Wally Lamb

This latest book by the genius who is Wally Lamb is a corker! He is a master at depicting human failings which, even with the best intentions, cause very human mistakes and missteps. Corby Ledbetter struggles to remain on an even keel even though he and his wife Emily are raising twin children. He’s lost his job as a commercial artist, and is succumbing to depression and seeking relief in alcohol and “Bennie’s”. And then the unthinkable happens, and a tragic loss takes Corby into the show more netherworld of prison. He goes from despair to rage to hopelessness until he finds a sort of peace with his cellmate Manny, AA meetings, a couple of caring prison staff and his drawing. This novel is harsh and desolate, but we continue to find hope as we see Corby trying to overcome his demons. As the novel is told in the first person, we follow along on Corby’s journey into hell and back. We see the brutality of prison life, the damage that addiction causes on lives and families and the toll it all takes on the human mind. This man can write! This is a book I’ll carry with me for awhile. Powerful stuff! show less

It's 2017, and Corby Ledbetter is a stay-at-home dad to two-year-old twins Maisie and Niko while his wife Emily works. He's also secretly drowning — a rum in his morning coffee, an Ativan or two before the kids are up, telling himself it's under control. One morning, distracted and medicated, he loads the car, forgets he's only buckled in one of them, and backs the car over his son Niko in the driveway. The first twelve pages are described universally as some of the most devastating in show more recent fiction. Corby is charged with involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison. The rest of the novel is the long, brutal, uneven reckoning — Corby in prison bearing witness to violence and cruelty, but also finding unexpected kindness from a prison librarian, a tender-hearted cellmate named Manny, and a fragile troubled teenager named Solomon who needs someone to protect him. The river the title refers to runs along the prison perimeter and becomes Corby's anchor — the sound of it soothing him in his bunk, its current heading south toward home. Oprah's Book Club pick. Lamb spent twenty years volunteering as a writing instructor at a women's prison, and it shows in every page.

[May contain spoilers]
Corby doesn't make it home. He dies of COVID-19 while still incarcerated in 2020 — just before a release that was already in jeopardy after he was raped shortly beforehand. The final section shifts to Dr. Patel, his prison psychiatrist, and then to Emily, who in 2023 receives a letter from Manny, now released. He meets her and gives her a sketch Corby made of Solomon and a river stone Corby carried. Emily, confronting her own complicity — she had ignored signs of his addiction — decides to scatter his ashes in the Wequonnoc River, and invites Solomon to join her and Maisie at the riverbank. The ending is genuinely divisive — some found it profoundly moving, others felt Corby's death by COVID felt like a cheat that denied him and the reader any real resolution or reconciliation.
What I think: This is heavy, slow-burning Wally Lamb at his most serious — I Know This Much Is True territory. The opening is unforgettable and will stay with you. The didactic prison system commentary might occasionally grate on your sarcastic side. Corby is not an easy character to spend time with, especially early on. And the COVID ending is either devastating or a cop-out depending on your temperament. show less

Just because you can’t see mental illness like you could see a broken bone, doesn’t mean it’s not as detrimental or devastating to a family or an individual” – Demi Lovato

Dominick and Thomas Birdsey are identical twins living in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut. Dominick is mentally typical, but Thomas is a paranoid schizophrenic. They were raised in a chaotic and abusive household. Ray, their adoptive step-father, was a former military man with an explosive temper. show more He was abusive to all of them, but his prime target was Thomas. Their mother, was a quiet, gentle woman plagued with a cleft lip and an inability to stand up to her bullying husband.

Now in his adulthood Dominick struggles with the ramifications of his own lost childhood and his brother's mental illness. His marriage has failed following the tragic death of his infant daughter and his business as a housepainter is in trouble. When his mother, Concettina, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Dominick promises to take care of Thomas after she is gone. A few years later, Thomas enters a public library, pulls out a knife, and cuts off his own hand in protest of the impending Gulf War. He’s committed to a maximum security asylum and Dominick struggles to protect him from mistreatment in a system that has little regard for human dignity. Dominick finds himself torn between his dedication to his brother and mounting resentment over what that is costing him.

After his mother death, Dominick discovers an abundance of ancestral history in the pages of his immigrant grandfather’s, Domenico Tempesto, memoir. The more Dominick reads, the more he learns about his delusional grandfather, generations plagued by mental illnesses, and the heart-breaking details of his mother’s own troubled childhood.

'I Know This Much Is True' offers layers of multiple themes: love, shame, loss, survival, abuse of power, suicide, family dysfunction, and of course the effects of mental illness on family dynamics. Lamb gives a poignant and moving presentation of just how the love, commitment, and exhausting efforts of loved ones are met with the grim reality of their own utter powerlessness when dealing with mental illness.

The imagery and descriptive nature of this novel makes this a harrowing read at times. It is an extremely intense, multi-layered novel that delves into some very dark issues, We are reminded that every generation contributes to family dysfunction, and that we are shaped by our beginnings no matter how we might like to alter them. My copy of this novel was just short of 1000 pages long that requires an emotional investment as well as a time one. As has been stated elsewhere this novel rather reminds me of 'The Cutting of Stone' by Michael Verghase as each book deals with twins who end up leading very different life paths. Whilst I'm not sure that love is the correct adjective for this book due to the harrowing details it reveals and perhaps with my own son living with schizophrenia for the last decade or so it is a little too close to home for comfort, I would still highly recommend it. show less

Thomas and Dominic. Identical twins.
Dominic's life reminded me of a country song. You know the ones where anything that could go wrong eventually does. Consider: Dominic spent his entire life worrying about three things. One, who was his father? By not knowing his father Dominic feels he does not know himself. As a child he dreamed of his biological father and fantasized about the day this mystery man would swoop in and save him and Thomas from their abusive stepfather, Ray. Two, Dominic show more was convinced his mother loved his brother more. Maybe she really did because of Thomas's mental illness. On her deathbed she makes Dominic promise to look after Thomas, all the while refusing to reveal the true identity of their father. Three, Thomas's mental illness could be hereditary and sooner or later Dominic would inherit his brother's schizophrenia. Was he just as crazy as his brother and just not know it? All of these worries weigh on Dominic as he tries to cope. In giving up his own life to fulfill the promise he made to his mother his marriage falls apart and he quit his job as a history teacher (ironically, it is history that sets him free).
In order for this story to be successful the reader needed to be grounded in the current events of the time, otherwise Thomas's internal angst doesn't make sense. Eric Clapton's son falling from a window. Desert Storm. The beating of Rodney King. The world on fire. In addition to these unsettling times, Lamb throws in some equally difficult subjects like racism, AIDS, post traumatic stress suffered by veterans, diabetes, and of course, the complicated system of treating mental health.
I deeply love flawed characters; ones who find a way to change just enough that by the end of the book they are going to be okay, even if it is only somewhat okay. They haven't gone from devil to angel but their lives are not the disaster they once were. show less