For me The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb is a literary event. Powerful, heavy, long – loved it.
The 700+ pages, in smallish font size, written in the first person, covered the Columbine shootings rather more than I would have chosen to revisit. But, I found that when I wasn’t otherwise engaged, I was thinking about the story life as if it were my own; almost a Being-John-Malkovich perspective.
The characters were often, if not mostly, in crisis which made me wonder at the strong connection I felt toward them. Wally hasn’t provided convenient villains to blame either; much like real life. If I could write a long novel, I’d write like this.
I am even more of a fan of Lamb’s than I was when I read his first novel She’s Come Undone. In that one, I had a hard time believing that the author wasn’t a woman. His sense of femaleness seemed too true for a male mind. I’m often wrong about such things. So here’s to you Wally Lamb – May you write prolifically.
The characters were often, if not mostly, in crisis which made me wonder at the strong connection I felt toward them. Wally hasn’t provided convenient villains to blame either; much like real life. If I could write a long novel, I’d write like this.
I am even more of a fan of Lamb’s than I was when I read his first novel She’s Come Undone. In that one, I had a hard time believing that the author wasn’t a woman. His sense of femaleness seemed too true for a male mind. I’m often wrong about such things. So here’s to you Wally Lamb – May you write prolifically.
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