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I Know This Much Is True: A Novel |  | Author: Wally Lamb
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: CDN$ 10.99
Buy New: CDN$ 9.89
as of 9/10/2010 15:56 CDT details
You Save: CDN$ 1.10 (10%)
Seller: Amazon.ca
Rating:  1275 reviews
Sales Rank: 17005
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 912
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0061097640
EAN: 9780061097645
ASIN: 0061097640
Publication Date: November 6, 2003
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 1998: What if you were a 40-year-old housepainter, horrifically abused, emotionally unavailable, and your identical twin was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed in public self-mutilation? You'd either be a guest on the Jerry Springer Show or Dominick Birdsey, the antihero, narrator, and bad-juju magnet of I Know This Much Is True. Somewhere in the recesses of this hefty 912-page tome lurks an honest, moving account of one man's search, denial, and acceptance of self. This is no easy feat considering his grandfather seemed to take parenting tips from the SS and his grandmother was a possible teenage murderess, his stepfather a latent sadist, and his brother, Thomas, a politically motivated psychopath. Not one to break with tradition, Dominick continues the dysfunctional legacy with rape, a failed marriage, a nervous breakdown, SIDS, a car crash, and a racist conspiracy against a coworker--just to name a few. A stretch, both literally and figuratively from his Oprah-christened bestseller, She's Come Undone, Lamb's book ventures outside the confines of the tightly bound beach read and marathons through a detailed, neatly cataloged account of every familial travesty and personal failure one can endure. At its heart lies Freud's "return of the repressed": the more we try to deny who we are, the more we become what we fear. Lamb takes Freud's psychological abstraction to the realm of everyday living, packing his novel with tender, believable dialogue and thoughtful observation. --Rebekah Warren
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1275
 Simply wonderful July 8, 2010
Bookluvr (Toronto, Canada)
I had started this book about 4 years ago and stopped reading it after a few chapters because I found the main character and the plot too dark and depressing. Luckily I picked it up again last week and got completely engrossed in the story. True to Wally Lamb's style, if you stick through to the end of the story...you find an uplifting and thoughtful ending. I loved it and highly recommend it to others.
Great read April 30, 2010
Stephanie Horth (Montreal, QC Canada)
I started reading this book and got into it really quickly, I could not put it down. The characters are all very interesting and the story is well developed.
 Definately worth the read! February 27, 2010
Valerie Christie (Ontario, Canada)
I picked up this book having no idea what it was about. It had a few slow points and for whatever reason it took me a while to get through but in the end it was an excellent story. I felt like i had much more appreciation for the book after i finished reading it entirely than when i was actually reading it. I still to this day (having read it 6 months ago) think about this story all of the time. Of all of the books i have read this one stands out as one i will always remember.
Linked by blood September 12, 2009
Saro (Montreal, QC)
Over the past several years, I have always found an excuse not to read Lambs colossal psychological tearjerker, I Know This Much is True. I had an inkling that I would be quite taken with its protagonists, but it required a considerable amount of time and abandon. Well, I devoured this tale in a two day timespan while working during the Christmas holidays. I Know This Much is True weaves the tale of identical twin brothers Dominic and Thomas, one who is an emotionally crippled house painter and the other is a paranoid psychizophrenic; the latters actions will have harrowing consequences on the state of mind of the other. Lamb continues to marvel without dousing us in heavy sentimentalities and that is no mean feat at over 900 pages.
A Complicated Life? July 31, 2007
B. Boethius
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Whose isn't? But then, Lamb has a knack for really telling it like it is. This books gives us the story of a messed-up life of forty-something Dominick Birdsey. His twin brother, Thomas, is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes he is God' messenger and that various government agencies are out to get him. Sound like your next door neighbor? Sounds like mine. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Dominick's and Thomas's stepfather is practicing the not-so-subtle art of hate, abuse, and sadism--this, a continuation from what he did to the boys in childhood. As the novel unfolds, more screwed up characters get into the act and Lamb somehow manages to get us to read about them, eventhough they seem unrealistic at times. This book was extremely hard to put down--like watching a bad traffic accident in which you want to look away, but can't. If you like this book, then you'll enjoy another I recently read called THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Also about family dysfunctions and over-coming hardships but VERY funny and also very dark. Great writing, both the Lamb and the Dogwood book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1275
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