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Loading... The hour I first believed : a novel (original 2008; edition 2008)by Wally Lamb
Work InformationThe Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (2008)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Weighing in at 750 pages, I knew this book would have a Dickensian quality to it, with subplots emerging as the tale progressed. The main story is painful and wonderfully done. Once Lamb begins to commingle the main character's ancestry with the story, however, the book begins to meander from taut to sprawling. For an epic that tries to weave the Columbine shootings, Hurricane Katrina, Civil War times, and generations of family history into one tale, I'd give Lamb an "A" for effort, and perhaps a "B" for execution. As I told my wife, "You'd love the journey back to the secrets of his family's past, but hate the current day Columbine stuff". I was just the opposite - more interested in the aftermath of today's tragedies than unearthed familial history from generations before. So, on one hand, there's something for everyone; on the other, you might feel you're reading more stories than you bargained for. Lamb, though, is a terrific writer, and I felt as swept away by his narrative and characters as I have by my favorite current writer, TC Boyle. So, I do recommend this book - just prepare yourself for Lamb's desire to throw every historical moment since slavery into the tale at some point. I didn't like the main character, and the story was all over the place. It incorporated random events such as the Columbine shootings, mythology, various war/s, racism, drug abuse, hurricane Katrina, prison reform to name a few. Yet somehow I couldn't stop reading because I was interested to find out what happened next. I suspect that this is one of those books I will think about now and again for years to come. Well played. no reviews | add a review
Distinctions
Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, Caelum and Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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This particular book was all over the place from The shootings at Columbine to a farm in New England to a time shift to a Civil War nursing home. It doesn't seem like it should make any sense but in the end it all comes together.
Some of the story dragged for me - especially the longer passages about Lizzie Popper - but overall it was a book I wanted to keep reading despite its flaws.
I suppose it's a testament to Lamb that despite a bunch of unlikeable characters and some boring sections I really couldn't stop thinking about this book when I wasn't reading it. I needed to find out what happened to all of them. ( )