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

good but not Lamb's best

Bad: No small amount of distractions and gratuitous plot elements, especially in the latter part of the book. At times I felt like Lamb didn't quite know how to end this thing, so decided to pilot concepts for his next 2 or 3 books. Good: Lamb is an extraordinary writer, his prose direct yet somehow elegant. The narration was superlative. Despite some plot failings, I didn't want this audiobook to end.

Guidall is a genius. Tne book? Not so much.

Guidall does the best he can with this book. It's not the worst book I've listened to, and it does have a number of appealing factors. In the end, though, I'd rate it average or above average, at best.

A life reviewed

I love Walt Lamb’s writings. I listen while doing chores and this “reading” took place during the Uvalde shooting and the overturn of Row v wade. The juxtaposition of this book and the reality of today was unreal. Unexpected and beautiful. Hopefully beautiful- the book had a sad but good ending - will we? I thoroughly appreciated the thoughtfulness of this book. So good!

Maybe too much story

There is a lot of story here. A lot. There is the time of the novel (late 1990s/early 2000s), a little while ago (1950s) and longer while ago (early 1900s) and lots of wayback (mid 1800s). Sure, it does all come together at some point, but I also felt the story wandering in a way that I wasn't sure if it would ever come back and if it did, would I even remember the tidbit of new info we learned in that ancient journal history and how it impacted the current day. There is also quite a bit of emotion in the book, too, and readers will be impacted differently based on their own life experiences.

professor Lamb never disappoints

Loved it, start to finish. Lamb's novels are stories within stories and this is my favorite of all. Third time reading it and I still laughed and cried!!

Excellent and heartbreaking

Like this author's other book, This Much I Know is True, this book is primarily about survivor's guilt and the people living with it. Set to a back drop of survivors of the Columbine shooting, this story traces the long, dark road the characters travel in the wake of that tragedy. The narrator was excellent and the story was compelling and beautifully written. I cried alot in this book.

Great Story, Masterful Narration

Would you listen to The Hour I First Believed again? Why?

The story was really captivating. I loved the author's telescoping victims' -- both from Columbine and other tragedies -- lives far into the future.

When there are catastrophic events, those of us fortunate enough not to be at the center of it tend not to think about the long-term effect of those tragedies on victims' lives. This book centers on the husband of a Columbine victim, a victim himself once removed, but also explores the effect of war, Hurricane Katrina, and sexual abuse among other catastrophes on those who've lived through them.

The story had lots of threads that were just so beautifully knit together that I couldn't stop listening.

What does George Guidall bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

George Guidall is absolutely gifted. loved that each character's personality was fully realized through his narration, and while each character had a different voice, the shift in speaker was fluid, subtle, and flawless.

Wait for it... Wait for it...

What did you like best about The Hour I First Believed? What did you like least?

The historical events that are tied to this story's essence and the evolution of our main character really kept me connected to this story but at the same time I despised the main character and almost quit listening because of him. But I had to know what was going to happen next and that was the second best thing about this story, the writer really kept you hanging on and wanting more.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I wanted more of these characters, I almost missed them with the way it ended and I really can't say more without ruining it for those who haven't read this story.

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

He turned it into a true dramatization without turning it corny although he could've done a but better with the women's voices, I was we'll pleased with him.

Did The Hour I First Believed inspire you to do anything?

This story should be a very good reminder of how each moment and each action if your life impact others, it impacts tomorrow and it impacts more than you can ever imagine.

The Hour I First Believed

I have listened to both this book and "I Know This Much Is True" and I'm not sure which I like the most. The writing is so clear and beautiful. The stories are fascinating. Some might complain that the novel contains 3 or 4 separate stories and that each could have been a novella itself. But I enjoyed every minute and did not lose track of what was happening. The narration was so good I kept forgetting that this was not Wally Lamb telling his own story.

A favorite

Great author and well read story. Relevant to our time still each time I read it.