The Hour I First Believed: A Novel

Wally Lamb is an author who takes his time, but never wastes yours. In the course of telling his story he goes to unexpected places, I kept thinking, 'go there, write some more about that!' If you're familiar with another of his books, "I know this much is true", he revives Dr. Patel--a soft and wise psycho analyst who is a great of all time. The tale is a tragedy, each turn sadder and sadder. However I wouldn't let that stop you from hearing/reading this awfully wry meditation of a farmhouse and the lives spun around it. Lambs writing is on par with Richard Russo (Empire Falls et.al.), Jeffry Eugenides (Middlesex), and Jonathan Frazen (The Corrections), so if you like these authors you will be at home here. As for the the narrator, one earlier reviewer unsympathetically likened George Guidell to Edith of All In The Family, and I had to laugh, it's true! But that is as far as I agree, GG is probably the most gifted narrator I've heard, very good at inflections and tone. The story telling is alive, totally vivid, and his voice is true to the mood and character of the novel. I 100% recommend this book!

Certainly not a happily ever after story - and I knew that before listening. To be sure, Wally Lamb is a very accomplished novelist. His style is solid and he paints a very realistic picture, weaving fact and fiction; the horrific events at Columbine and Lamb's characters touched by this tragedy. The details are rich and complex. The dialogs are plausible and engaging. The story is deep. All in all, a quality novel well crafted.

Still, near the end of the book I found myself saying "enough is enough." How much pain and suffering must these people endure? For me, it begged the question "WHY?" Why so much? After a while the realism of the story began to unravel, with what felt like gratuitous tragedy for tragedy's sake. However, this should not stop one from listening to an overall very good book, skillfully read by George Guidall.

This was wrote with so much emotion, I really felt true sorrow for both Moe and Kalem. They went through so much tragedy but yet both showed incredible strength.The writer really did a great job drawling me in. I could not stop listening to it and had it finished in less than 2 days.

This book was a perfect read. The whole story
is brought together and tied up with incredible
insight and mature understanding.
I loved it!

I have worked with Columbine survivors and was interested to see what one of Oprah's stars had to say about that tragic time. It's great for the first half but he just gives us too much tragedy after tragedy and then it just gets tedious.I found 2/3 of the way through I was really itching for it to be over. It is very heavy handed. Better editing would have made this a much better book. Get the abridged version and it will probably be better.

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.

Wally Lamb is one of my favorite authors, but he certainly isn't Grisham, where you can count on a new book every year. This one took 10 years. And, in some ways, it was worth the wait. But, for those (like me) who were blown away by She's Come Undone or I Know This Much is True, this newest long novel is a bit of a disappointment. It is STILL better than your average novel; his juxtaposition of actual Columbine characters and events by making his main character the husband of a teacher who lived through that tragedy is clever and captivating. Further, his personal commitment to the betterment of women's correctional facilities (see his "testimonials" non-fiction work from 2004) has also been incorporated. This book takes a while to get into--there is almost too much background to cover before it can settle into the flow of the novel--but it is worth the commitment of time. You won't regret listening. It IS unfortunate, however, that Audible has not been able to get the unabridged versions of the previous novels incorporated into its database. This IS the best Wally Lamb offering in Audible, but there are two that are a lot better that will hopefully be here eventually.

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.

I often wonder what type of life Wally Lamb has lived. His books are full of mental illness and incredible adversity. Sad lives across generations. Strength in loss. sometimes it was just too sad to read and too real. Well written and engaging.

I was very disappointed in this Wally Lamb book. I loved reading "She's Come Undone" and really liked "I Know This Much Is True", but I could hardly stomach this as a listen. I know I could never have made myself read it; I only stuck with the audible version because I wasted two credits on it!

I didn't like Caelum (the main character) or his pathetic wife whom he enabled. The book also tried to cover too much history and way too many tragedies and disasters. The story really fell apart when other voices were used to delve into a few hundred years of his family history that included several famous people they supposedly knew.

The story was all over the place - part personal tragedy and part historical fiction with several wars, deaths, many types of social injustice, and every old and modern malady included.

"The Hour I First Believed" lacked the dark humor of Lamb's other books that made their disturbed characters far more palpable and entertaining. I wish I could get my two credits back and an extra one for my pain and suffering.