“I know it sounds crazy. I know this much is true.” Dominick Birdsey surveys the ruins of his life and must decide whether he can rebuild from the wreckage. Grievance and self-pity suffuse this veteran of many betrayals (of which he has been both victim and victimizer)."I never claimed I was lovable. Never said I wasn't a son of a bitch." Dominick’s identical twin, Thomas Birdsey, is a paranoid schizophrenic who chopped off his own hand at the public library as a sacrificial offering to lead the modern world to Jesus. Dominick exhibits a roiling mixture of conflicting emotions toward his brother: rage; superiority; guilt; love; grief, and pity. Dominick prided himself as the dominant and strong brother. "When you're the sane brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your hands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet....Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical wrap." Yet, in addition to guilt, envy of Thomas nags Dominick like pebbles inside his shoe. Why?Dominick, now 41, confronts the suppressed truths of his 1950's childhood and the fateful summer of 1969. To aid him in unlocking the past, he visits his psychiatrist, Dr. Patel, who counsels that forgiveness is loam, and she lends him Joseph Campbell’s famous book, “Hero With a Thousand Faces,” about archetypes common to all mythology. As summarized by Dr. Patel: In ancient myths… in stories from cultures as far-flung as the Eskimos and the ancient Greeks—orphaned sons leave home in search of their fathers. In search of the self-truths that will allow them to return restored, completed. In these stories, knowledge eludes the lost child and fate throws trial and tribulation onto his path—hurls at him conundrums he must solve, hardships he must conquer. But if the orphan endures, then finally, at long last, he stumbles from the wilderness into the light, holding the precious elixir of truth. And we rejoice. At last, he has earned his parentage. And for his troubles he has gained understanding and peace. He has earned his father’s kingdom. The universe is his. (886) Dominick must decide whether he is capable of returning home with the courage and wisdom to help others. But while reading mythology, Dominick also reads his Sicilian grandfather’s journal, which describes his namesake’s life as an industrious but angry immigrant to the USA at the beginning of the twentieth century. Lamb gradually unfolds the grandfather’s journal throughout the novel as a parallel story, which suggests that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children for many generations. Can Dominick “bear witness” and break Omertà—the Sicilian code of silence? Can Dominick learn to make a gift out of a parable of failure?Dominick, like Telemachus, searches for his father because he refuses to accept Ray, his brutish stepfather. He must also navigate many challenges: the secretive memory of his dead mother; the befuddlement toward his kleptomaniac and kinky girlfriend; the grief for his baby who died of SIDs; and the pining for his ex-wife whom he still loves. “Dead brothers. Dead babies. Dead marriages. What sense did any of this make?” Confronted with so many different problems, Dominick is not sure whether his life is a challenge or a practical joke, and he is forced to re-examine his reflexive posture of always “playing defense” and his instinct to look out for himself first. "That's the trouble with survival of the fittest, isn't it? The corpse at your feet.” Dominick, “a meticulous steward” of the pain and injustices that people have visited upon him must discover whether betrayals (including those he perpetrated) can be forgiven. Lamb describes his own novel as “a big, shaggy beast,” but, while reading 900 pages in 7 days, I adopted this loveable mongrel of an epic novel, which reads as smooth as a stone that the brothers, as boys, skimmed across wide and deep lakes. Lamb weaves many threads into a crazy, lopsided patchwork quilt that barely covers its broken characters and their fragmented relationships, but it faithfully depicts the human spirit in all its ugliness and splendor. In this novel, we see the entire panoply of human depravity displayed in a small Connecticut town, and there are many relationships that will make readers squirm. The story contains many (for my taste too many) acts of abuse: domestic; physical; verbal; and sexual. Readers sensitive to these triggers should beware; however, I believe that Lamb's purpose is to show that we are all victims of suffering that have deformed us; therefore, emotionally astute sufferers might consider the past of their persecutors when judging whether or not forgiveness is appropriate. Moreover, he writes with much humor and light as a balance to the oppressive atmosphere of sexual abuse. Fortunately, Lamb deftly mines the emotional impact of these abuses through indirect narrative and without graphic detail. Regardless of the details, everybody suffers and carries the scars on the psyche—a type of original sin and a rite of passage for all humans. Our traumas can either anneal or soften; sensitize or desensitize. Too often we get bad advice from metaphoric "stepfathers" who damage us (while attempting to do us a "favor") by bullying us into submission in a misguided attempt to toughen us by purging our sensitivity, which they see as weakness.Lamb’s novel gives good advice to the walking wounded, and he writes with a traditional preference for plot and for conclusions with an optimistic moral that challenges our entrenched and fashionable cynicism. Not all readers will appreciate his attitude and style, but Lamb celebrates ”the roundness of things:” death and life; wounds and healings; sins and forgiveness; hatred and love; thefts and sacrifices; fear and courage; oppressors and the oppressed; the past and the future. I believe, with Lamb, that fear often creates and perpetuates our cruelty and anger. And though our wounds and our betrayals nearly slay us, they also summon us to a hero’s journey. “I know it sounds crazy. I know this much is true.” With destruction comes the opportunity to renovate, reinvent, and reinvest ourselves. With destruction comes the opportunity to forgive and unlearn fear. If you emerge from the destruction, perhaps you will recognize your face among the throng of heroes who find the rich loam of home, and discover that our journey’s end is where we started, and we will recognize our home for the first time. July 8, 2014.
Ufta. Well...it's a testament to the quality of this book that I was willing to stick it out the entire 900 pages (well, 856, but who's counting?) If you can get past the intimidating bulk and stick it through to the end, there really is some quality writing here that is well worth the time it takes to read.The plot centers around Dominick Birdsey, the "sane" counterpart to his schizophrenic and paranoid identical twin, Thomas. Most of the novel is dedicated to Dominick acting as an advocate for his brother: Thomas has been admitted to a high security forensic institute and Dominick fights to have him removed while at the same time struggling with his own personal battles. The last third of the book is also a foray into the past as Dominick (and the reader) explores his grandfather's written history and discovers perhaps more than he would have liked to have known about his ancestors.The author's strong points include well-rounded and extremely interesting characters, a terrific ability to make everything come full circle thematically, and a good ear for dialogue. I can forgive the small bits of mysticism here and there because I felt they weren't there simply for artsiness or filler, but rather to develop character and move the plot along. I will say that I thought the ending was too "wrapped up." He spelled every little thing out, tied up every single loose end, made everything resolve itself in a nice little package. But I was so invested in the other 840+ pages that it was the characters and their quirks and their heartbreaks and their conflicts, not the ending, that stuck with me.
What do You think about I Know This Much Is True (1999)?
This is absolutely my favorite book ever. It's quite a long read, but the story pulls you in almost immediately and you can't stop reading until the end.Though it ended quite well, I remember finishing it and just sobbing. The insights on humanity (both the good and bad parts of it) were utterly profound. Plus, you felt like you truly had come full circle with the main character, Dominick. I'm not sure why I cried... relief that a character so flawed and human like Dominick could get a second chance (and hence there is hope for the rest of us) or from the profound gratitude that you can only feel when you've found something precious that you lost, or maybe I cried b/c though Dominick had been "saved," he still lost his brother. All emotions come forth, powerfully, when reading this book.
—Mandy
If I had an All-Time-Favorites shelf, this book would definitely be on it! Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True has addictive characters and is beautifully written with so much depth and feeling with absolutely no boring parts to detract from the story. The only bad thing about reading this book was wondering how the hell the next one will ever measure up! I loved the ending and truly wish it wasn't over!If you have not read this wonderful novel, you are really missing out, and do not let the 928 pages put you off as they will just zip on by. POWERFUL! UNPUTDOWNABLE! UNFORGETTABLE!
—Carol
People keep griping about the F word. It's just a word. i'm more bothered while trying to re-read this book by-Wrong narrator syndrome. I really want to get into Thomas's head more. Both Domenicos are just not interesting. Who wants to hear about their grandfather? That guy is such a jerk. He's driving me crazy. Who wants to read about someone thinking he's all that, a bag of chips and a value meal?Another thing is the dialogue is driving me crazy. The characters are just too simplistic. They don't really have a whole lot of facades to them.Now to continue tormenting myself.Dude, first of all WE KNOW THE GUY IS ITALIAN SO WHY ALL THE ITALIAN? Second, WHY MUST YOU CRAM EVERY SINGLE TRAGEDY YOU CAN INTO ONE BOOK?!The actual review:Dang, this book frustrated me. So I took away its stars. It's just like with She's Come Undone. Oprah rants about it, most people love it, but it's full of-Stereotypes. Every character is a stereotype. The lesbians, the Indian from India doctor, the Black Power/Native Power part black part Native character, the DON'T YOU DARE BE A SISSY stepfather, the long suffering mother. I just don't think real people are LIKE this, this simplistic and cardboard!The book suffers from Wrong Narrator Syndrome. Dominick isn't as interesting as his brother, but we get his point of view, then we get to read about his asshole grandfather! He was such a hateful and unsympathetic, dickhole of a character that it was just so unpleasant to read about him. He was full of himself. He was proud to treat the people close to him like steaming dog crap. Why did we even need so MUCH of him anyway? As I said above, Lamb has to cram every single tragedy in this book he can think of. You have to have mental illness, rape, abuse, more abuse, racism, AIDS, suicide, killing a monkey and then he's got to add even more of that! It's like you are in a boxing ring being punched over and over and not getting a break from all the mega-misery! Same thing with She's Come Undone! Stuff besides rape and abuse happens to people!It's contrived, it's cringe-worthy. I will not read any more of this poxy writer! People are out of their minds if they think adult books are better than children's books JUST because have adult protagonists. I've read young adult books that tackled these subjects a hell of a lot better.
—Spider the Doof Warrior
