Price: $17.97

December 06, 2009.

Not Good.

Rating: 1
Attention! Attention! Everybody out of the pool. Wally Lamb has jumped the shark!

And boy did he ever.

His characters encounter Columbine, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina an the regular gambit of an author who has obviously at this time run out of ideas.

And the book is long. Long and contrived and sadly dull.

The main character himself would be interesting were it not for the fact that he is Dominic Birdsey from his last book all over again. he even has a loudmothed, classless friend like Dominic. So it's no surprise that he and Dominic live in the same town, know the same people, use the same shrink and ran relays together in high school, duh! They are the same person! It's just a rehash and a poor one at that. It's disappointing. And the fact that Dominic actually makes an appearance in the book...well..it's just silly.

Not good.

I'm just glad I got this one at the library. And even though it is a new release, I won't have any problem returning it in seven days.

December 06, 2009.

One Novel Cannot Tackle Every Modern American Crisis.

Rating: 2
As a huge fan of both "I Know This Much Is True" and "She's Come Undone," I really appreciate Wally Lamb's intellectual and psychological, yet extremely down to earth approach in writing a novel. However, he dives in way over his head with his most recent, and highly anticipated work, "The Hour I First Believed." I found the Columbine portion of this book most engaging, however that may have been because I was only a couple hundred pages deep and still hopeful.

Lamb fails in realistically conveying the emotional aftermath of multiple modern American disasters in the past 20 years (Columbine, Hurricane Katrina AND the war in Iraq). By the time he brings up the PTSD experienced by a soldier in the Iraqi war, his attempts appear as only cliche. Furthermore, Lamb is unsuccessful in his endeavors to forge a shallow comparison between the lack of justice present in both America's past and present.

Lastly, the Lizzy Popper subplot of this book is very dry and drawn out. I quickly got sick of making inferences about the results of paternity tests. By the end, the novel felt eerily similar to a CNN-sponsored soap opera.

December 05, 2009.

I wish Wally Lamb could write faster!.

Rating: 5
A well thought out & written story. He makes you think and feel along with each character. I have enjoyed all of Wally Lamb's Books and look forward to the next.

December 05, 2009.

Not what I had expected from Wally Lamb.

Rating: 2
Like many on here, I am a big fan of Wally Lamb's books. I loved "She's Come Undone" and loved "I Know This Much is True." So when he finally came out with this book, I was very excited to read it. However, I was very let down. I really wanted to like this book, but had a difficult time following the story. There were too many tangents and content that should have been edited out. The "german beer history" and the "great grandmother" thesis should have been shortened. I skipped through most cause it was soo boring and I just didn't quite get why it was important for us readers to know about it. Anyway, I am still a Wally Lamb fan and do hope that his next book is better.

December 04, 2009.

First Wally Lamb book I've read.

Rating: 4
I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I read it in two days, although I did skip some of the Lizzy Popper pages. I was drawn to this book because of the Columbine subject matter. I lived in Colorado for many years and know some of the people involved.
At the time of the Columbine tragedy I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter, and on bed rest, and reading and t.v. were really my only options to make it bearable. So, I was glued to the tragedy as it unfolded and it was really hard to process, and to be bringing a new soul into this troubled world seemed to compound my feelings even more. I wasn't sure if I would like Lamb's take on such a complex, multi-faceted human event. I am pleased to say Lamb did a brilliant job, and really made me understand the ripple effect that such a tragic event can set off. His knowledge of PTSD was impressive, and how hard the struggle to manage it can be for a person. When I was first trying to process everything that happened in this book , I thought there is no way any of this is believable, but the more I thought about the more I came to the conclusion that yes I can believe the Quirks went through such hell. Life is messy and as much as I would of loved a happy ending, I somehow get the feeling that Lamb wanted the real life messy ending. To me that is what made this book so moving: his grasp on the messiness of life and how we deal with the mess and one's search for God in the midst of the mess. I have already ordered two more of his books, and am looking forward to reading them.