Recently published November 11, 2008
The Hour I First Believed is the long-awaited third novel by Wally Lamb, author of bestsellers (and Oprah favorites) She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True. At just under 750 pages, it is a long, intense, and sadly, not altogether satisfying read.
Caelum Quirk is a middle-aged English teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in the spring of 1999. His wife Maureen (his third wife) is a part-time nurse at the same school. On April 20th, Caelum is out of town dealing with the death of a relative, but Maureen is in the school library when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold storm in with bombs and sawed-off shotguns, and she hides in a cabinet for several hours, listening as Harris and Klebold taunt and kill students and revel in the horror and destruction they have wrought before they kill themselves in what they believe is a moment of glory and vengeance.
The Hour I First Believed is about the Quirks’ struggle to recover from being “collateral damage” of this horrifyingly tragic event. It is about what it means to be a victim and to live with anger and fear and post-traumatic stress. It is about the ways in which violence mars and changes us. 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 Caelum is never quite able to help her the way she needs him to and he wants to.
Lamb’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.
Maureen’s ongoing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and her eventual addiction to prescription drugs shape the rest of the action in the story, and I can’t say much more without giving away major plot points.
In addition to the Columbine-related storyline, Lamb gives us pieces of Caelum’s family history, which he begins discovering in greater depth when he and Maureen move back to his aunt’s house in Connecticut several months after the shooting. This history appears as journal entries, letters, and later, as an academic article written by a graduate student who becomes interested in the family’s story. As Caelum delves into his family’s history, he makes several shocking discoveries that result in soap opera-esque revelations about his family and the secrets they have kept from one generation to the next.
I found these revelations and the diary entries, letters, and research leading up to them to be distracting and unnecessary. They do inform us about Caelum’s background and help us to understand him in greater depth, but the book would not be lacking without them.
As the story progresses, a troubled young girl named Velvet Hoon, who was with Maureen in the library on the day of the shootings, returns to the story and forms relationships with several other people in Caelum’s life, and as these supporting characters become more important, they form interesting but predictable relationships with one another. All of this leads to an ending in which Caelum, a life-long skeptic and semi-alcoholic, begins to change his ways and his way of thinking. The tragedy of death eventually gives rise to hope and the potential for new life, and Caelum reflects on the hour he first believed.
I really wanted to love this book. I was impressed with Lamb’s ability to get inside the experiences of the Columbine victims and their friends and families, and his writing in the early parts of the book nearly moved to tears several times. But as the story became more focused on Caelum’s family and history, the plot became less compelling and the revelations were predictable and overly dramatic. I actually sighed out loud several times and had to put the book down as I became disappointed with where Lamb was going with it.
What started out as an original read and a well-hewn exploration of what it means to be a victim and to try to put one’s life back together in the wake of tragedy turned into something soap-opera esque. As I read through the various formats Lamb includes in the text—straight narrative, letters, diary entries, emails, etc.—I got the impression that he wanted to show his readers all of the techniques he has at his disposal, perhaps to justify the fact that it took him nine years to write this book. I walked away thinking that just because an author has the ability to incorporate different formats and use various techniques does not mean he should use them all in the same book. I wondered where Lamb’s editor was in all of this, but then I remembered that we’re talking about Wally Lamb here, and people will buy this book on his name alone.
The Hour I First Believed isn’t all I was hoping it would be, but it was, for the most part, enjoyable and thought-provoking. I do think it could be significantly shorter and that Lamb would have done well to cut out a great deal of the extraneous material and subplots. Caelum Quirk is an interesting character without all of the family secrets and melodrama, and his relationship with Maureen and the growth process they experience in the wake of Columbine and Maureen’s subsequent PTSD and addiction would be enough material for a good novel by themselves.
I wouldn’t entirely discourage readers from picking up The Hour I First Believed, but I don’t think I’ll be recommending it like crazy, either. 3.25 out of 5.
Click here to read a review from The Washington Post that begins “A great story is buried in Wally Lamb’s avalanche of a novel…but only the most determined readers will manage to dig it out.” I couldn’t agree more.
Filed under: Book Reviews | Tagged: Book Reviews, books, columbine high school, fiction, post-traumatic stress, reading, school violence, the hour i first believed, wally lamb
I had such high hopes for this one too. Sigh
What a hefty read! I loved I Know This Much is True but I did not care for She’s Come Undone. I remember thinking that it felt like two entirely different authors had written them.
It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on what you said here. As you said, he is Wally Lamb and his post-Oprah fame sort of puts him in the “ar-tiste” category (said with a french accent).
Great review. I think I’m going to skip this. Rats, his other novels were so good!
See…that many pages is a huge red flag for me with a book. I have read several books recently that were in desperate need of an editor with a Big Red pen crossing out huge sections. More is most certainly not always better.
Huge books with a famous author…two flags. Because as you say, they know he will sell a lot of copies just based on his previous books.
But if book sales in the near future are going to be as bad as predicted, but editors and authors better be more careful.
All very good points, Caite. Though some of my favorites, namely Anna Karenina and The Crimson Petal and the White are hefty and quite wonderful. And most people have never heard of the author of the second one.
I’m still going to read it for sure but I loved his other two books and I had high hopes for this one – I was so happy when I saw it on the shelves!
Thanks for your honest and well written appraisal of this novel. I’m still interested in making an attempt to “dig the story out of the avalanche,” because the subject matter is of great interest to me.
Have you read Lionel Shriver’s “What Should We Do About Kevin?” or Jodi Picoult’s “19 Minutes”?
Becca–I’ll look forward to hearing about your response when you read it. I’ve read 19 Minutes and I think it was my first and last foray into Jodi Picoult. It was too overwrought and melodramatic for me. We Need to Talk About Kevin is on my list for the Book Awards Challenge, so I’ll be reading that in the next couple months, but I think I’ll wait a while to let this one fade from memory before I’m ready for another school shooting book.
Great review, Rebecca! I’ll still keep *The Hour I First Believed* on my wish list, but I won’t insist that Santa bring it
I’m the opposite of Ti — I loved *She’s come Undone*, but didn’t care nearly as much for *I Know this Much is True*. How did you feel about Lamb’s other two novels?
I’m almost done with The Hour I First Believed and its interest is dying slowly. It started dying some time after they moved back to Conn. I know Mo has issues but I’m ready to move on. His detailed writing about Columbine was interesting. I enjoyed both of his earlier works. Actually, I liked Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes as well. As someone that works in education I found it interesting.
I just finished The Hour I First Believed.
I so wanted to enjoy it, but is was so dark and heavy that I was exhausted with the read. I did cry towards the end, precisely because of the lack of hope in the characters lives. All signs of hope came at the very last bits of the book. I did discover that it is so important to me to hold onto hope and how empty my life would feel if I did not have that as my anchor. I wished for more hope for all of them. I too enjoyed This Much I know is True and thus wanted something from this current book that could not be delivered. Our books are like our chidren in some ways, coming through us but living a life wholely their own.
Denise
The Motivation Mama!
http://www.motivationmama.com
Great review. As you know, a novel of sheer size has to keep me engaged or I would be bored. I would eventually read it but it won’t be a top priority.
Interesting comment about 19 Minutes, because I had read all of Picoult’s work, but think that might have been my last. I think I’ve finally OD’d on the social melodrama.
I’m interested to hear your comments about We Need to Talk About Kevin. One can’t really “enjoy’ a book as intense as it is…I appreciated the writing, but found it quite disturbing on many levels.
[...] only reviewed one book this week, Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed, which was quite an investment of [...]
I had a similar reaction – I loved the first half, but the second half lost me. It wasn’t bad, but I really wanted to be blown away, and I just wasn’t.
Great review…I just finished and reviewed this on my site. And, like you, I found the in-depth parts about his family’s past to be tiring. I almost didn’t stick with it, but once it got back to the present, I was glad I did.
Everyone is going crazy over this book lol. I read She’s Come Undone a couple of years ago but I don’t remember enjoying it that much so I’ve steered clear of this one.
My disappointment with this book lies in his repeated use of imagery from his first two books. As someone who has read She’s Come Undone more than twice, I notice so many images popping up again in The Hour I First Believed (buying licorice along with prescription meds, a book of colloquialisms, among others…). Each time I come across one of the repeats, it pulls me out of the story and I feel a bit insulted, as if readers wouldn’t notice. I’m half way through the book and I’m starting to get deja vu.
I love Wally Lamb!!
Kari, that’s an interesting perspective. I noticed some other repeated imagery, and Lamb makes reference at one point to the twin brothers from I Know This Much is True, one of whom cuts his hand off in a library, but it didn’t bother me. I’ve noticed many authors work references from previous books into new ones, and I’ve always thought of it as more of a nod to their readers, a sly move with a wink attached, than something insulting.
I couldn’t agree more. I actually liked the reference to the twins from I Know This Much is True. I enjoyed the weaving of the stories. My “complaint” comes from the repeating of minor details that haven’t anything to do with bringing a previous story into this one. It felt like a lack of imagination and I found myself unable to stay in the story.
I agree completely – I just finished this one, and felt as if the story became too bogged down with all these different perspectives.
I think his writing about the Columbine incident and it’s after effects was stunning, however.
Completely agree with you Becca. This book should have stopped there. He could then have begun another one (or two or three) about the other stuff
In the reference to the Four Horseman, they were a cop, a priest,a casino bigwig and Cealum. this would make Dominick Birdseye the casino bigwig. At the end of “I Know This Much is True” Dominick says he is a weathy man and that he is a teacher of American history. The dots are not connecting for me……..! Does anyone get this?
I also fogot that Dr. Patel was a character in the previous book as well! Ten Years is a long stretch for my memory!
Sitting here with a glass of wine reading the reviews and reader comments instead of getting on with THE BOOK. That says it all really. Far too long drawn out…I’m not quite half way through but yes, yes, I get the message…enough already! This is my first Wally Lamb and unfortunately it will probably be my last.
I know this much is true is my most favorite book ever!! I am saddened to hear someone say that “the first hour I believed” would be their first and last book of Wally Lamb’s.
I agree entirely with the review of The first hour… but I definitely need to emphasize how beautiful and dark I know this much is true was. I strongly recommend it.
I know this is weird that you are getting a comment you wrote a while ago but I just read and reviewed this book and wanted to check out what others said about it. (I always like to hold off on reading other reviews until I write my own). I could NOT agree with you more! Your review captured EXACTLY how I felt about the book — although a bit more eloquently. Thanks!
Agree! Caelum’s family history was little too much to bear for me…i didn’t care for it! I literally found myself sighing and racing through the last few chapters to get it over with. But, when the focus was on the columbine shooting and his relationship with Maureen- that was moving!
I totally agree with you. I was getting so confused with Lydia’s family and all the details. Ugh!
[...] events. Wally Lamb does it when he puts Caelum and Maureen Quirk in Columbine High School in The Hour I First Believed. Jamie Ford does it in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Kathryn Stockett uses everyday [...]
Somebody please…how did Maureen die?
I think she had a brain aneurysm . It’s been a few months since I read it.
[...] The Book Lady’s Blog [...]
I agree – it was engaging writing but it became a soap opera – overly melodramatic. I mean how many bad things can one person pack into a novel? I think the book would have been better if it just focussed on Maureen and Caleum in the after-math of the Columbine shootings.