I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (1998)

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I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb


                Dominick and Thomas, the twins. Different in so many ways. Identical in nature and yet opposites in life. Dominick the teacher turned house painter. Thomas the paranoid schizophrenic that cut off his right arm in a public library to try and stop a war. This is Dominick’s story, his narrative, his examination of how his life turned out the way it is. Failed marriage, the guardian of his crazy brother, the man who never even knew who his father was. Dominick is the man still fighting for answers and to fulfill his last promise to his now deceased mother, to protect her favorite and to watch over him. But at what cost! Was he supposed to sacrifice his own sanity after fighting so hard to not be Thomas?
                From the very first page of this novel I was hooked. Dominick was a very straight forward character who told it how it was and didn’t pity himself. What I loved most about his character was that he was fighting for his brother and himself. He didn’t understand how he made it unscathed while his brother thought he was a prophet for Jesus. He didn’t understand why Thomas could never function normally and yet, here Dominick was putting one foot in front of the other. Dominick was flawed and he knew it. He even partially blamed himself. But this whole novel was about him, his brother, and family in general. Self-examination is really what this novel was about. What had his life become and why?
                I Know This Much Is True was extremely interesting and very well told. Dominick was a very powerful narrator and a very well developed character. I could see life through his eyes and it was all very intimate. It was easy to blame him and yet feel his pain. I was trying to understand what made him the person that he is at the same time that he was trying to figure everything out. But all of the characters were well thought out, believable and flawed. Everyone’s presence throughout the novel left a profound impression on Dominick’s life and added to the narrative. The plot for this story moved well and stayed interesting. There was a pretty drastic change in story telling half-way through the novel that took some getting used to though.

                Overall, this novel was amazing. I really enjoyed it. Great world building and a main character with a great presence can do that to a novel. I was on the same quest he was: a quest for answers. I love when I can fall into a story and just get lost in the narrative and this was that kind of book for me. Lamb is great at creating characters that have a lot of depth and aren’t easily understood. I give this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

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