The Hour I First Believed: A Novel
by Wally Lamb
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Book Reviews of The Hour I First Believed: A Novel
Book Review: A Long and Winding Road to Keen Insight
Summary: 4 Stars
Like many of the reviewers here, I have become something of a fan of Wally Lamb. I found both of his previous works to be impressive literary accomplishments containing gems of truth and wisdom in the tradition of the great writers in the history of world literature. I have compared him favorably to one of my favorite authors of all time, Fyodor Dostoevsky. When "The Hour I First Believed" was published, I was delighted to buy it in hard-cover and not wait for the paperback.
Reading Lamb is an adventure. In this case, the adventure was marked, as the Washington Post reviewer (above) said, by too many side trips, diversions and distractions that continually threatened to bury the main story line and message of this otherwise amazing novel. I got a slightly different twist on the main message from what I've read here and elsewhere. While the book is clearly "about" violence -- human and natural -- and the toll it takes, I found that its focus on what we euphemistically refer to as "collateral damage" was what was most moving and telling. The female protagonist, Mo Quirk, survives the Columbine massacre but pays a horrific psychological toll for having done so. Her husband and the narrator, Caelum Quirk, is a walking case study in collateral damage. The mixed-race couple he befriends are collateral damage victims of Katrina and the government neglect that storm revealed. On one level, this novel treats violence as an unavoidable outgrowth of social forces and all of its victims as collateral damage of some form or another, an outcome which is neither accurate nor entirely satisfying but which brings into stark relief the main discussion of the violence of our times.
There can be no doubt of Lamb's writing skill. He handles the language deftly, even when he morphs his style to that of a fictional 19th Century woman crusader. And his storytelling abilities are quite strong and well-developed. The problem with this novel -- and it is a problem that I suspect others will find a strength -- is that he tells too many stories and fails to intertwine or connect them in reasonably meaningful ways. The book needed an editor who could say to a brilliant mind like Lamb's, "This whole story goes nowhere and adds nothing. Let's cut it." If that saner notion had prevailed in two or three places, this would be Nobel Prize material.
As it is, it remains a thoroughly readable and enlightening exploration of human weakness, violence and the collateral damage that flows from the nature of our culture.
Book Review: Not "why" or "if" we believe, but "how"...
Summary: 5 Stars
Although quite long with many subplots, this story of a middle-aged man's search for something to believe in has deeply touched me. The book is divided into several sections, each dealing with different aspects of the lives and choices made by the many characters in the novel from friends to relatives to persons who lived during the time and era being described. The saga spans the periods of years from the 1800s to present day and includes sociological, cultural, and historical perspectives.
In the first part of the story-- and the one that causes the significant conflict for the main character in the book-- the somewhat unsympathetic and unlikable narrator Caelum Quirk is an English teacher off tending to a dying aunt and his wife a part-time nurse at Columbine High School in Colorado at the time that the massacre of students takes place there in April, 1999. (Though the facts of the rampage are presented in the context of fiction, this is an incredibly moving section of the book.) His wife Maureen (Mo) cannot recover from surviving that terrible day and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. Unable to function, she withdraws and finds solace in illegally obtained prescription drugs. Without going further to convey more plot details, suffice to say that the marriage falters and Caelum is forced to deal with many issues, not the least of which is confounded when historical documents and old letters belonging to his aunt reveal a family history contrary to what he thought he knew.
Part mystery, part expose, the story of Caelum's quest to find out the truth of himself and his family will urge the reader forward until the very last page is turned. This is a novel that draws one in and never lets go; the search for hope and faith, the profound wish that life has meaning and that there is a purpose for it all -- the good or the evil.
Other reviewers have remarked that the plethora of extraneous and/or historical information, the author's lengthy descriptions of certain aspects of the Civil War, and the dissertation written by one of the characters that he included might be off-putting, but I found the detail and description interesting. This is a saga that spans several generations and involves keeping straight many characters and their relationships to each other. There are many details to keep in mind and thus, I just couldn't put it down so as not to get too confused.
Highly recommended. This is one to remember long after the last page is turned.
Book Review: Disappointing!
Summary: 2 Stars
She's Come Undone is one of my all-time favorite books; I've read it so many times, the pages are starting to show major wear. I also loved Wally Lamb's sophomore novel, I Know This Much Is True, though differently and to a lesser degree.
I had high hopes, though, for his latest tome, The Hour I First Believed. I was anxious to see how he handled the Columbine crisis from the point of view of his fictional characters. Lamb is known for his characterizations, and I anticipated a deep, fascinating story in which we'd really get to experience the trauma firsthand with the characters in a way we hadn't been able to with the real life victims.
Unfortunately, this book doesn't live up to my expectations. The first half, "Butterfly," is decent enough. It follows Caelum and Maureen Quirk's troubled marriage leading up to, during, and after the Columbine shootings. Maureen, who was in the library that day, quickly spirals down into a black hole of PTSD, and Caelum does everything in his power to keep his wife tethered to him -- however tenuously. The use of real news clippings, transcripts and witness testimonies as a storytelling device helps to keep the gravitas of the situation close. However, Maureen's descent into prescription pill addiction seems too contrived, cliched and quick, and Caelum's frustration with his wife's inability to "get over it" comes off as callous and cold.
Part two, "Mantis," begins when the couple decides to move back to Connecticut, their hometown, to start over. Soon after, a tragic incident leads to their separation ("circumstantial, not legal," Caelum later explains to someone) and the book veers off into a completely new direction. "Mantis" involves Caelum's discovery of the diaries and missives written by his great-grandmother Lydia, and her grandmother, Elizabeth. Soon, the lives of these two women becomes the central focus of The Hour I First Believed, and the book's tie to the Columbine tragedy suddenly seems a million miles away.
The problem I have with THIFB is that it feels distinctly like two different novels. Had Lamb published them as such,they may have made for interesting reading. However, as one book, it felt scattered and messy.
If you're a Wally Lamb fan and are determined to read everything he publishes, pick this one up from the library instead of buying it. If you're just looking for a great piece of literature to sink your teeth into, skip this one altogether. Sorry, Wally.
Book Review: He's come undone
Summary: 3 Stars
Not to be too flip about this, but I knew I was in trouble when I discovered that this novel covered not only the Columbine shootings, but also incorporated the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina. Why not toss in a coda about the current economic meltdown?
Ambition in a novel is fine, and some of my favorite writers have gone out on a limb and succeeded: Margaret Atwood with "Oryx and Crake," Nick Hornsby's "A Long Way Down" and Tom Wolfe's "I am Charlotte Simmons" come to mind.
But "The Hour I First Believed" suffers from the kitchen-pot syndrome - if it led the news for a month or so, Wally Lamb felt like he had to toss it into the mix.
I couldn't get enough of the book when it focused on the Columbine shootings. This was tough stuff, extremely well reported, and rendered unsentimentally. Lamb, who also has been one of my favorite writers, avoided his tendency to over-simplify the motivations of the killers and made us feel like we were looking at the aftermath of this horrific crime through the eyes of a true survivor and searcher.
If Lamb had kept his focus, he could have produced a hugely important novel. But he couldn't resist the urge to write an epic. But as the makers of "Australia" discovered, epics can't be approached like a batch of chili. More isn't always more - it's often just a muddle.
Towards the end, I actually found myself skipping over whole chunks of the book, primarily the "discovered" 19th century letters that supposedly shed light on Lamb's main character, Caelum Quirk.
But I didn't want to know more about his back story. I didn't want to bump into a couple of Katrina refugees. And I certainly didn't need to watch Quirk agonize again about his missed opportunities with another classroom monster, this one an Iraq vet who apparently can't decide whether to blow away our humble narrator or his wife and child.
All of these strings could have been developed for other books, but I guess when you only write one every 10 years, it's hard to ignore what seems like a good idea at the time.
Still, there is no denying that there are powerful scenes in this book that blow away most of Lamb's competition on the bestseller lists. He is a wonderful writer. Next time, he just needs to hook up with an editor who has the talent - and the balls - to push this writer for his best work and leave the second-rate stuff on the cutting room floor.
Book Review: Utterly Devastating
Summary: 2 Stars
I hardly know how to begin this review. What to say about this book. I read The Hour I First Believed in ten hours. Feeling all the while like a moth drawn in to a flame, knowing I was going to be burned but unable to pull away.
I bought the book because of the title... which is a line from an old hymn, written by man who had lost everything yet held on to faith and hope in the goodness of life.
The Hour I First Believed, written about a man and woman enduring similar, catastrophic losses, led me to hope this book would be equally inspiring.
But instead, I'm sitting here, struggling for words, feeling a solid dose of the PTSD described in the book. Except this PTSD was brought on by what this author made me endure in his story.
If you mix a coming of age story, with a historical biography from the Civil War, and a non fiction book on the Columbine murders, and then throw in a few political rants, and an oversized helping of truly raunchy erotica, you've got The Hour I First Believed.
To Lamb's credit, the book is brilliantly written. He's obviously poured his guts into the telling of this tale.
And yet, this book is so grueling, often utterly base, emotionally draining, and for the most part devoid of hope. I turned the last page feeling as though I'd had all wind knocked from my lungs. Exhausted. And in need of a full bucket of brain bleach to wash away some of the more horrific and despicable images painted in the story.
Perhaps I've been sheltered--though my own life has had tremendous challenges--but is is our world truly this vile, this hopeless, this lost?
The author covered just about every horrifying and despicable act mankind can perpetrate on each other. In just one novel.
And at the end of it all, the payoff we receive for suffering through the whole thing?
Not enough to fill one page. Out of nearly 800 pages of story!
My advice to interested readers? Save your money. You'll not only save yourself the nearly $20 for the book itself, but also all the cash you'll need for counseling after you finish the book.
My advice to the author? Dear God, man, you're obviously a talented writer. But anyone can suck people down and spread misery. Use your gifts to give people HOPE instead. Please!