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I Know This Much Is True (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback) (平装)
by Wally Lamb
| Category:
Relationship, Family, Story |
| Market price: ¥ 178.00
MSL price:
¥ 168.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
This is an outstanding epic about the life and the traumas causing and caused by schizophrenia. Also tells the answer how can family members be so different and how strong are the ties of blood. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Los Angeles Times Sunday) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
If Lamb's touch is heavy when it comes to Dominick's self-awareness, the author also has a way of letting his character's simpler emotions speak for themselves; accordingly, we root for Dominick as he gropes from anguish to peace, and this, in the end, is what ultimately keeps us engaged. It may not obscure the novel's considerable weaknesses, but it is a substantial compensation. |
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New York Times (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
... it never grapples with anything less than life's biggest questions.... Lamb clearly aims to be a modern-day Dostoyevsky with a pop sensibility. |
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Entertainment Weekly (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
... the novel quite deliberately assumes a darkly fated dimension that transforms an un-happy working-class New England family into mythic world archetypes. You may wish that its structure were sleeker and its resolution less tidy, but you couldn't ask for a more beguiling summer read. |
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USA Today (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
Twice as thoughtful and twice as heart-wrenching as most published this year. An exercise in soul-baring storytellingwith the soul belonging to 20th-century America itself. It's hard to read and to stop reading, and impossible to forget. |
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Associated Press (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
Every now and then a book comes along that sets new standards for writers and readers alike. Wally Lamb's latest novel is stunningand even that might be an understatement...this is a masterpiece. |
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Sara Burnett (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
This book is both a moving character study and a gripping story of family conflict. The narrator is Dominick Birdsey, a 40-year-old housepainter whose subdued life in his hometown of Three Rivers, Connecticut, is disturbed in 1990 when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic whose condition is complicated by religious mania, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. The story is that of the embattled Birdseys, as recalled in Dominick's elaborated memory-flashbacks of the twins' maternal grandfather, Italian immigrant (and tyrannical patriarch) Domenico Tempesta. But Lamb combines these promising materials with overattenuated accounts of Dominick's crippled past (the torments inflicted on him and Thomas by an abusive stepfather, a luckless marriage, the crib death of his infant daughter), and with a heavy emphasis on the long-concealed identity of the twins' real father--a mystery eventually solved, not, as Dominick and we expect, in Domenico' self-aggrandizing story, but by a most surprising confession. This novel is derivative (of both Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides and the film Dominick and Eugene), it pushes all the appropriate topical buttons (child abuse, AIDS, New Age psychobabble, Native American dignity, and others), and it works a little too hard at wringing tears. But it's by no means negligible. Lamb writes crisp, tender-tough dialogue, and his portrayal of the decent, conflicted Dominick (who is forced, and blessed, to acknowledge that ``We were all, in a way, each other'') is convincing. The pathetic, destroyed figure of Thomas is, by virtue of its very opacity, both haunting and troubling.
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Maggie Tulliver (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
As a literature major, I've read more than my fair share of books ... from classics to contemporary, from every genre one can think of ... and this book simply amazed me. By far one of the best books I've ever read. Typically, I'll get bored with a book of 900-some-odd pages, I have a short attention span and am easily side tracked, but this book not only held my attention, but completely enveloped me. I couldn't put it down. Every page is necessary and every word is purposeful.
I actually came upon Wally Lamb by accident. My crazy step-grandmother gave my mom a stack of books as a birthday present (all clearly used), and my mom barely has time to sleep, much less read. So she gave them all to me. "She's Come Undone" was amongst the books and after reading it, I knew I had to read any and everything else by Wally Lamb. I highly recommend any of his writing. I know that might not mean much coming from some random person online, but take it from a literature major ... an avid reader ... a lover of books ... someone who has read more books than she even cares to recall ... this book is incredible.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
I actually was depressed the night I finished this book. I didn't want it to END! You will be drawn into this book from page one. Wally Lamb is one of my favorite authors. By the way, if you haven't read his other book, "She's come undone", do so!
This story of twin boys grown into men is such a heart warming one. Lamb can cover the twins' grandfather's past without boring you or getting you 'lost'. I appreciate that kind of writing. It's a great read before bed at night. I couldn't wait to get to it each evening! It's an easy read, too. You won't get bogged down in verbage!
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Jessica Baumann (MSL quote), Canada
<2007-01-25 00:00>
Five stars is a disservice to this amazing book. I read it after I liked She's Come Undone, and even though Undone is a terrific book, Lamb actually manages to put it to shame with I Know this Much is True. This book is hard to recommend to people, because people are easily put off by its length, but trust me, every inch of paper is put to good use. I got so absorbed in this story that I can't imagine it being any other length. Heck, I could keep reading about these characters without ever tiring of them.
Lamb dropped repeated bombshells on his characters, shaking up their lives and compelling me to keep reading more to find out how the issues were going to be resolved. I don't want to try to enumerate any of them here-I implore you to just go out and read this amazing book!
Lamb is a masterful storyteller because he had the reader mirroring Domineck's feelings of irritation and resentment toward his stepfather Ray, but throughout the course of the book, Lamb forced both the reader and Domenick to change their perspective. This happened over and over with all the characters. I grew with the main character and his perception of the world.
I liked the history that was brought into the plot-the draft, the Gulf War, Rodney King, and the fall of the Soviet Union, to name a few. These major news events were well integrated into the plot, and I liked how they shaped the main characters.
I'm eagerly awaiting more from this author. I'm glad he's not rapidly churning out trash just to sell books on his reputation, though.
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J. Marren (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-25 00:00>
"On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother Thomas entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut Public Library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable." Who wouldn't be intrigued? Lamb has written a masterful psychological portrait of two brothers, twins, completely different, totally entwined. Thomas is schizophrenic and institutionalized, clearly very sick. Dominick is the normal brother. It is only as the novel unfolds that we realize Dominick is in trouble too. How he crawls out of the pit of anger and loss he finds himself in is the core of this wonderfully written story.
After reading this novel and "She's Come Undone" a few years ago, I've started to wonder why Lamb isn't more highly regarded than he is. Did the Oprah stamp of approval hurt? Are his books too long? Don't be put off! Lamb is a wonderful writer, totally engrossing, and the 900 pages of "I Know This Much is True" will whiz right by. Take it on vacation this summer and savor it!
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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