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The Hour I First Believed

by Wally Lamb

3.67 · rating details · 20,301 ratings · 4,192 reviews

When high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma.

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Paperback, 735 pages

Published August 1st 2009 by Harper Perennial (first published November 1st 2008)

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Dec 05, 2008

Jen rated it

· review of another edition

It truly pains me to give this book only two stars, but after struggling through it, I can't bring myself to give it more. There are definitely redeeming qualities about this novel, and ultimately I ended up getting something out of it. But it was so hard to push through, and it was such a disappointment to me after loving his previous two novels. This book is just SO all over the map, and after awhile it lost me. Bottom line, I just didn't much care about the characters. Everything ends up comi...more

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Nov 12, 2008

Alexa rated it

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Unbelievably good. I never thought I'd say that about a book that incorporates Columbine, prison, drug addiction, Hurricane Katrina and troubled youth but it's the truth. I had to stop and sit and think after I finished this long book. After thinking for awhile, I realized that I would always think of Caelum Quirk, the main character and narrator, as a good friend even if he doesn't actually exist.

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Nov 06, 2008

Cameron rated it

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In the afterword to The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb says his long career in teaching influenced his decision to center his new book on the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
“(H)aving spent half of my life in high school – four years as a student and 25 as a teacher – I could and did transport myself, psychically if not physically, to Littleton, Colorado. Could I have acted as c...moreIn the afterword to The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb says his long career in teaching influenced his decision to center his new book on the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, in which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
“(H)aving spent half of my life in high school – four years as a student and 25 as a teacher – I could and did transport myself, psychically if not physically, to Littleton, Colorado. Could I have acted as courageously as teacher Dave Sanders, who sacrificed his life in the act of shepherding students to safety? Would I have had the strengths to attend those memorials and funerals to which I sent my protagonist? Could I have comforted Columbine’s ‘collaterally damaged’ victims?....
“The depth and scope of Harris and Klebold’s rage, and the twisted logic by which they convinced themselves that their slaughter of the innocent was justified, both frightened and confounded me. I felt it necessary to confront the ‘two-headed monster’ itself, rather than concoct Harris- and Klebold-like characters. Were these middle-class kids merely sick, or were they evil? What might their words and actions, their Internet spewings and videotaped taunts, tell us about how to prevent some future tragedy?....
“Why all this rage? Why all these deaths and broken-hearted survivors?”
Lamb asks worthy questions. Unfortunately for readers, he appears to have grown frustrated by his inability to answer them, because this 723-page book, which starts off with its focus on Columbine, devolves into a loose, baggy social-historical novel that spans two centuries and somehow manages to address at length such disparate issues as the Civil War, the advent of women’s prisons in America, Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. The specters of Harris and Klebold, so stark and affecting in the early pages of this book, recede with every tangential plot line.
The tenuous thread tying this all together is middle-aged English teacher Caelum Quirk, a thrice-married Connecticut native whose gravestone should probably read, “Romeo has nothing on me. Here lies fortune’s foe.” Example: His alcoholic father died when Caelum was 14, because the old man was fishing on a railroad bridge, passed out drunk, got hit by train, lost both legs, and bled to death.
Here, as in Lamb’s two previous novels, She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, messy, star-crossed lives are the norm, not the exception.
When the novel opens, Caelum and his third wife, Maureen, have relocated from Connecticut to Littleton, where Caelum is an English teacher at Columbine and Maureen is a school nurse. Back in Connecticut, their marriage had been foundering. Maureen had cheated on Caelum, and he got revenge by attacking his wife’s lover; in turn, Caelum lost his teaching job. Hoping to revive their marriage (and to escape the gossip of small-town Three Rivers), he and Maureen move to Littleton. Why there? Because Maureen wants to be close to her father, who’s remarried and lives in Denver -- and who, after Maureen’s mother died, used to sneak into his 11-year-old daughter’s room and masturbate before her…
This is among the first of many confounding plot developments in this novel – twists that complicate the narrative, but ultimately distort to little purpose and generate no sympathy for the characters.
Previously Caelum and Maureen resided on the Quirk family farm in eastern Connecticut, a two-hundred acre tract that also contains a fifty-acre maximum-security women’s prison. The story behind the prison (not to mention its convenient location, right down the road from the family’s house) will play an enormous, exasperating role in the second half of the novel.
The Quick Correctional Institute is named in honor of Caelum’s ancestors, strong-willed women who lobbied for the dignity and rights of female prisoners. Caelum’s beloved aunt, Lolly, was the last family member to work at the prison. His mother died of lung cancer when he was 30, so Lolly is the only family he has left. Lolly’s also the only family member who consistently showed him love – and that includes his father, mother and grandparents, all of whom contributed to Caelum’s jaded personality. In the beginning of The Hour I First Believed, the protagonist certainly doesn’t believe in much, least of all God.
In April 1999, Lolly suffers a stroke, so Caelum returns to Connecticut to take care of his aunt. While he’s gone, Harris and Klebold go on their rage-fueled rampage.
“They’d been planning it for a year, hiding their intentions in plain sight on paper, on videotape, over the Internet. In their junior year, one had written in the other’s yearbook, ‘God, I can’t wait till they die. I can taste the blood now.’ And the other had answered, ‘Killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops! My wrath will be godlike!’”
When the attack starts, Maureen is in the library, site of the worst carnage. As Harris and Klebold mock and antagonize their victims, asking them if they believe in God, Maureen hides in a cabinet. Caelum, back in Connecticut and watching the harrowing footage on television, has no idea if she’s alive or dead, so he races back to Colorado.
Maureen survives the library scene, but she’s a shell of her former self. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She can’t sleep. She has headaches and nausea. Certain smells and loud noises trigger flashbacks. On a trip to Home Depot, the scent of the lumber department reminds her of the inside of the library cabinet, where she’d hid and prayed. “Afraid,” she says. “I’m always afraid.” She becomes addicted to medication. Caelum, meanwhile, starts drinking more than usual.
Back in Connecticut, his aunt has died, so the farm now belongs to Caelum. Due to a stipulation in the deed, the property near the women’s prison cannot be developed. It has to remain a farm. Nevertheless, Caelum decides that the safety of the estate – far away from Littleton and everything Columbine-related – is the best thing for his wife. Regrettably, the move does nothing for the momentum of this novel, which soon sinks beneath rediscovered family letters and diaries (many of them included in the book); uninteresting questions about Caelum’s actual parents; and schmaltzy plot developments, e.g., a husband and wife, refugees from Hurricane Katrina, come to live on the farm, and the wife, a post-graduate women’s studies major at Tulane, writes her master’s thesis on Caelum’s ancestors, in turn helping Caelum understand his past and (perhaps) himself.
In the author’s note at the beginning of this novel, Lamb says he had the title, The Hour I First Believed, before he knew the story of Caelum Quirk.
“(T)hat title served as the carrot before the horse, me being horse. What would Caelum come to believe, and what hour would it happen? It took me nine years to find out.”
In retrospective, that makes sense, because this novel doesn’t read like it was a process of discovery. It reads like someone working backwards (and the long way ‘round) from a rather trite conclusion.

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Nov 27, 2008

Jeff rated it

· review of another edition

When an author asks you to go on a 700+ page journey, the trip should be enjoyable and/or the destination should be fulfilling. Unfortunately, I don't feel that "The Hour I First Believed" really offers either a good trip or a satisfying final destination. Rather, it is joyless, self-indulgent, and exposition-heavy. Lamb too often tells rather than shows in this book, and the telling is a little over-done. Also, the dialogue given to the teen characters and an early chapter written fro...more

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Nov 19, 2008

Nina rated it

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Recommends it for: Kerfe, Linda

Recommended to Nina by: NY Times Book Review

Say what you will about this book; in my opinion it's a tour de force. The author covers a wide range of topics starting with the Civil War, abolitionism, the Columbine horrors, 9/11, lost souls, death, alcoholism, the power of love, and so much more that it's difficult to quantify. I'm sure this will become an Oprah book and all that jazz, but still, reading a book like this one wonders how an author can do it. The main character is a sort of sad sack who always feels something askew in his ...more

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Jan 31, 2009

marg rated it

· review of another edition

For those in my book club, you will hear this in person eventually so just ignore.
Here goes ...

Why is it that in an era of 'Green' being the new Black, of ADD being the new normal, and 'fast and snippy' the new 'slow and steady,' do otherwise talented authors suddenly feel the need to knock down innocent trees and waste our time in a most achronistic fashion? With Lamb's new book, he successfully joins the ranks of Russo and Sittenfeld (and I am sure others) who follow up perf...moreFor those in my book club, you will hear this in person eventually so just ignore.
Here goes ...

Why is it that in an era of 'Green' being the new Black, of ADD being the new normal, and 'fast and snippy' the new 'slow and steady,' do otherwise talented authors suddenly feel the need to knock down innocent trees and waste our time in a most achronistic fashion? With Lamb's new book, he successfully joins the ranks of Russo and Sittenfeld (and I am sure others) who follow up perfectly wonderful and sharp novels with tomes that looked as though they swallowed the entire Harry Potter collection. Do they not know that as soon as Amazon drops one of these craters at our doorsteps, that as we lug these phone books onto the train with bags filled papers to mark, we are inevitably going to question the value of about two thirds of the sentences let alone chapters?? DOES NO ONE EDIT ANYMORE????
So that's the first thing. The length. It made it so that when WL switched narratives to incorporate past letters or whatever I felt a huge relief as if this was a commercial and I could now skip the next fifty or so.
As to the story itself, or I should say stories, which was a big problem: Fair or not, I need to compare this with I Know This Much is True if only to highlight where this one fell short. IKTMT had an incredibly likeable and human protagonist, Dominick, who was your classic 'tries really hard and sometimes gets it right." He was charming in a disarming sort of way and this sarcasm was endearing and funny. You wanted him to succeed. This guy, Caelum Quirk, however, aside from a stupid name (and I point this out becasue, hey, man, you get to CHOOSE. Dr. Cake? Dr. Smiley? I mean, did Barney have a gun to your head??), is just bitter. His sarcasm is neither funny nor endearing. He is in fact more flawed than 'likeably human' and seems to deserve what he gets.
WL chose to have cameo walk ons via previous literary characters that I am sure if you have not read about them did nothing for you, and if you did it was like, dude, give it up. If this is a weak attempt to get your spin off some audience excitement, then, well, that's just sad.
This story centers around the Columbine massacre, yet that isn't even the main plot. I find it surprising that an author would think that conjoining five different plots, each of which could be a novel, was a good idea. In fact, it was a bad one. The book ends up being depressing, heavy and overly intense with too much to take in. Just as in IKTMT, he weaves in a whole complicated identity quest/mystery for Caelum to figure out that frankly I could not have cared less about. If instead of maxing out his story line he had isntead done some character development I would have been invested enough TO care. But instead it just felt like a chore.
I give it two stars because it was certainly not the worst book on my list nor did it have zero redeeming features - but the flaws far outweighed the positives, and ultimately it disappointed me to see the few flaws in IKTMT come full force in this work, ala Bridget JOnes' sequel, and not reveal much of the positive.
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Nov 27, 2008

Mindy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: library-book, fiction

The Hour I First Believed? By Wally Lamb? Yeah, I read it. Hey, I didn't say it was great or anything. In fact, it seems like Mr. Lamb was really inspired by that show. Law and Order? Yeah, you know the one where they use crappy dialog to push forward bizarre plot points and explain complex technical stuff so the audience doesn't feel dumb cause they're not lawyers? Even though real people probably wouldn't talk like that in real life? Yeah, it's kinda like that in some ways. (You know, I felt t...moreThe Hour I First Believed? By Wally Lamb? Yeah, I read it. Hey, I didn't say it was great or anything. In fact, it seems like Mr. Lamb was really inspired by that show. Law and Order? Yeah, you know the one where they use crappy dialog to push forward bizarre plot points and explain complex technical stuff so the audience doesn't feel dumb cause they're not lawyers? Even though real people probably wouldn't talk like that in real life? Yeah, it's kinda like that in some ways. (You know, I felt totally validated by the couple of direct Law and Order references after I first made this observation.) The tone was often grating. Lacking in eloquence. Know what I mean?

This book is about the Columbine High School massacre, Hurricane Katrina, domestic and sexual abuse, adultery, the Iraq War, drug addiction, alcoholism, child abduction, a women's prison, mummified babies, Mark Twain, a miraculous Mary statuette in a Catholic bakery, post traumatic stress disorder, Nikola Tesla, stroke victims, cameos from both of Lamb's previous novels, brain aneurysms, 19th century abolitionism, vehicular manslaughter, enough genealogy to make the Mormon Church drool, and characters named Ulysses and Velvet.

So you might think the only thing missing was the kitchen sink, right? Wrong. It's lacking in a few major ways: not nearly enough UFOs, vampires, werewolves, subtlety, or sense of irony. It could also have used a strong, heavy-handed editor to reign in Lamb's rambling, messy prose, pointless character back stories, diary entries, and a laughably bad and unfortunately lengthy women's studies dissertation prospectus.

But you see, somewhere in this sprawling tome there's a really great book. Lamb knows how to jerk tears, set a scene, create suspense, elicit empathy for his characters, and provoke a few thoughts. Unfortunately, he goes off the deep end in melodrama, tragedy, and annoying tangents.

And yet, like Oprah, I still have a soft spot in my heart for good ole Wally Lamb and his writing. This book is so bad, it's actually kinda good.(less)

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Dec 08, 2008

Asia rated it

· review of another edition

I picked up this book with some trepidation: first, I wasn't sure how much I wanted to read about the Columbine shootings, especially since I remember being extremely distraught upon hearing about the whole tragedy and was afraid to revisit that. Secondly, I've read Lamb's two other novels and like one but hated the other. Well, I got about 60 pages in and decided to drop this book because long ago I'd given up my neurotic need to finish a book once I've started.

Lamb's narrator, Cae...more

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May 02, 2009

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

As my choice of 3 stars says, I liked this book but didn't love it.

In esssence, this is a book about the aftermath of violence: What do people do to thrive, or cope--or not?

There are some very powerful aspects to this book: everything from Columbine to life in a women's prison.

The first half captured me more than the second half. I think that's because the events in the first half are dramatized more than the events in the second half. By this I mean, ...more

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Jan 22, 2009

Malcolm rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: People who aren't bored or sad enough

Recommended to Malcolm by: Amazon

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

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Jan 01, 2009

Bells rated it

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

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Nov 24, 2008

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of wally lamb, historical novels, and characters studies

Wally Lamb creates characters who become real as they are revealed on the page. When thinking about the book between readings, it was like revisiting acquaintances I was getting to know intimately. There are twists and turns, history that is revealed and unraveled like the labyrinth that he alludes to in the novel.

It's a book that took ten years to write, and these pages contain those ten years. Not only is does it delve into the family history of the characters for the past centu...more

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Nov 30, 2008

Denise rated it

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Recommends it for: anyone who loves Wally Lamb

Shelves: fiction, knocked-my-socks-off

While I can understand why the reviews of this novel range from hot to cold, I loved it. I can not think of the last time I read a novel that contained so many current events and issues, all under the same cover.

I thought Lamb took a huge risk by weaving fictional characters in with the Columbine tragedy, but it worked. Not many authors could combine the two with such sensitivity. I thought his character development absolutely perfect.

I do admit that some of the thesis...more

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Nov 24, 2008

Janet rated it

· review of another edition

omg, this book is terrific! Who would think that with 750 pages and you dont want it to end!
It has about 5 different story lines going on-each of them are intriguing. Found myself gasping out loud, laughing and crying. Gives you alot to think about. The Columbine story hooks you instantly, the mental illness, prescription drug dependance, family relations, all just hit home. What a great read!

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Oct 03, 2009

Eileen Granfors rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: families, highly-unusual, historical-fiction, school-stories, women

Wally Lamb's books are unique in literature.

This one, "The Hour I First Believed," focuses on the tragedy of the Columbine shootings. Names are not changed; the killers and the victims are the real ones.

For more about this book, see my review on amazon.com under the title and my reviewer's name, EGranfors.

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Nov 25, 2008

Amy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, relationship-driven

Loved it! I love this author. Easiest 750+ page book I've read in a long, long, time. He keeps you interested, jumping from Columbine tragedy, to Katrina tragedy, to mental illness, etc. Lots of twists & turns; you never know what's gonna happen to the poor main character & his wife next.

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Jan 13, 2009

Paula rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who like mixing reality into their novels

Recommended to Paula by: Chris at HC

Shelves: 2008-reads

This is a heavy, but gripping read. In the back of my mind I wonder how the people who were involved with Columbine will handle the inevitable media attention to the case but the novel has me hooked.
Caelum is trying to live in the aftermath - guilt because he could have said something about the two students; guilt because he wasn't in the building at the time; guilt because his wife was. And Maureen isn't coping. His life has turned 360 and he's struggling to see the future.

So ...more

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Nov 10, 2008

Miranda rated it

· review of another edition

I just finished reading this book, Wally Lamb's latest, and as much as it saddens me to say I don't think he lived up to his full potential. I could also just be a little biased; expecting something more.
He truly did give you all the information you could ask for, chalked full of history and facts this book does fill the brain for thinking later on. I also truly enjoyed the connections with both his other books which was quite a pleasant surprise, but perhaps there was TOO many connection...more

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Dec 10, 2008

Karla Anne rated it

· review of another edition

I feel like my friends and I waited forever for this release of this book, and I planned ahead to buy it on its release date. I didn’t even leave the store before I started reading it. It started out intense, dramatic and Caelum became a character I was dying to love like Delores or the Birdsey twins. However after the initial intensity of the columbine incident, the story seemed to deflate and become either over-dramatically predictable or completely just... boring as hell.

I feel l...more

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Mar 03, 2009

Sfdreams rated it

· review of another edition

This is not the easiest book to read...it covers a lot of ground in its 723 pages (...Not counting the 17 pages of afterword, author's notes, acknowledgments, list of sources, and charitable donations.) It was gripping, and fascinating. There were times I laughed out loud, and times I had tears running down my face. Although it was extremely painful in parts, it had an undercurrent of hope for the future. This is one book that will stay with me for awhile. I think I would like to re-read this bo...more

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Feb 26, 2009

Betsy Sneath rated it

· review of another edition

Ahhh! Don't bother! Too long! Too many plots and characters, and it just drove me crazy. I like this author alot. I've heard him interviewed, and he's a cool guy, and I give him credit for trying to address the Columbine thing, but there were just way too many other stories, and I ended up feeling really unfullfilled after a very, very, long book. Where are the editors these days?

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Jun 03, 2010

Kelly rated it

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This is an awesome book!! I'm reading it at the same time as my sister, and its motivating me!! :) It's one of those books that through someone else's major catastrophy life turning event makes you think about your own traumas, and maybe borrow strenghth and humility from the characters. It's giving me hope, even though it's making me cry. Maybe some faith too......I am very excited to finish this book. Definitely commenting I think a lot on what people go through, and how we are even connected...more

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Sep 19, 2008

Bess rated it

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One thing I learned not from this book, but from a recent magazine interview, is that Wally Lamb lists Joyce Carol Oates as one of his favorite authors. That's just about the most life-affirmingly endearing thing I've ever heard.

Real review eventually...

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Feb 23, 2009

Susan rated it

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

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Sep 09, 2008

Patti rated it

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Recommended to Patti by: HarperCollins sent ARC

Shelves: read-in-2008, fiction

As an Advance Reader's Copy, the book comes in at 700+ pages. Whew! It covers the Columbine tragedy, one couple's path throught their marriage, drug addiction, family (both past and present, and how the two are connected), and a history of women's penitentiaries in New England, to start with. Most of the story is told from Caelum Quirk's point of view, in first person, but occasionally tells the story from other characters' points of view, in third person. This is not confusing, as it has been f...more

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Aug 28, 2008

Ab rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Okay, I don't pretend to be an author of any kind or an authority on novel-writing, but seriously, where was his editor on this one? It almost seems he got to breeze through this publication process because he's written two previously good novels or because he's well-known or something.

First off, the book is divided into two "parts". It's more like two totally different books -- the first being more about real history, etc. than an actual work of fiction. In my opinion, th...moreOkay, I don't pretend to be an author of any kind or an authority on novel-writing, but seriously, where was his editor on this one? It almost seems he got to breeze through this publication process because he's written two previously good novels or because he's well-known or something.

First off, the book is divided into two "parts". It's more like two totally different books -- the first being more about real history, etc. than an actual work of fiction. In my opinion, the first "part" should have been scrapped altogether. It's simply a response to Columbine and is full of actual journal excerpts from the two student gun-men, quotes from their "video", and just factual information about a time (which was important) but not a fictional novel. It drawls on way too long without any significant plot development or devotion to any single character. I kept reading to sort of see where it was all going, and turns out it simply ends and then "part 2" begins. Part 2 was alright, but the first entire "part" was unnecessary to the development and plot of the second part -- meaning the first part was entirely extraneous.

Second, the continual shifting between story lines was incredibly maddening and nonsensical. We go from current time, to Caelum's childhood, to his aunt's childhood, to his great-grandmother's live in the 1800s, and so on. Lamb's books usually have complex plots and intertwined bits, but they've been relevant in the previous novels. This book had them wandering wild all over the book. We're made to read journal entries spanning entire chapters from a 19th century quaker woman who happens to be Caelum's great-grandmother, which would be fine if they weren't so BORING! I almost book the book down several times, finally just skimming through this muck to get to the next relevant plot point. The plot that does develop amongst the irrelevant stuff if interesting and has potential to be very good, but with the other stuff definitely detracts from the main plot. When I had to continuously read entire chapters from Janis's thesis essay ABOUT the great-grandmother I almost screamed, "WHY!!" I get that through this "essay" we learn about some significant plot points, but only towards the end of the entire thing, the rest being really boring and pointless.

As a fan of Wally Lamb's previous novels, I was disappointed. I wanted to like this book, especially since it took him something like 9 years to write. But it reads more like a rough reflection of all the shit that's happened in our world than an actual relevant novel. Sorry Wally. Not your best stuff. (less)

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Mar 27, 2009

Jen Covey rated it

· review of another edition

This was not an easy book to read. For all the effort I put into it, Wally Lamb should have been standing on the last page offering me a sash, a trophy, and large sums of money. It kind of turned into a joke as every night I would tell my husband what the new plotline was. Some of the subjects were: Adultery, Columbine, PTSD, Drug Addiction, Murder, Womens prisons (In great detail), buried corpses (in greater detail) and a paper about civil war times (in RIDICULOUS detail). Not my favorite.

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Apr 18, 2009

Nancy (Hrdcovers) rated it

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Like many of Wally Lamb's fans, I waited with great anticipation for this book to come out. I had read his two previous novels, She's Come Undone (just okay in my opinion) and I Know This Much Is True (a great read), and was wondering if this next one would put Lamb on the list as one of my admired authors. Based on I Know This Much Is True, I knew he had great potential to be added to a list that includes such esteemed authors as Pat Conroy and John Irving. Unfortunately, with this latest offer...moreLike many of Wally Lamb's fans, I waited with great anticipation for this book to come out. I had read his two previous novels, She's Come Undone (just okay in my opinion) and I Know This Much Is True (a great read), and was wondering if this next one would put Lamb on the list as one of my admired authors. Based on I Know This Much Is True, I knew he had great potential to be added to a list that includes such esteemed authors as Pat Conroy and John Irving. Unfortunately, with this latest offering, Lamb does not make the cut. Not only does he not make the cut, but, after spending hours upon hours reading this book, I'm not even sure if I'd give him another chance. That's how much I did not like this book.

It all started with the writing which, in many places, can only be called "fractured". I found this kind of writing to be very disconcerting within the context of the story. Here are some examples and these are the actual sentences: Last night? I got up and started combing her hair. And here's another: A maintenance crew, from the looks of it, nine or ten women with shovels, hoes and hedge cutters. Now I ask you all....where is the verb in this last sentence? This went on and on throughout the entire book. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Lamb constantly repeats himself. He tells a story of Zinnia always hugging Caelum on page 124 and had already told the exact same story earlier in the book. This was done numerous times and it ultimately began to feel like deja vu.

As with many authors who write a great book and get much publicity for doing so (Oprah pick), it must be hard to pen that next book trying to make sure it lives up to the all the adulation the author received from his last book. I think the "Aftermath" section of this book explains this fear and Lamb's own trepidations in trying to come up with a "story". They latch onto something that "might" work and then weave other stories into it. In this case, the author has taken every tragedy imaginable....The Civil War, The Korean War, Columbine, 9/11, The War in Iraq, Katrina....and made it all part of this story. The end result is.....it doesn't work!!!!

In my opinion, one of the most important jobs of an author, especially an author who is asking his reader to invest hours and hours of their time on a 700+ page book, is to create characters and develop them in such a way that the reader feels invested. This is the story of forty-seven year old thrice married Caelum Quirk and his younger wife Maureen, who move to Columbine, Colorado after an unfortunate set of circumstances forces them to leave their home in Three Rivers, Connecticut. For as long as I can remember, I've always associated "Three Rivers" with the city of Pittsburgh. Let's face it, the Pittsburgh Pirates played in Three Rivers Stadium for thirty years. Pittsburgh is famous for its three waterways....the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers. Yet Lamb has "his" Three Rivers located in Connecticut. I can't tell you how unsettling this was for me every time Three Rivers was mentioned. I had to keep reminding myself that they weren't in Pennsylvania but in Connecticut.

There wasn't one minute that I liked either Caelum or Maureen or any of the other myriad of characters who entered these pages. Since you know right away that they're moving to Columbine, you immediately know there are going to be characters there that you won't like either. Even though Maureen is in the school at the time of the shootings, I never felt any empathy for her even though she had been through a horrendous experience. And Maureen and Caelum's relationship was never developed enough for her own husband to feel the empathy Lamb is obviously expecting his reader to offer up.

This book will take the married couple from Connecticut to Colorado and back to Connecticut. It will also take the reader back in time as Caelum explores his heritage after finding some interesting items in his aunt's attic. As Caelum investigates his heritage, as a reader, I got confused keeping everyone straight. The reason for this is that Lamb has given everyone of the narrator's female relatives a name beginning with the letter "L". We have Lizzie, Lolly, Lydia and Lillian. After awhile, I didn't know who was who.

And to me the biggest mistake an author of fiction can make is inserting his own political beliefs into the novel. Once an author does this, whether I agree with his beliefs or not, I'm turned off. Richard North Patterson used to be one of my favorite authors but, with each book he wrote, he jammed his politics down my throat. I haven't read another book of his since. Unfortunately, Lamb has fallen into the same category with me. If he wants to be political, he should write some Op Ed pieces for the New York Times....not insert his views within the fictional pages of his book.

In closing, I don't know how so many reviewers can state that Wally Lamb is their favorite author before even reading this book. Their favorite author of what??? Two books?? (By the way, these last two fractured sentences are reminiscent of Lamb's writing if you're wondering why I did this). If I was going to claim that someone was my favorite author, I think I'd like to have read more than two of their works. I could say that Pat Conroy is a favorite author of mine as is John Irving and Joyce Carol Oates. Each of these authors has many, many books in their repertoire and I've read almost all of them.

I think that in the case of this book, I would have liked to have known the ending before reading the middle because it might have explained a lot and perhaps I might have enjoyed it more. I'm not sure. The jury is still out on Lamb as far as I'm concerned. He needs to come up with a much better book to seal his rank as an author whose books I must read. (less)

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Apr 13, 2009

Shelah rated it

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It's been a long time since I read a Wally Lamb novel, and I was a bit daunted that this one weighed in at about 800 pages. But the story of Caelum and Maureen Quirk grabbed me and held me tight. Already messed up by life and abuse and loss and hard knocks, the couple tries and fails (and tries again) to pull their lives together after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire at Columbine, where they both work. At first I was really mad about the way the novel ends, but I began to see it as redem...more

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Mar 05, 2009

Nancy rated it

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Well, gee, Wally Lamb. This is what I have to tell you, Wally: you are a good enough writer to make me plunge into the unrelenting misery of this book and finish the whole thing. And I am a charter member of the Happy Ending Fan Club, so that means you are a pretty darn good writer.

Seriously, Lamb has a gift for producing a phrase so well-turned, an image so sharp, that the pang of pleasure it gives is worth the sadness/bleakness/misery of the event or character that inspired it. ...more

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iRead Virtually: Part 2	9	4	Jan 16, 2012 04:28pm
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About Wally Lamb

Wally Lamb is the author of She's Come Undone, The Hour I First Believed, and I Know This Much Is True. Two were featured as selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb is the recipient of the Connecticut Center for the Book's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Connecticut Bar Association's Distinguished Public Service Award, the Connecticut Governor's Art Award, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Awar...more

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“Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book.” — 35 people liked it

“I don't know. Maybe we're all chaos theorists. Lovers of pattern and predictability, we're scared shitless of explosive change. But we're fascinated by it, too. Drawn to it. Travelers tap their brakes to ogle the mutilation and mangled metal on the side of the interstate, and the traffic backs up for miles. Hijacked planes crash into skyscrapers, breached levees drown a city, and CNN and the networks rush to the scene so that we can all sit in front of our TVs and feast on the footage. Stare, stunned, at the pandemonium--the devils let loose from their cages.” — 21 people liked it

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