Thursday, May 14, 2015

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
Published March 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers
Source: my copy courtesy of my public library's book club service

Publisher's Summary:
On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother, Thomas, entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable. . . .


My Thoughts:
Okay, first of all, what kind of summary is that for a 900-page novel? That's a teaser, not a summary. Oh well, guess it's up to me.
"Because Ray was a bully, I showed him as often as possible that Thomas was the weaker brother. Fed him Thomas to save myself."
Dominick and Thomas are identical twins, raised by their painfully shy (thanks in no small part to a harelip) mother and abusive stepfather, in the shadow of their dead grandfather whom their mother seems to have idolized and in whose home they now live. The boys long to know who their father was but the more pressing matter, even through their college years, was surviving Ray. That is until the most pressing matter becomes Thomas' schizophrenia. For all of their lives, the boys desperately fought to become their own person even as they needed each other to be whole.

On their mother's deathbed, Dominick promises her that he will take care of Thomas after she is gone. But taking care of Thomas is a heavy burden, particularly after the delusional, paranoid Thomas cuts off his own hand as a statement against the Gulf War. And Dominick is already carrying a heavy burden that includes anger he can't control and tremendous guilt. In trying to save Thomas, though, Dominick is finally able to save himself.

As a first person narrator, Dominick is a hard person to care about. Certainly, he has much to be angry about - his abusive childhood, the loss of his baby daughter, and the weight around his neck that is Thomas. But Dominick brings much of what befalls him on himself. He stays in a relationship he knows is bad, for no apparent reason, and he spends much of his time feeling so sorry for himself that he is then unable to keep up with his commitments because of it. Still, ultimately, I had to cheer for him and enjoyed his journey to understanding that his museum of insults and injuries is the pain he has to release in order to heal.
"I am not a smart man, particularly, but one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family's, and my country's past, holding in my hands these truths: that love grows from the rich loam of forgiveness; that mongrels make good dogs; that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things. This much, at least, I've figured out. I know this much is true."
I read I Know This Much Is True with my book club and I wasn't alone in thinking that Lamb has just tried to do too much here. While he doesn't exactly hit his readers over the head with all of his themes, there are just so many of them. No one is spared; there's not a character in this book that doesn't carry tremendous baggage from Dominick's ex-wife, Dessa, to his former schoolmate and coworker Ralph Drinkwater. Racial tension, war, suicide, SIDS and the loss of a child, physical and mental abuse, mental illness, AIDS, sex, religion, incest, child pornography, abusive authority figures, and forgiveness. Have I missed any hot buttons here? I'm not sure that Lamb did. While I found much of it interesting, it was hard to develop a deep feeling for any of it as one theme piled up on another.

My biggest problem with this book, though, was the memoir of the twins' grandfather that was squeezed into an already over full novel. Although Lamb tied its elements into Dominick's story, it still was an enormous distraction and there was just entirely too much of it. Just there is too much of the book. I think I might have really loved this book had it been 200 or so pages shorter, without so much baggage. Although I'm still struggling with how I felt about the ending.






14 comments:

  1. Sounds an emotionally tough one to assimilate in one go.

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    1. But you sure wouldn't want to reread it!

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  2. Funny, I just mention this in my "Pages From the Past" post as a stand-out read in 1998... Love Wally Lamb, but had forgotten is was THAT long :)

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    1. I just wish he would learn to pull back just a bit. He seems to always be trying to cram so much into one book.

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  3. This is another author I shy away from. I was so not impressed with We Are Water. I have She's Come Undone somewhere around here but always put it back down when I consider it.

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    1. I did not like We Are Water at all except that I could see Lamb was capable of great writing. That one just seemed like he was hell bent to create the most awful people he could.

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  4. I read this book a few years after it came out and remember enjoying it but do remember thinking it was a bit much. Just too many complicated plots crammed into a book (even if that book was 900 pages!) Thanks for reminding me of this one!

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    1. It just could have been 200 pages shorter!

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  5. It's been so long since I read this book . . . I remember really liking it at the time, but I don't remember too much about it now. I tried reading one of his other books recently, the one about the school shooting, and I didn't make it very far in before giving up on it. I may go back to it, but for now, I can't see it happening.

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    1. It's definitely a book that's going to stick with me.

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  6. I read this book over 20 years ago, soon after it was published. It was an Oprah book, I'm almost sure. I remember it was long, that it was about twin boys, that it had a lot.........to talk about. And I liked it. Sadly, that's about all I remember. Don't particularly want to reread it though. Have you read any other books by Wally Lamb? I have not. I have meant to read that one that was about Columbine.

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    1. It was an Oprah book which now generally steers me away from a book. There is always so much darkness and unhappiness.

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  7. I don't know this author. Sounds like there was potential in the main theme about identical twins and the burden of responsibility in one caring for the other, but rather intense to say the least. I've just been reading a book that was heavy going although there were passages of brilliant writing and I'm ready for something different and lighter!

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  8. I have this book and have been trying to work it in, but it does sound awfully complicated. A reading project in itself. I'm glad I read your review because, honestly, I don't think I'm up for so much angst right now. Something lighter and brighter, I think :)

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