Wally Lamb

Thomas and Dominic. Identical twins.
Dominic's life reminded me of a country song. You know the ones where anything that could go wrong eventually does. Consider: Dominic spent his entire life worrying about three things. One, who was his father? By not knowing his father Dominic feels he does not know himself. As a child he dreamed of his biological father and fantasized about the day this mystery man would swoop in and save him and Thomas from their abusive stepfather, Ray. Two, Dominic was convinced his mother loved his brother more. Maybe she really did because of Thomas's mental illness. On her deathbed she makes Dominic promise to look after Thomas, all the while refusing to reveal the true identity of their father. Three, Thomas's mental illness could be hereditary and sooner or later Dominic would inherit his brother's schizophrenia. Was he just as crazy as his brother and just not know it? All of these worries weigh on Dominic as he tries to cope. In giving up his own life to fulfill the promise he made to his mother his marriage falls apart and he quit his job as a history teacher (ironically, it is history that sets him free).
In order for this story to be successful the reader needed to be grounded in the current events of the time, otherwise Thomas's internal angst doesn't make sense. Eric Clapton's son falling from a window. Desert Storm. The beating of Rodney King. The world on fire. In addition to these unsettling times, Lamb throws in some equally difficult subjects like racism, AIDS, post traumatic stress suffered by veterans, diabetes, and of course, the complicated system of treating mental health.
I deeply love flawed characters; ones who find a way to change just enough that by the end of the book they are going to be okay, even if it is only somewhat okay. They haven't gone from devil to angel but their lives are not the disaster they once were.… (mais)

This was my first Wally Lamb - I'm glad that I finally took the plunge.

This particular book was all over the place from The shootings at Columbine to a farm in New England to a time shift to a Civil War nursing home. It doesn't seem like it should make any sense but in the end it all comes together.

Some of the story dragged for me - especially the longer passages about Lizzie Popper - but overall it was a book I wanted to keep reading despite its flaws.

I suppose it's a testament to Lamb that despite a bunch of unlikeable characters and some boring sections I really couldn't stop thinking about this book when I wasn't reading it. I needed to find out what happened to all of them.… (mais)

I can see what the author was striving for with this story: a wry look at the complex life of a family, as seen through the eyes of a naive boy on the cusp of adolescence, with a hearty dose of 1960’s nostalgia via endless pop culture references. Unfortunately, it was predictable and dull, and didn’t have anything new or fresh to offer. Also, while I think some authors can do an outstanding job of reading their own work on audio (hello, Mr. Gaiman!), someone should have prevented Wally Lamb from doing so. His narrative stylings made this only mildly interesting book into a deadly dull audio.

DNF at 46%.
… (mais)