I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

This book was a challenge for me in more ways than one. First, at close to 1,000 pages, it is a l-o-n-g book. Second, when a book doesn't grab me within the first 30 or so pages, I start to feel antsy. And impatient. And that leads me to feel frustrated and like I want to quit. But since this was a book club book, I didn't want to fail. I wanted to finish. 1,480 reviewers on Amazon had given this book 4.5 out of 5 stars! It had to be good!
But at page 300 I was still feeling dissatisfied. And, to be honest, bored.
By page 600, I was interested. Not loving on the book, persay, but I looked forward to opportunities I had to sit down and read. And since the month of January included two nights in the hospital, multiple procedures, recovery time, and sick days, I had my fair share of reading time. It's like January knew I had to get through 1,000 pages.

By the time I reached "The End," I had developed an appreciation for the book. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites, and it was awfully depressing throughout, but it contained witty writing; tough, probing situations; and a deep plot that makes you want to applaud any author that can compose such a story.

Is this a book for you? I'm not sure. Even though I'm not going to spend much time recommending it, 1,480 people from Amazon would say I should.

Amazon.com review:

Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 1998: What if you were a 40-year-old housepainter, horrifically abused, emotionally unavailable, and your identical twin was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed in public self-mutilation? You'd either be a guest on the Jerry Springer Show or Dominick Birdsey, the antihero, narrator, and bad-juju magnet of I Know This Much Is True. Somewhere in the recesses of this hefty 912-page tome lurks an honest, moving account of one man's search, denial, and acceptance of self. This is no easy feat considering his grandfather seemed to take parenting tips from the SS and his grandmother was a possible teenage murderess, his stepfather a latent sadist, and his brother, Thomas, a politically motivated psychopath. Not one to break with tradition, Dominick continues the dysfunctional legacy with rape, a failed marriage, a nervous breakdown, SIDS, a car crash, and a racist conspiracy against a coworker--just to name a few.

A stretch, both literally and figuratively from his Oprah-christened bestseller, She's Come Undone, Lamb's book ventures outside the confines of the tightly bound beach read and marathons through a detailed, neatly cataloged account of every familial travesty and personal failure one can endure. At its heart lies Freud's "return of the repressed": the more we try to deny who we are, the more we become what we fear. Lamb takes Freud's psychological abstraction to the realm of everyday living, packing his novel with tender, believable dialogue and thoughtful observation. --Rebekah Warren