends of a sort. He takes her to lunch and talks to her about her "friends" and family, beginning to draw her in. It seems like some textbook pedophile set-up. But it's not. There's something much more complex going on. The book takes a completely unexpected turn when, on a lark, David decides to take off for his cabin in the Rockies with Tommie.

Lamb is stunningly good on so many levels. I almost read it in one day but forced myself to put it down. I thought about it all day today and tried to work out how Nadzam works her narrative magic. The unidentified narrator observes all, bringing us into David's past a little and revealing what is going on in Chicago, once Tommie is discovered to be missing. But sometimes the narrator tells the story from David's perspective. We know much more about what is going on in his mind than in Tommie's, but from time to time, we are given a glimpse. Before David takes Tommie, it's clear that he harbors stereotypes about her life with her mother and her boyfriend Jessie. Tommie needs a real dad. She needs him. All of this is skillfully laid out. Tommie seems to be the perfect victim. But once they leave Chicago, the relationship between Tommie and David begins to shift and eventually turns. Nadzam has a degree in English and Environmental Studies. Much of the power of the book derives from her use of the natural world, the open road and the Rockies as a setting. She beautifully contrasts life in the Chicago suburbs -- primarily the not-so-nice ones where Tommie lives -- and life up in the Rockies. David takes Tommie shopping for warm clothes and boots; teaches her how to live outdoors, how to keep herself warm, how to explore and learn from her natural surrounding. It's beautiful and creepy at the same time. You keep waiting for it to escalate, for David to do something terrible to Tommie. And when the book is over, you wonder, did he really care about Tommie? Is it possible? (less)

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