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A review by cheryl1213
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
4.25
I read this rather quickly considering its length. There were certainly moments that dragged but it really did hold me. I'm absolutely one who favors character to plot (i.e., I can love a book with little action if it has great characters and makes them feel real), but this actually balances character and plot quite well. I think that broadens its appeal, although it certainly requires a reader who is willing to tackle a thick book!
I'd call it a family epic. There's a lot going on, but i think it really focuses on how we build our understanding of our selves, including how our past impacts our present and how much is all-but-preordained from birth (or even before). Lamb's narrator seems to be crafted as a vessel for asking these questions -- an identical twin who seems to have avoided/evaded a biological/genetic lottery that left his twin with schizophrenia but is doing penance by taking on his brother's care and whose complex childhood and adolescence led to an adult world marked by loss and a lot of bad luck.
Lamb does a great job of integrating several timelines (before doing so seemed to become almost the default) and even a "book within a book" (the narrator's grandfather's memoir). He hits you over the head with some things, including the similarities bw the narrator and his grandfather (he recognizes the grandfather's self-aggrandizing tendency but not his own), but that same factor probably helped make it relatively easy to keep the characters and plot points straight (I struggle with that in a lot of books so it's notable that I didn't have trouble here). There are some really interesting characters in there, including the narrator's closest friend and his ex-wife.
This one has been in my collection for some 20 years. The age needs to be kept in mind at times...in the grand scheme of things, it's contemporary literature, but there certainly have been changes in the world since then even putting aside things like answering machines. (It was particularly interesting to spot a story point on 9.11.1901!) It might be harder to read if you don't have a working memory of life in the 1990s...I wouldn't necessarily call it dated, but at times it seemed to presume a present-day reader (that may be true for most novels and it may simply be that I didnt approach it with the same mentality that i might had it been written in the 1890s).
A few things could have been cut (pretty much all of Joy's story made me want to skip ahead) and i prefer a less tidy ending ... I appreciated some answers but other parts felt quite random and uneccessary ... but if you're willing to invest the time, it's a rewarding read. It isn't a thriller or a mystery but there's enough plot to give it broad appeal.
If you like to have content warnings, I'd look for a review that's a bit better than I am at such things. There could be a lot of triggers in here....
I read this rather quickly considering its length. There were certainly moments that dragged but it really did hold me. I'm absolutely one who favors character to plot (i.e., I can love a book with little action if it has great characters and makes them feel real), but this actually balances character and plot quite well. I think that broadens its appeal, although it certainly requires a reader who is willing to tackle a thick book!
I'd call it a family epic. There's a lot going on, but i think it really focuses on how we build our understanding of our selves, including how our past impacts our present and how much is all-but-preordained from birth (or even before). Lamb's narrator seems to be crafted as a vessel for asking these questions -- an identical twin who seems to have avoided/evaded a biological/genetic lottery that left his twin with schizophrenia but is doing penance by taking on his brother's care and whose complex childhood and adolescence led to an adult world marked by loss and a lot of bad luck.
Lamb does a great job of integrating several timelines (before doing so seemed to become almost the default) and even a "book within a book" (the narrator's grandfather's memoir). He hits you over the head with some things, including the similarities bw the narrator and his grandfather (he recognizes the grandfather's self-aggrandizing tendency but not his own), but that same factor probably helped make it relatively easy to keep the characters and plot points straight (I struggle with that in a lot of books so it's notable that I didn't have trouble here). There are some really interesting characters in there, including the narrator's closest friend and his ex-wife.
This one has been in my collection for some 20 years. The age needs to be kept in mind at times...in the grand scheme of things, it's contemporary literature, but there certainly have been changes in the world since then even putting aside things like answering machines. (It was particularly interesting to spot a story point on 9.11.1901!) It might be harder to read if you don't have a working memory of life in the 1990s...I wouldn't necessarily call it dated, but at times it seemed to presume a present-day reader (that may be true for most novels and it may simply be that I didnt approach it with the same mentality that i might had it been written in the 1890s).
A few things could have been cut (pretty much all of Joy's story made me want to skip ahead) and i prefer a less tidy ending ... I appreciated some answers but other parts felt quite random and uneccessary ... but if you're willing to invest the time, it's a rewarding read. It isn't a thriller or a mystery but there's enough plot to give it broad appeal.
If you like to have content warnings, I'd look for a review that's a bit better than I am at such things. There could be a lot of triggers in here....
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic