The Hour I First Believed

I decided to go with something different from what I would normally read this week. I read Wally Lamb's latest book "The Hour I First Believed". This is the first time I have read one of his novels, but I have heard great things about some of his previous novels and thought I would give this one a try.

The story centers around Caelum Quirk and his wife Maureen. They both work at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. By some twist in fate Caelum was across the country at the funeral of a family member while his wife, the school nurse, hid in a closet praying that her life would not be snuffed out in the hail of gunfire brought on by two teenage gunmen. From this moment the shaky lives they led before are forever changed. While Maureen fights her own demons , Caelum begins to discover family secrets long hidden.

I really wanted to like this book. Lamb has a great flow to his words, but there was just too much for one book. The narration was all over the place and it made the whole work feel disorganized. Although the author tried to make Caelum's flaws forgivable give the hand that he has been dealt, often he comes of sounding like a jerk. Many of the main characters were not fleshed out enough to make me care about them, especially Maureen. She was easily the most complex character in the book, but little was done with her except showing her downward spiral through the somewhat oblivious eyes of Caelum. Some of the revelations Caelum experiences are good reading, but there is just too much drama for this one book to hold, I think it would have worked better as two separate stories as opposed to one large tragedy.

If you are interested in reading "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb you can find it at Barnes and Noble or your local library.