"The Hour I First Believed"

I have believed that Wally Lamb is a fantastic writer from the time I read "She's Come Undone," which was good, but nothing like "I Know This Much is True," which is one of my favorite books. Now I have finished Wally Lamb's latest book "The Hour I First Believed" and it is definitely at the top of my list of books that I would read again. (Read the first chapter.)

If you go out to Amazon to read the reviews and see the 3.5 stars you may wonder if this is a book to spend your valuable time on, and I would tell you "Yes." I truly believe that a lot of the reviewers are not used to reading books with so many subplots and connections these days. A lot of readers are used to the quick reads by prolific writers like James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman, Mary Higgins Clark, etc. All writers I read, and enjoy, but not books I would consider to be literature and thought provoking.

"The Hour I First Believed" is the story of Caelum Quirk and his wife Maureen. Caelum is a teacher, and Maureen is a nurse, both working at Columbine High School at the time of the Columbine shootings. The book then goes into how that horrific act changes their lives. While this is a work of fiction, you cannot help but stop and wonder about all the consequences of that day.

While Caelum Quirk has a lot of traits I do not admire in a person, he does try to do the best he can for his loved ones, and I recognize that the best some people can do has to do with the best they were taught to do in their life.

I really enjoyed learning about the lives of Caelum's family members through the papers and letters left behind and brought out through the storyline. I would have to remind myself throughout the reading of the 752 pages of this book that it was fiction.

There are so many different facets to Caelum that I was always changing my feelings about him and I liked that Mr. Lamb's writing brought that out in me. It is how you feel about certain people in real life and I started to believe that Caelum could be someone that I might be acquainted with if I lived in the right part of the country.

The day to day interactions with different people in the world brings different things into Caelum's life, such as the his seat mate in an airplane and their discussion of the "chaos theory" and an article written about Maureen looking at "a victim's victim” brought about in me a chance to think about my life and what might have happened to bring upon certain results.

I don't know how long it will take Wally Lamb to bring us another piece of literature, but I will be waiting anxiously knowing that he will not disappoint me with the results.