- Paperback: 832 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (11 Nov 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007290691
- ISBN-13: 978-0007290697
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 5.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,992,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Hour I First Believed
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Product Description
Review
Praise for I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
‘A triumph of simple beauty’
Time
‘I Know This Much Is True never grapples with anything less than life’s biggest questions… a modern-day Dostoyevsky’
New York Times
‘Every now and then a book comes along that sets new standards for writers and readers alike. Wally Lamb’s latest novel is stunning – and even that might be an understatement’
Associated Press
‘A modern Greek tragedy… [Lamb’s] success is to present this with terrific readability, tenderness, optimism and, most surprisingly, wit… The hallmark of the book is fine writing and a commendable depth of characterisation’
The Times
‘Wally Lamb’s achievement is to force you to feel Dominick’s pain… the events in Dominick’s everyday nightmare are presented with a sneaky simplicity which generates emotional tension’
Daily Telegraph
‘Lamb creates a nuanced picture of a flawed but decent man. And the questions that permeate the novel… contribute to a fully developed and triumphantly resolved exploration of one man’s suffering and redemption’
Publishers Weekly
Praise for THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED
‘It's disturbing yet achingly tender, a complex story related with such clarity and intimacy that the reader is captured by the narrator's dilemma right from the start. Caelum Quirk in his vulnerability, his confusion, his sympathy and above all his quiet decency, expresses so much about what it means to be a man trying to cope with the ripple effects of private and public trauma.’ Debra Adelaide, author of The Household Guide to Dying
Product Description
From the author of the international number one bestseller I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE comes a magnificent novel of a life turned upside-down by tragedy – and the search for a way to carry on in the aftermath.
Caelum Quirkes a middle-aged schoolteacher. Students at Columbine High School generally respect him and turn to his wife Maureen, the school nurse, when in trouble. When he has to return to his home town for the funeral of his beloved aunt, Maureen promises to join him the next day - but she goes to work that morning, and that’s when the shootings happen. She hides in a cupboard, unable to see what’s happening, but listening to the students being taunted, then killed.
Life can never be the same. But what can it be? In the face of Maureen’s trauma, Caelum searches for meaning, delving into his own family history and discovering that nothing was as he’s always been told. As the couple inch towards recovery and suffer setbacks, the stories of Caelum’s redoubtable ancestors illuminate how he came to be the man he is, and how he and Maureen might live in the future with freedom and dignity. With no easy answers, Caelum gradually comes to an understanding of who he really is and what he can believe in.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've waited so long for a wally lamb book so started this with eager anticipation. I liked the character of Caelum- he made a strong centre around which the story builds.
I really liked the beginning third of the book, which places Caelum and his wife right in the centre of the Columbine High School shootings. This was brilliantly written, never sensationalising, but giving a perceptive insight in to what much have been a harrowing and horrifying time for not only those directly involved, but those indirectly involved.
I have to say, i really struggled with the flash backs to Caelums Great Grandmother. i got confused with the characters as so many were introduced, and i didn't connect with them. As such i felt this part of the book really hard going and a little disappointing.
The book picks up in the final third, with a strong story and finish.
This was my least favourite of the Wally Lamb novels, the other 2 were just outstanding, i just hope the next one can get back to top form.
I really liked the beginning third of the book, which places Caelum and his wife right in the centre of the Columbine High School shootings. This was brilliantly written, never sensationalising, but giving a perceptive insight in to what much have been a harrowing and horrifying time for not only those directly involved, but those indirectly involved.
I have to say, i really struggled with the flash backs to Caelums Great Grandmother. i got confused with the characters as so many were introduced, and i didn't connect with them. As such i felt this part of the book really hard going and a little disappointing.
The book picks up in the final third, with a strong story and finish.
This was my least favourite of the Wally Lamb novels, the other 2 were just outstanding, i just hope the next one can get back to top form.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I approached "The Hour I First Believed" with a great deal of anticipation, having read and really enjoyed Wally Lamb's two previous novels within a couple of months of each other - albeit almost a decade ago. To say that this book does not disappoint would be a massive understatement. The strengths that he displayed in his previous books are again evident here, notably the depth of his characterisation. Caelum Quirk is deeply flawed, but it is the flaws and the frailties of his character that make him such a fascinating person, indeed his journey of redemption and self discovery are all the more plausible because of them. The same is true of his wife Maureen and the peripheral characters (I hesitate to use the word minor in this context).
As in his first book "She's Come Undone," Lamb uses real events as the focal points of his narrative. There it was Woodstock and the moon landings, here it is the Columbine shootings and to a lesser extent Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. Some people have taken issue with this, calling it a cop-out and saying that it renders the book shallow and dishonest. I disagree, I think it gives the book a legitimacy and makes it more truthful. This is also true of the social issues that Lamb takes on board - alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, drug dependency, infidelity, and in the second half of the story, slavery, lesbianism and female emancipation. Some of this does not make for comfortable reading, but as with the failings of his characters, Lamb tackles them with an openness and an honesty that draws you into his world.
"The Hour I First Believed" is a big book, but one that is worth taking time with. I know that some people have struggled with it, this is a shame, because reading it is a richly rewarding experience. Caelum's story will stay with me for a long time, as one of the psychiatrists said to him, "...sometimes when you go looking for what you want you run right into what you need." Taken out of context this probably sounds like a trite cliche, but within the framework of the narrative it is so, so true. I for one, hope that Wally Lamb does not have another case of writer's block like the one that delayed the writing and publication of this work, I would hate to wait nine years for his next offering - I urge you to read "The Hour I First Believed," it is a true modern masterpiece.
As in his first book "She's Come Undone," Lamb uses real events as the focal points of his narrative. There it was Woodstock and the moon landings, here it is the Columbine shootings and to a lesser extent Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. Some people have taken issue with this, calling it a cop-out and saying that it renders the book shallow and dishonest. I disagree, I think it gives the book a legitimacy and makes it more truthful. This is also true of the social issues that Lamb takes on board - alcohol abuse, spousal abuse, drug dependency, infidelity, and in the second half of the story, slavery, lesbianism and female emancipation. Some of this does not make for comfortable reading, but as with the failings of his characters, Lamb tackles them with an openness and an honesty that draws you into his world.
"The Hour I First Believed" is a big book, but one that is worth taking time with. I know that some people have struggled with it, this is a shame, because reading it is a richly rewarding experience. Caelum's story will stay with me for a long time, as one of the psychiatrists said to him, "...sometimes when you go looking for what you want you run right into what you need." Taken out of context this probably sounds like a trite cliche, but within the framework of the narrative it is so, so true. I for one, hope that Wally Lamb does not have another case of writer's block like the one that delayed the writing and publication of this work, I would hate to wait nine years for his next offering - I urge you to read "The Hour I First Believed," it is a true modern masterpiece.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This lengthy and profound novel by Wally Lamb covers major US events of the past two decades including The Columbine High School shootings, the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina, as well as chewing over weighty social issues such as marriage, drug addiction, prison reform, the connection between ancestry and identity and so on.
Our narrator is Caelum Quirk, a high school English teacher living in Littleton, Colorado, who has anger management issues that he's struggling to contain, whilst his third marriage hits the skids as well. A series of coincidences lead to Caelum discovering that there has been a massacre at the school where he works, Columbine, and his semi-estranged wife Maureen who also works there, as a nurse, has managed to survive by hiding in the library. Due to her guilt over surviving the ordeal, Maureen becomes addicted to prescription drugs and the pair of them start to go downhill even more rapidly.
Ultimately an optimistic and uplifting novel about redemption, albeit a secular kind, Lamb's easy narrative style and awkward but likeable characters is aimed at enriching and improving the reader's life, summed-up at the end of this fascinating book.
Our narrator is Caelum Quirk, a high school English teacher living in Littleton, Colorado, who has anger management issues that he's struggling to contain, whilst his third marriage hits the skids as well. A series of coincidences lead to Caelum discovering that there has been a massacre at the school where he works, Columbine, and his semi-estranged wife Maureen who also works there, as a nurse, has managed to survive by hiding in the library. Due to her guilt over surviving the ordeal, Maureen becomes addicted to prescription drugs and the pair of them start to go downhill even more rapidly.
Ultimately an optimistic and uplifting novel about redemption, albeit a secular kind, Lamb's easy narrative style and awkward but likeable characters is aimed at enriching and improving the reader's life, summed-up at the end of this fascinating book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Baffled by the book's composition
The trouble when you have a real life tragedy as the thread or one of the threads in an otherwise fictional tale, the book then gets reviewed more on how this is handled rather... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Mr. J. M. Haines
Serendipidous Discovery
If you knew what this book was about, you would not want to read it! However,once you have started, you will not want to put it down, because like me, you will be asking, "How can... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sally Antonia Firth
Miserable
There are a few reviews that already say what I want to say, so I'll be brief. After loving I Know This Much is True and She's Come Undone, I was very pleased about buying this... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Me
A hugely enjoyable read
I am a huge fan of Wally Lamb and was delighted to come across this novel. The book is a richly woven tale looking at how our family history and our past shape the person we... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Limur
Slow, tetchy, long, uninvolving, plot free
Ah, Wally, Wally. You're a great disappointment. I loved 'She's Come Undone', and was won round to 'I Know This Much Is True', but this one was just so slow, and so tetchy, and so... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Frootle
as good as wally's others
I was looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint! The underlying mental struggles of the characters was so true to life and with the events during and after the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ms. E. Shaw
Believed in what?
This has to be one of the most depressing, not to mention over-rated and turgid tomes that I've ever come across. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robin Monks
I loved this wonderful book
I thought that this novel was extremely good. Wally Lamb is an outstanding writer, with a very subtle prose style and deep insight into the human condition. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mrs. R. Burnett
Not for me
Daunted by this huge tome and tried hard, but just didn't get into it. Abandoned it after 50 pages. Sorry.
Published 14 months ago by The Navigator
This story stays with you...
I began to read this story with very mixed feelings - having already read two very thick novels by Wally Lamb, I knew that he was more than a good writer but an acute observer of... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Alison McVey
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