The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (2008, Hardcover)

We've all know since Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone" hit the shelves that this is a man who is a gifted writer. He followed his first triumph with the amazing "I know This Much Is True" so we saw that he was able to change voices in narrative; his writing skills were defined well. Ten years later his novel "The Hour I First Believed" came out and the voice of narrative was that of Caelum Quirk. Wally Lamb does not exist in this first person novel. Lamb is a master at creating character and his character's are as well done and as brilliant as a character created by Meryl Streep. Wally Lamb is, without question, the most gifted American Writer alive today and, perhaps, ever. I say this as a huge Mark Twain fan.

Mr. Lamb very thoroughly and humanly examines PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder should you have spent the last five years unaware. He takes a normal American couple: Caelum is a high school English teacher; his wife Maureen (we grow to love her as "Mo") both left the family farm (five generations in the same home,) and moved to Colorado to be closer to Mo's family. They both get a job at the same school and the book begins on April 16, 1999 at their school. It is Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and it is four days prior to Hitler's birthday. So, like "Titanic" or "Tale of Two Cities", we know what the characters do not: that they are doomed very soon. As a result it becomes less about plot and more about melodrama, the exact definition of which is how our characters react to outrageous ans horrific situations.

Caelum's Aunt Lolly has a stroke and Caelum must return to the family farm in Connecticut on Sunday the 18th. Mo has assured him that she will join him on the next available flight, which turns out to be Tuesday evening, January 20. A solid five hours after the two now-famous boys create a war zone in and around Columbine High School. Caelum is watching it on live television from his friends bakery in Connecticut and then from his Aunt's television at the farm house. His aunt has died and he needs to arrange the funeral. More than that, he needs Mo, but now he watches on Live television as the building in which Mo is right at the moment is under siege. He doesn't know if Mo is alive or dead.

She survives physically but her mind is essentially convinced her that she will never be safe again. And she may not. But who is? Caelum begins a quest of his own, begrudgingly but he literally searches his family roots to discover things about his own surviva. He can't ever quite keep a conversation about the chaos theory out of his mind during during his flight of despair where a man who studies and teaches about the chaos theory gives him the first half of the formula. It's Caelum's job to find the rest of it. The same is true for us.

Typical of Wally Lamb the story is charges with plot twists and ways to understand what it is to live in someone elses shoes for a while. Because his great grandmother was politically inspired as a suffragette, the only woman's prison in the State of Connecticut happens to be on his family farm; a huge white elephant and an even larger metaphor.In the end, you will be very moved, no matter your own personal circumstance, condition or grade of happiness or satisfaction. A fire will bring new life and a flood will bring out shoots of new plants and animals.
Mr. Lamb will never be forgotten and if something else wins the Pulitzer, I'll eat this book; All nine hundred pages.

The Hour I First Believed is about the main character (Maureen) struggle to recover from being part of a horrifying Columbine-like attack. It is about what it means to be a victim and to live with anger, fear and post-traumatic stress. It is about the ways in which violence mars and changes us - often forever. Maureen emerges from the library cabinet physically whole, but it is as if she’s died. Her struggle to heal is long and painful, and her husband is never quite able to help her the way she needs him to and he wants to.

The author’s writing about the Columbine shooting and its aftermath is gripping, chilling, and intense. He uses the killers’ and victims’ real names and incorporates entries from their diaries, transcripts of their videos and webpages, and material from the nationwide news coverage to successfully imagine the fictional Quirks into the real-life events. This section of the book reads like a memoir by a person who really was there, and Lamb’s ability to capture the emotional journey Caelum takes as he attempts to make sense of the incident and to help Maureen heal is powerful and touching.

I just got the book and I can't put it down. I have been waiting for Wally Lamb to write again. He is a little raw but real with his language. Definate page turner.

As with Wally Lambs first two fictional novels, The Hour I First Believed dives deep into the life of it's main character and takes you along for the ride. Through the horrors of Columbine, the pain and agony of a disfunctional marriage, and the life of a school teacher Lamb takes readers into the inner workings of the mind of Mr. Quirk. Through his pain and fear he manages to be a pillar of strength for those around him, all the while discovering family history that was probably best left untouched. Filled with raw emotion, and unbelievable heart, this book made me laugh, cry, think, love and hate all through the eyes of one incredibly remarkable man.
I would strongly recommend this book to any one, and every one. It's hard to find a book that simply won't allow it's pages to be closed and it's words unread. This is one of those books. I waited for years between the release of I Know This Much Is True and The Hour I First Believed simply because of my faith in Lamb as a writer. His words and style bring life to even the simplest of characters, and turn them into blue-collar heroes in their own sense. I hope that I don't have to wait as long for his next release, but if that's what it takes I will.

Wally Lamb returns again, ten long years later, with this profound novel. It is on the long side, coming in at around 700 pages, but well worth the read. Wally did not disappoint me in the past with She's Come Undone and I Know This Much is True, and The Hour I First Believed is no different-- amazing work from an amazing author.