Reviews

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

novabird's review against another edition

3.0

Does two of one thing always mean twice as good?

Lamb uses two of many things as a motif throughout, IKTMIT, perhaps as a way to compensate for the lack of projecting, the more difficult twin, Thomas’ narrative account:

 Two sets of twins
 Two suicides
 Two incidents of AIDS
 Two ‘bad trips,’ after surgery induced by pain killer hallucinations
 Two bodies found in nearly the same place
 Two incidents of poisoning
 Two falling off of roofs
 Two sons-in-law asking same father-in-law for the hands of his two daughters at the same time
 Two tales as subplots/backstory by Italians
 Two people being raped
 Two relatives at same psychiatric forensic unit

There are probably more ‘doubles,’ but those are the ones that I recall best.

If Lamb’s idea was to create an atmosphere of too much information as a stand-in for Thomas’ schizophrenic mind set of scrambled data trying to make sense of his universe as Dr. Patel says at one point (and which I have found one of the best description of schizophrenia yet);

“Your bother is alone in the universe. Lost to his twin, lost to a conventional life. He is afloat in a world of evil and malignant power, his mettle tested at every turn. Thomas is, in effect, starring in his own hero-myth.”

… then his idea works to an extent to transmit this, however we also get; a repetitive 90’s backdrop of the ‘bad news of the day,’ plus broad but rarely deep excursions into such fields as psychology, religion, race relations, the evil eye and car sales along with an accounting of almost every dysfunction possible placed within the frame of Dominick’s life. It was as though Lamb intended to mirror a twin image of chaos within Thomas with that of all dysfunction embodied in Dominick, a modern day kind of Fisher King. http://mythicperspectives.blogspot.ca/2006/03/monomyth-legend-of-fisher-king.html Lamb deliberately inundates us, and what we end up wanting amidst all this confusion of chaos and dysfunction is how to find our way out of this maze. Initially this path is guided by the urgent need to discover what precipitated Thomas’ schizophrenia but rather than finding a single causal event we along we recognize the cumulative effect of multiple episodes, even if Dominick does not.

Told in a colloquial voice through Dominick who represents the typical Angry American Male,
Lamb, who dedicated this book to his father and sons, attempts to reconcile this predominant characterization of masculinity into a hero returning with the message, “I’m not a smart man,” but at least I am (now) humble.

This message is less effectual with

Spoiler

the unrealistic ending of: 1. Randy Drinkwater not only getting rich but also performing as Dominick’s Parsival from the Fisher King, offering him his own birthright as healing – one of these would have been enough. 2. Dominick’s wife Dessa returns to him 3. Dominick returns to his profession of teaching and 4. He becomes wealthy as a result of his claimed Native status. “We 415 members of the Wequonnoc nation are millionaires.”

Lamb speaks of his writing process as, “For me it's all about voice: two souls — character and reader, speaker and listener — lost together in some spooky woods and trying to find their way out.” Lamb sets this opinion of his aside in IKTMIT, with his deliberate inundation of chaos and dysfunction and his conscious doubling effect affects the intended heroic quest present in this novel and subtracts from interpersonal dynamic of the characters. Sure we get some good portraits, but Dominick comes off as super-human, able to withstand Job like conditions and hardly ever ‘cracks,’ instead he works most of it out in therapy and self-reflection.

I Know This Much is True, was both twice as long and half of what it needed to be. I admire Lamb’s attempt to encompass ‘every-man,’ and his shadow or twin and create an epic psychological fiction that acts both as a key to masculinity and story-telling that produces a wholeness or unity. I like Lamb's attempt at psychological fiction.

However, IKTMIT, was too logically plotted, too thick with coincidences, too dense with pop culture, too full of dysfunction, too assimilative of racial difference and too pat with its ending. It simply was, Too good to be true It wasn’t like he played, ‘double or nothing,’ he still elucidates a very fine concept of masculinity embracing the feminine and he doesn’t often intrude on the boundary of sentimentality in doing so, except to show realistically that grown men can and should cry when the need arises. For this reason, I would recommend this novel to those who already have a little familiarity with psychology. Yet at the same time, this was not as satisfying a reading experience as I thought it would be, although many other people may find this offering particularly fulfilling. 3.25

clatas's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

twilde's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

britnoe's review against another edition

3.0

It is a bold move to write a fictional memoir in which the main character comes across, and reads in its’ entirety, the memoir of his grandfather, particularly in a book that nears a thousand pages in length

vmtonn's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

mchake's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

rsutton06's review against another edition

5.0

Just like She's Come Undone, Lamb's voice in this novel is stunning. His character development is deep and masterful. The plot is also intricate but keeps the reader fully engaged throughout. There is also a wonderful twist at the end.

envy4's review against another edition

5.0

Wally Lamb is one of my favorite authors. This is a masterpiece.

katlizlove's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this book overall, quite a bit, although some of the sadness hit a little too close to home. I always love reading books where I have almost no immediate personality traits in common with the main character and the author does such a good job on the interiory, that I understand them as I would myself.

I did not enjoy, so much, the grandfather’s writing/story but I think it was probably necessary to story. The bulk of that writing and the time it took up was the reason I felt the book was a four star instead of a five. Happy to have spent time on this novel.

megsy13's review against another edition

3.0

It’s closer to 3.5 stars.

A slow burn, with some truly serious subject matter but told with so much heart