I love this mans books. My nephew read this and asked me to review it. As I spent all day making lep cakes or lepkuchen (results and pictures on florenceview go see it's one of my other blogs, dog is also on animals that give pause will be more about him maybe tonight) and am currently trying to wade through The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan (say that 3 times fast) I said this is a good day to do it as I haven't read anything new for a couple days. You can own The Hour I First Believed for $13.90 used @ Amazon right now or they can get the new one to you in time to read over Christmas if you choose one day shipping.
I got the book @ the library, I was thrilled and naturally read it till I was done (my OCD coming out again). That was before Thanksgiving and I still had it when my nephew arrived Wednesday for the holiday and to pick up his dog from my daughter. That explains the dog picture here. BTW his name was Runt but now it's Newman. What does this have to do with the book? I'm getting to that, Mikey, my nephew, saw the book and started reading it, I think he read my How Starbucks Saved My Life book too but he got like half through with The Hour I First Believed and he had to leave on Friday. Through all the kids and the turkey and the dog he read this book, we talked to him, he grunted, no actually he would answer politely because he is polite and nice, my husband says I and my daughters and his sister are mean to him but he's Mikey? Granted he's my nephew and you are thinking cute little red headed kid, that was 30 some years ago, he's a daddy to two almost grown kids and a high school literature teacher now, he's like getting close to my age, when he was 11 and I was 21 it was a much bigger gap. He shares my appreciation of Wally Lamb and he did get to finish the book when someone gave it to him for an early Christmas present. There's that personal touch my blog needs or I just threw in there to torture you, now back to the book.
The book is basically about Columbine and it's effects on one couples lives but it's intertwined with the mans ancestors which all culminates into an ending you really don't see coming as do most of Mr. Lambs books. The main male character (who is a teacher also as is/was Mr. Lamb) is the narrator and seemingly unrelated or inexplicable childhood events become clear to him after he is forced by his wife's mental state after Columbine to return to the old family homestead. Mr. Lambs ability to get inside the skull of another person and feel and explain what they are feeling is unparalleled in my estimation. (does in my estimation ALWAYS come after unparalleled? like pnut butter and jelly?)
I own the two other books of Mr. Lambs, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True. I will have to purchase this one so my husband can read it. He's the original macho cowboy type truck driver (read grandpa who wears cowboy boots and a gimme baseball cap) but he's read most of the Oprah book club books and most of my current library too. So if you need one more Christmas gift for the hard to buy for you might consider this book. If they like long involved books that is. It's not light reading and it's not light to lift it.
The Washington Post didn't like this book very much and my nephew said the same thing in a much milder way, he could have left part of that historical BS out. But if Mr. Lamb did would it have been the same book and would we come away with the same feelings? Probably not.
No comments:
Post a Comment