I Know This Much is True - Lamb
I believe I have read Lamb's previous novel, "She's Come Undone" but without my ever-faithful shelf of books, I can't be certain. If I have, it's been awhile.
"I Know This Much is True" is an undertaking not to be taken lightly. The enormity of the book itself mirrors the enormity of the battles within. The story is told through the voice of an indentical twin in his 40's, as he wrestles with his past, the history of his family, the schizophrenia of his twin brother and his present relationships. As his story unravels for the reader, we are also given the chance to read a novel of his grandfather's writing, a history that traces back the long reach of abuse in the narrator's family, a legacy of broken people, a parable on the exploitation of power.
As we struggle alongside the narrator to uncover the truths to the mysteries that plague the novel, we find the plot only thickens as answers are elusive. Lamb tells in tanglible detail a personal history that has raged like a river through this family. The detail is rough, crass, and even gruesome. His characters are troubled, selfish and broken. The plot is huge in scope and yet particular in it's detail. Seek answers and find only more questions.
I was captivated by the novel by the mid-point. The characters had attached themselves to me and I was eager to pay witness to their struggle, to hope for their personal recovery, to plead for their forgiveness. Beyond the mid-point, I struggled to take it all in. I wanted more answers and fewer questions. I wanted something to play out with grace and dignity and nothing did. I, like the narrator had grown tired of fighting the fight for absolution.
Lamb wraps up the ending in his own due time, following his own lengthy course. Some answers were not difficult to predict, some outcomes feel more similar to what he hoped would happen than to what seems realistic, but we reach a point where we understand that for the fight of all that was unknown through the novel, throughout the life of the narrator, we do, perhaps, alongside each other, come together at the end to understand a few certain truths.
While I'm not certain I would put this book near the top of my "must-read" list for life, it was certainly a book that I will think over for awhile. A struggle with questions not unfamiliar; a lesson on the necessity of forgiveness that we all need to hear. Sometimes it is not the answers to questions that we wrestle with that bring our lives meaning, but the process of wrestling through the questions. At least from my own life, I know this much is true.
"I Know This Much is True" is an undertaking not to be taken lightly. The enormity of the book itself mirrors the enormity of the battles within. The story is told through the voice of an indentical twin in his 40's, as he wrestles with his past, the history of his family, the schizophrenia of his twin brother and his present relationships. As his story unravels for the reader, we are also given the chance to read a novel of his grandfather's writing, a history that traces back the long reach of abuse in the narrator's family, a legacy of broken people, a parable on the exploitation of power.
As we struggle alongside the narrator to uncover the truths to the mysteries that plague the novel, we find the plot only thickens as answers are elusive. Lamb tells in tanglible detail a personal history that has raged like a river through this family. The detail is rough, crass, and even gruesome. His characters are troubled, selfish and broken. The plot is huge in scope and yet particular in it's detail. Seek answers and find only more questions.
I was captivated by the novel by the mid-point. The characters had attached themselves to me and I was eager to pay witness to their struggle, to hope for their personal recovery, to plead for their forgiveness. Beyond the mid-point, I struggled to take it all in. I wanted more answers and fewer questions. I wanted something to play out with grace and dignity and nothing did. I, like the narrator had grown tired of fighting the fight for absolution.
Lamb wraps up the ending in his own due time, following his own lengthy course. Some answers were not difficult to predict, some outcomes feel more similar to what he hoped would happen than to what seems realistic, but we reach a point where we understand that for the fight of all that was unknown through the novel, throughout the life of the narrator, we do, perhaps, alongside each other, come together at the end to understand a few certain truths.
While I'm not certain I would put this book near the top of my "must-read" list for life, it was certainly a book that I will think over for awhile. A struggle with questions not unfamiliar; a lesson on the necessity of forgiveness that we all need to hear. Sometimes it is not the answers to questions that we wrestle with that bring our lives meaning, but the process of wrestling through the questions. At least from my own life, I know this much is true.
Comments