The Hour I First Believed

A Novel

By: Wally Lamb

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 25 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

When high-school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives. But when Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers five generations' worth of diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in his family's house. As unimaginable secrets emerge, Caelum grapples with the past and struggles to fashion a future from the ashes of tragedy. His quest for meaning is at once mythic and contemporary, personal and quintessentially American.

©2008 Wally Lamb (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Not My Favorite Lamb Book, But Still Quite Good

Wally Lamb is an excellent writer. The first half of the book had me interested and anticipating every minute. Caelum and Maureen Quirk are intriguing and real and Lamb did an excellent job of character building. The way he developed how the tragedy of Columbine affected every part of their lives from how dysfunctional his wife became to how understanding and patient he became, which was not his nature. You feel the emotion this couple have had to deal with and how that day changed everything forever.

After the shootings, they fled from Colorado to Connecticut to live in Caelum's family farm and to bury Caelum's aunt whom he loved. There they would attempt to rebuild some sort of a normal life again, however more tragedy ensues and their lives take another tragic turn.

This is where I find the book gets into a hodgepodge of stories. As Caelum is sorting through his aunt's effects, he comes across old diaries, clippings and documents, which reveal all sorts of family history and secrets that help Caelum, come to terms with who he is. It is through the reading of many of these historic papers that I found my mind wandering. I was able to concentrate on the important parts, but they were buried in a mountain of unnecessary information that could have easily been edited out without doing any harm to this novel.

As for the narrator, George Guidall, I thought he was excellent. He has that "tired" and raspy tone to his voice. Perfect for someone like Caelum. He really added personality to the main character.

Although this book is definitely worth listening to, I can't say I'm not just a little disappointed. If I could, I would have rated it 3 1/2 stars.

Clever knitting together of fact and fiction

There were several things I really liked about this book, and top amongst them was the clever way that the lives of these fictional characters were interwoven with the actual happenings and events, I felt it was done very skillfully. I also felt that there was a very intesting exploration in the story of the concept of "victims". Who are the 'victims' of a tragedy, and how the 'victims' of such an event can 'ripple out' way beyond those directly involved. The story also makes one consider how people can simultaneously be both victims and perpatrators. It also made me consider that however much we feel we are in charge of our own destiny sometimes, 'chance', 'fate' and plain bad luck, can knock you off course in small or major ways. This was a very intersting story, and I had a lot of sympathy for the characters. That said I felt it could have been edited to produce a somewhat tighter narrative, and some of the 'historical' passages were a little over detailed to know real point. Not this authors best book in my opionion, if you want to read Lamb at his best go for an unabridged version of 'I know this much is true'. That said this was still an excellent story and well worth a listen.

ENOUGH!!!

I was fascinated by this depiction of the effects of Columbine and listened eagerly to the first part of this book which I found well written and well read. I was surprised when another story developed. Then even more surprised when yet another story developed.Towards the end though, with tragedy heaped upon tragedy, I kept thinking that there was too much to take in and now I cannot even remember how the story finished! Perhaps I haven't finished listening to it?

The story was complex enough

I enjoyed the story but would have preferred it without the religious note it ended on. I was never bored though and I cared deeply about the characters. So I recommend it anyway in spite of that.

So Happy I Got It!

I had not read a Wally Lamb book since She's Come Undone, many years ago. I enjoyed that tremendously, and decided that The Hour I First Believed sounded like an interesting premise and worth my time and credit. It was. I recently read the non-fiction book Columbine and I liked how this author wove the actual events with is fictional characters. He also included descriptions of local places in Eastern Connecticut that were sometimes changed and sometimes named correctly. I admit I was initially taken aback by the raw sexually oriented descriptions from the main character's viewpoint, but as I got into the book I appreciated why this was done. It is a complicated book but easily kept my attention, and I was sorry when it was over. Now I am anxious to revisit She's Come Undone. I am disappointed that I Know This Much Is True is only available in Abridged since I generally am not interested in that format.

I always enjoy listening to George Guidall, and he does not disappoint in this book.

Hit close to home

Wally Lamb has been one of my favorite authors since his first book. She’s Come Undone and I know this much is true are both remarkable stories that I have read numerous times! The Hour I First Believed is now one of my favorite books! The setting of the story hit close to home - I lived in Colorado and was in high school when columbine happened. So there were parts of the story that hit me in unexpected ways. I truly was engulfed in the characters and could feel the emotion in me lambs words. Thank you for a beautiful difficult heart wrenching therapeutic spiritual story

Powerful

Well written and well read. I highly recommend this, especially if you have had any experience with mental illness in your family. Very realistic issues.

Excellent book and excellent narrator

I love Wally Lamb’s writing and this one certainly does not disappoint. Very insightful and thought provoking.
The narration was perfect - one of the best I’ve heard.

Read the other book first!

I love all of The Wally Lamb books. One should read I Know This Much is True first. Some of those characters are cleverly placed in this story. The narrator fits so well in this book.

love Wally Lamb

I have enjoyed this story very much and the performance was absolutely one of the best I have ever heard.