The Hour I First Believed: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Wally Lamb (Author)
Key Phrases: college boy, astral weeks, inciting disturbance, First Believed, The Hour, Lizzy Popper (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Product Description

Wally Lamb's two previous novels, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, struck a chord with readers. They responded to the intensely introspective nature of the books, and to their lively narrative styles and biting humor. One critic called Wally Lamb a "modern-day Dostoyevsky," whose characters struggle not only with their respective pasts, but with a "mocking, sadistic God" in whom they don't believe but to whom they turn, nevertheless, in times of trouble (New York Times).

In his new novel, The Hour I First Believed, Lamb travels well beyond his earlier work and embodies in his fiction myth, psychology, family history stretching back many generations, and the questions of faith that lie at the heart of everyday life. The result is an extraordinary tour de force, at once a meditation on the human condition and an unflinching yet compassionate evocation of character.

When forty-seven-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma. Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family's house. The colorful and intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War era to Caelum's own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long-buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface.

As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary—and American.

The Hour I First Believed is a profound and heart-rending work of fiction. Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity.

From the Author: Wally Lamb's Playlist for The Hour I First Believed

I’m often asked what novels by other authors I 'm reading when I’m writing one of my own. The better question is: What and who am I listening to? I’m pleased to share many of the tunes, recognizable and obscure, that helped me write Part I, "Butterfly" of my novel, The Hour I First Believed. I hope you enjoy them.

1. "Gloria," by Van Morrison from The Sopranos - Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series (Morrison) Caelum saves a slot for Van the Man in his list of “Greatest Songs of the Rock Era.” Morrison had this hit with the band Them in 1964, the year Caelum was 13.

2. "The Meaning of Loneliess," by Van Morrison from Wh at's Wrong with This Picture? (Morrison) In a bluesy mood, now-middle-aged Morrison explores the “existential dread” of life’s second half. Middle-aged Caelum’s pondering life’s meaning, too.

3. "A--hole," by James Luther Dickinson from Free Beer Tomorrow (Unobsky) “Ask any of us cynical bastards to lift up our shirt, and we’ll show you where we got shot in the heart,” says Caelum, as he angrily grieves two failed marriages and a third failing one.

4. "Black Books," by Nils Lofgren from The Sopranos - Peppers and Eggs: Music from the HBO Series (Lofgren) Lofgren’s mournful vocal, matched to his stunning guitar work, mirrors Caelum struggles to accept the jolting reality of Maureen’s infidelity.

5. "Useless Desires," by Patty Griffin from Impos sible Dream (Griffin) Dr. Patel advises Caelum that if he cannot forgive his wife, he should move on. Instead, the Quirks move away from Three Rivers and toward tragedy in Littleton. Griffin’s bittersweet road song captures both the desire for and the futility of escape.

6. "At the Bottom of Everything," by Bright Eyes from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (C. Oberst) Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes) imagines an airplane ride every bit as strange as the one Caelum takes beside chaos theorist Mickey Schmidt.

7. "House Where Nobody Lives," by Tom Waits from Mule Variations (Waits) In response to his aunt’s stroke, and later, her death, Caelum returns to a now-empty farmhouse.

8. "When God Made Me," by Neil Young from Prairie Wind (Young) Caelum, back in Three Rivers and now in his late forties, contemplates an earlier, more innocent youth--and its loss.

9. "Mbube (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)," by Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Taj Mahal from Long Walk to Freedom (traditional) Mr. Mpipi performs a dance of hunger that turns into a dance of love, and a praying mantis egg case explodes with life on young Caelum’s windowsill.

10. "Believe," by Cher from The Very Best of Cher (B. Higgins/S. McClennan/P. Barry/S. Torch/M. Gray/T. Powell) “Believe” was inescapable in 1999, the year I toured Europe with my previous novel and began this one. The pop star’s durability causes Caelum to speculate that only two life forms would survive a nuclear holocaust: cockroaches and Cher.

11. "My Buddy," by Chet Baker from The Best of Chet Baker Sings (Donaldson/ Kahn) My dad used to sing this song to me when I was a little boy, riding beside him in our green Hudson during Saturday errands. Baker’s songs always makes me sad, but this one’s bittersweet. I played it over and over when I was writing the episode where Caelum’s father drives him to town to buy him his belated Christmas gift.

12. "Mary," by Patty Griffin from Flaming Red (Griffin) When the shooting begins in the Columbine library, Maureen crawls inside a cabinet, writes Caelum a goodbye note, and prays the Hail Mary.

13. "A Case of You," by Prince from < i>A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (Mitchell) This Joni Mitchell classic evokes, for me, the impact of Mo’s Columbine experience on the Quirks’ marriage.

14. "Losing My Religion," by R.E.M. from In Time: The Best of R.E.M 1988-2003 (M. Stipe/P. Buck) How could a merciful deity allow Columbine to happen? Caelum’s ambivalence about god turns to bitter rejection.

15. "Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray," by Maggie and Suzzy Roche, Ysaye Barnwell, and DuPree from Zero Church (traditional) Disengaged and disspirited, Caelum gropes for a spiritual connection but hears only silence. This song was recorded by vocalists from the Roches and Sweet Honey in the Rock in the aftermath of 9/11/2001. The shadow of that cataclysmic day hung over my writing of this novel for six years.

16. "I Drink," by Mary Gauthier from Mercy Now (Gauthier/Harmon) As Maureen’s reliance on prescription drugs increases, Caelum, too, numbs himself--with his father’s, and later Ulysses’s, preferred poison.

17. "Hallelujah," by Jeff Buckley from So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley (L. Cohen) Leonard Cohen’s haunting meditation about the spirit and the flesh has been covered by many artists. The late Jeff Buckley’s version is perhaps the loveliest and most poignant.

18. "The Ghost of Tom Joad," by Bruce Springsteen from The Ghost of Tom Joad (Springsteen) In the closing days of a traumatic school year, in a borrowed classroom, Caelum and his students discuss Steinbeck’s masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. Shortly after, Caelum and Mo will take to the road as the Joads did, yet they’ll travel from west to east.

Praise for The Hour I First Believed

“Lamb...has delivered a tour de force, his best yet. A”
--Entertainment Weekly

“Lamb, a maestro of orchestrating emotion . . . knows how to make his fans’ hearts sing.”
--Elle

“A page-turner... Lamb remains a storyteller at the top of his game.”
--USA Today

“A soaring novel as amazingly graceful as the classic hymn that provides the title”
--Miami Herald

“Wally Lamb is a remarkable talent.”
--Columbus Dispatch

“Every character is rendered with vivid, utterly convincing depth....a heck of a page-turner.”
--Dallas Morning News

“[Lamb’s] pacing is superb: Sections of the story expand to accommodate a mix of characters, yet scenes don’t linger overlong.”
--Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Lamb has crafted another affecting, engrossing tome about complicated, interesting characters.”
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

“…too compelling to put down…a richly textured story...”
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Lamb does an extraordinary job narrating some of the most terrifying tragedies of the past 10 years....an epic journey. Grade: A.”
--Rocky Mountain News

“When you put Lamb’s newest novel down, it will be reluctantly. It’s that good.”
--Knoxville News-Sentinel

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Ron Charles A great story is buried in Wally Lamb's avalanche of a novel, The Hour I First Believed, but only the most determined readers will manage to dig it out. The author -- twice blessed by Oprah, for She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True -- can be a captivating storyteller, and he has built this story on one of the most shocking acts of violence in modern history. Sadly, though, his new novel becomes so burdened by diversions, delays, tangents and side plots that the whole rambling enterprise grows maddening, the kind of book you want to throw across the room, if only you could lift it. The narrator is a middle-aged English teacher named Caelum who's trying to hold together his third marriage. When he discovers that his wife, Maureen, is cheating on him, he attacks her lover with a pipe wrench. This is, from start to finish, a novel about the effects of anger, the torrent of destruction that's easily triggered and difficult to repair. Hoping to remake their lives after Maureen's adultery and Caelum's prosecution for assault, they move to Colorado and get jobs at Columbine High School. In April of 1999, when Caelum flies back to Connecticut to check on his sickly aunt, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold enact their deadly rampage. Caught in the school's library, Maureen hides in a cabinet listening to students being taunted and slaughtered. Lamb doesn't provide the sort of psychological insight into the perpetrators that we got from Richard Russo's and Lionel Shriver's novels about school shootings, but he knows just how to let the details of a tragedy unfold without decoration or commentary. He's a master at the kind of direct, unadorned narrative that brings these events alive in all their visceral power. The most terrifying section of The Hour I First Believed is essentially a docudrama of the Columbine massacre, describing the actual events, naming the real victims and heroes and providing chilling excerpts from Klebold's and Harris's journals and videotapes. Lamb's depiction of the aftermath is equally wrenching: parents waiting all night in the gym for lists of the dead, the sound of hundreds of cell phones ringing in uncollected backpacks, the sight of such a happy place transformed into a morgue. In many ways, this horrendous incident is a natural subject for Lamb. He's long been interested in the lingering effects of trauma and the process of emotional recovery, and it's a relief to see that his treatment bears none of the shiny optimism associated with his famous talk-show patron. Although Lamb is too earnest for satire, The Hour I First Believed makes ironic references to Dr. Phil, Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul and the whole recovery industry that's grown up in the last couple of decades. As Caelum attends funerals, memorial services and counseling meetings after the massacre, he hears the full symphony of recovery theology, but he remains bitterly skeptical. "Maybe there was something to this 'power of prayer' stuff, and maybe there wasn't," he says. "But I resented the white-haired woman, shilling for God among the walking wounded." At the main funeral, attended by 70,000 mourners, including Amy Grant, Billy Graham's son and Al Gore, Caelum can't shake his resistance to their healing messages. When the crowd is exhorted to shout, "Columbine is love," Caelum won't do it. And later, when a chillingly efficient therapist begins her PowerPoint presentation on the process of grief, Caelum complains, "Too technical . . . she's talking to sufferers, not psych majors." The most moving example of the difficulty of recovering from psychological trauma is Caelum's wife. "Mo's one of the victims you've never read about in the Columbine coverage," he tells us. "One of the collaterally damaged." Overwhelmed by flashbacks and panic attacks, she can't return to work or handle the basic tasks of daily life. Caelum tries to do whatever she needs, be whomever she needs, but she remains either zoned out or combative, at constant risk of overdosing on tranquilizers. Caelum struggles to understand what's happening to her as she alternately pushes him away and begs for his affection. In hopes of providing her with a more peaceful setting, they move back to his family's farmhouse in Connecticut and try to start over. Maureen can't shake her demons, though. Alone and despairing, Caelum throws himself into researching the massacre, hoping to gain some understanding of his wife's condition, but the sheer volume of competing theories only depresses him more. This portrayal of a couple dealing with the asymmetrical effects of trauma is Lamb at his best, wholly sympathetic, deeply moving. If only the author had stayed with these ample elements, he would have had a powerful novel about two people determined to care for each other despite unfathomable challenges. But as the story moves further along, its focus blurs and the relationship at the center fades away. How much more disaster does a novel require, you may ask, than the deadliest high school shooting in America? The answer, apparently, is much, much more. This giant book becomes an encyclopedia of tragedy and mayhem, including but not limited to the Civil War, the Korean War, the Iraq War, Katrina, vehicular manslaughter, gang rape, kidnapping, dismemberment, alcoholism, suicide (by gun, by train), child abuse, self-mutilation, drug addiction, bankruptcy and infanticide: a menu of misery that could fill Oprah's schedule for a decade. What's surprising, though, is how this second half of the novel fails even as melodrama. It gets bogged down in the history of a women's prison that one of Caelum's relatives started more than 100 years earlier. Clearly, this subject is important to Lamb -- he's spent years teaching female prisoners in the York Correctional Institution in Connecticut -- and there's fascinating material here about the counterproductive ways we punish people, but he seems strangely unwilling to provide much insight into the lives of the women inmates. Instead, in a move that ruins the engaging domestic storyline, Maureen is pushed off stage when Caelum discovers in his attic a collection of 19th-century letters that mention everybody from Mark Twain to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Nikola Tesla. Herein begins an exceedingly tedious mystery about the real identity of Caelum's late mother. He gives the old letters to a feminist scholar for her dissertation about the founding of the women's prison, and at least 75 pages of her scholarly document are dumped into the novel, with deadening effect. Even Caelum complains about how boring this is. Trying to read his friend's dissertation, he says, "I shifted the pillows, glanced over at the clock radio. Only nine twenty-three? God, it felt more like midnight." Rarely have I felt such empathy with a character. "I fought it for as long as I could, attempting over and over to get to the end of that same sentence. Then I surrendered to sleep." But I still had more than 100 pages to go. And then Lamb's "Afterword." And then his "Notes From the Author." And then his "Acknowledgments." And then his "List of Sources Consulted." And then his list of "Charitable Donations." All so earnest and far, far too much.
Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

---

Product Details Hardcover: 752 pages Publisher: Harper; 1ST edition (November 11, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0060393491 ISBN-13: 978-0060393496 Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (300 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #13 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life

Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Search Inside This Book:

---

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
college boy, astral weeks, inciting disturbance, absent boy, corn maze

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
First Believed, The Hour, Lizzy Popper, New York, Aunt Lolly, Three Rivers, Bride Lake, Mary Agnes, New Haven, Miss Dank, Miss Rheingold, Miss Hogan, Eric Harris, Paul Hay, Grandpa Quirk, Charles Popper, Shipley Hospital, Jesus Christ, Nancy Tucker, Velvet Hoon, Carole Alderman, Civil War, Mama Mia, Great-Grandma Lydia, Kareem Kendricks

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Search Inside This Book:

---

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	73% buy the item featured on this page: The Hour I First Believed: A Novel 3.4 out of 5 stars (300) $19.77
	9% buy The Help 4.8 out of 5 stars (522) $13.72
	7% buy I Know This Much Is True: A Novel (P.S.) 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,468) $13.25
	6% buy The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel 3.1 out of 5 stars (1,290) $7.55

Explore similar items

---

Tags Customers Associate with This Product  (What's this?) Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people. Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below. wally lamb(74) columbine(47) ptsd(27) oprah book club(21) family history(17) ginnetta correli(8) the lost episodes of beatie scareli(8) fiction(7) christianity(3) alcoholism(2) civil war(2) See all 92 tags... Your tags: Add your first tag

Search Products Tagged with   See most popular tags

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

---

 

Customer Reviews

300 Reviews 5 star:  (90) 4 star:  (63) 3 star:  (58) 2 star:  (61) 1 star:  (28)           Average Customer Review 3.4 out of 5 stars (300 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 93 of 106 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A great American novel!, November 12, 2008 By  Sasha Turkus (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    I have been looking forward "The Hour I First Believed: A Novel" since I first learned it was in the works a couple years ago. I became a fan of Mr. Lamb's after reading the excellent "She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club)" (thanks to Oprah!) And then followed it with the just as good "I Know This Much Is True: A Novel (P.S.)." At the time, Lamb's style and sensibility were a whole new world to me. I loved the black humor, but it was the introspective style and snappy narrative that made him a joy to read. This time out Lamb has gone above and beyond his previous works, creating a great American novel that speaks to the current generation. It's the story of Caelum Quirk and his young wife Maureen. The story of how the attempt to put their lives back together after Maureen miraculously survives the massacre at Columbine high school, she survives but not without deep physiological scares. The couple moves back to Caelum's family farm in Connecticut in an attempt to escape the horror of the school shooting, but life is not so easily put in a box, and destiny has more tragedy in store. The meat of the story is Caelum's quest to discover his past through a cache of old letters, diaries, and newspaper he finds hidden in the old family house. From this he is able to reconstruct his legacy, but it is not easy there are long buried secretes hidden in this legacy. This discovery of his past is the back drop for Caelum and Maureen as they struggle to form a future. This book takes the reader on an epic journey which had a profound effect on this reader. At times it was like a punch in the gut at others it brought a tear to my eye. Along with "Misfits Country" (another punch in the gut!) one of my favorite fiction reads of 2008! 58 of 66 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Love Wally Lamb - very disapointed, December 2, 2008 By  CVH "CVH" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews I consider Wally Lamb to be one of the most personally influential authors I have ever read. I have waited in anticipation for this book to be released. He lacks in areas I normally site as his strength - character development. Usually Lamb has the power to pull you into the body of the character and feel their emotions with them however in this work, I merely felt that he used side stories to distract from the fact that none of them had depth. Maureen, 'Mo' is the character I found the most appealing, but because the story is written from her husbands point of view, her deep tragedy goes without any sort of lasting impact on the reader. Lamb claims to have chosen events & people that occurred over the past 8 years to draw inspiration from and give them everlasting tributes through their impact in his characters lives. But all he manages to achieve is a listless and unconvincing review of the events of the stories we still see day to day on the 6 o'clock news. His closing remarks reveal that he struggled with writing this book, and I believe the pressure got to him... he wasn't true to himself in this work. Such a shame. 51 of 61 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, confident, witty, and direct , November 12, 2008 By  Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    The story begins with the Columbine School Massacre, having followed the seemingly innocent culprits before the event. It then goes into fiction centred on the two main characters, husband and wife, and how they are affected, along with glimpses into their family's past. It all makes for an epic journey. I must admit had difficulty finishing this book, the reason? Quite simply I did not like the character who was the narrator. The narrator, Caelum Quirk, is an educated man, a teacher, but he has among other failings anger management problems, a wife who was once unfaithful, and they both are prone to using unsavoury language. To follow them through their traumatic experiences was at time almost a burden. For me it is important to feel something for the main characters in a story, to care about them, but here I was unable to connect. Maybe the fault is mine. The book is extremely well written and reads with great ease. It is gritty, confident, witty, and direct; putting aside my reservations it would make very involving and rewarding reading. But if I am going to become involved in a story it is essential that I am able to feel something of the main characters; I do not expect them to be perfect, but I need to be able warm to them, to care about them, and here I could not.		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing writer I love Wally Lamb's work. I could not put this book down. Of course, living in CT and having gone to UCONN make this read even more enjoyable! Read more Published 20 hours ago by K.Depp 3.0 out of 5 stars I Can't Believe I Read the Whole Thing In the author's notes at the back of this novel, Wally Lamb thanks his editor for shaping a long and messy manuscript. Read more Published 3 days ago by Yours Truly 4.0 out of 5 stars The Hour I First Believed This epic tome is truly larger-than-life. Not only is this heavy book one that you don't want to fall asleep while reading, it also confronts a plethora of psychological issues... Read more Published 11 days ago by Sandra Brazier 5.0 out of 5 stars The Hour I First Believed Another great journey with Wally Lamb! A pleasure to have the Birdsey twins connected to the main character in this book. Wally Lamb is my favorite author. Published 18 days ago by P. Marcin 5.0 out of 5 stars Great read Wally Lamb has done it again! He can weave a story and keep one so involved that you hate to put it down. This rates right up there with I KNow This Much is True. Read more Published 18 days ago by Henry Epstein 5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing! The fact that so many of the negative reviews essentially whine, "well, it was good, but it was too long and complicated... Read more Published 19 days ago by Jennifer Brown 3.0 out of 5 stars Good but flawed I am a huge fan of Wally Lamb, and clearly the man is one of contemporary America's finest authors. But his new book ultimately bites off more than it can chew. Read more Published 24 days ago by Brian J. Roach 1.0 out of 5 stars I want my money back! Very Disappointing. BORING in fact. I would have liked to put it down, but had invested so much time in it that I felt that I had to finish. It was wasted time. Read more Published 27 days ago by Rhonda L. Fulton 2.0 out of 5 stars Not that this book needs another negative review... I loved "I Know This Much Is True." Maybe I loved it too much and thus expected too much from "The Hour I First Believed." I don't know. Read more Published 28 days ago by Sarah K. Stiteler 2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been 6 or more separate books I am a huge fan of Wally Lamb's two other novels, and I was really disappointed with this one. It's not that the writing style wasn't there, but I thought I bought a book about a... Read more Published 1 month ago by Eileen Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

---

Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (6 discussions)   Discussion Replies Latest Post wally lamb lover!!! 0 3 days ago I'm looking for a great read too...please recommend.... 37 13 days ago Your opinion of The Hour I First Believed 24 24 days ago your opinion on Hallowed Moon By S.M.Nelson... 8 March 2009 Kindle Book Price 2 January 2009 I've been waiting for years!!! 36 December 2008 › See all 6 discussions...   [Start the discussion] Start a new discussion Topic: First post: Receive e-mail when new posts are made Prompts for sign-in   [Cancel] Guidelines Active discussions in related forums   Discussion Replies Latest Post womens fiction fiction suggestions 6 1 day ago womens fiction What's on YOUR bookshelf? 47 3 days ago womens fiction Blurring the lines 6 8 days ago womens fiction Recommendations please 22 8 days ago

The PTSD community Latest activity 8 hours ago 622 customers have contributed 413 products, 7 discussions and more... › Explore the community The Oprah Book Club community Latest activity 1 day ago 1,539 customers have contributed 533 products, 251 lists & guides and more... › Explore the community The Family History community Latest activity 15 hours ago 740 customers have contributed 556 products, 21 lists & guides and more... › Explore the community Related forums columbine family history (1 discussion) oprah book club (7 discussions) ptsd (7 discussions) wally lamb womens fiction (12 discussions) Explore more › See all Customer Communities › Your communities

---

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.

› See featured Amapedia.com articles

---

Listmania!

Looking for a Good Story, Look Here: A list by Alison Jones   Paint Your Imagination with a Good Book: A list by Ashley Balta   Eat, Drink and Read a Good Book: A list by Ashley Balta Create a Listmania! list

Search Listmania!

---

So You'd Like to...

Hunt Up Some Gorgeous Fiction: A guide by Vesta Irene   Hunt Up Some Tasty Fiction: A guide by Vesta Irene   heart-rending and shocking works of fiction: A guide by Graham Droll Create a guide

Search Guides

---

Look for Similar Items by Category

• Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life
• Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States

---

Cut Wood Down to Size Split wood with ease using a log splitter from the Outdoor Power & Lawn Equipment Store. ›Shop all log splitters

Big Savings in Books Find great titles at fantastic prices in our Bargain Books Store.

Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free Order any four eligible books under $10 and get the lowest-price book free in our 4-for-3 Books Store. See more details.

Best Books See our editors' picks and more of the best new books on our Best of the Month page.

 

Feedback If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? Is there any other feedback you would like to provide? Your comments can help make our site better for everyone. Please note that we are unable to respond directly to all feedback submitted via this form, but we'll ask you to sign in so we can contact you if needed.

Where's My Stuff? Track your recent orders. View or change your orders in Your Account. Shipping & Returns See our shipping rates & policies. See FREE shipping information. Return an item (here's our Returns Policy). Need Help? Forgot your password? Buy gift cards. Visit our Help department.

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)

You have no recently viewed items or searches. After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.	Continue shopping: Top Sellers Paranoia by Joseph Finder 4.1 out of 5 stars (193)$0.00 My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)$0.00 Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich 2.6 out of 5 stars (197)$9.99 Glenn Beck's Common Sense by Glenn Beck 3.8 out of 5 stars (257)$6.59

Amazon.com Home  |   Directory of All Stores

International Sites:  Canada  |  United Kingdom  |  Germany  |  Japan  |  France  |  China

Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Build an eCommerce Site  |  Advertise With Us  |  Developer Services  |  Self-Publish with Us

Help  |  View Cart  |  Your Account  |  1-Click Settings

Investor Relations  |  Press Releases  |  Careers at Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

Product Details

• Hardcover: 752 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1ST edition (November 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060393491
• ISBN-13: 978-0060393496
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (300 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #13 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great American novel!, November 12, 2008

By	Sasha Turkus (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have been looking forward "The Hour I First Believed: A Novel" since I first learned it was in the works a couple years ago. I became a fan of Mr. Lamb's after reading the excellent "She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club)" (thanks to Oprah!) And then followed it with the just as good "I Know This Much Is True: A Novel (P.S.)." At the time, Lamb's style and sensibility were a whole new world to me. I loved the black humor, but it was the introspective style and snappy narrative that made him a joy to read.

This time out Lamb has gone above and beyond his previous works, creating a great American novel that speaks to the current generation. It's the story of Caelum Quirk and his young wife Maureen. The story of how the attempt to put their lives back together after Maureen miraculously survives the massacre at Columbine high school, she survives but not without deep physiological scares. The couple moves back to Caelum's family farm in Connecticut in an attempt to escape the horror of the school shooting, but life is not so easily put in a box, and destiny has more tragedy in store. The meat of the story is Caelum's quest to discover his past through a cache of old letters, diaries, and newspaper he finds hidden in the old family house. From this he is able to reconstruct his legacy, but it is not easy there are long buried secretes hidden in this legacy. This discovery of his past is the back drop for Caelum and Maureen as they struggle to form a future. This book takes the reader on an epic journey which had a profound effect on this reader. At times it was like a punch in the gut at others it brought a tear to my eye. Along with "Misfits Country" (another punch in the gut!) one of my favorite fiction reads of 2008!

58 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love Wally Lamb - very disapointed, December 2, 2008

By	CVH "CVH" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

I consider Wally Lamb to be one of the most personally influential authors I have ever read. I have waited in anticipation for this book to be released. He lacks in areas I normally site as his strength - character development. Usually Lamb has the power to pull you into the body of the character and feel their emotions with them however in this work, I merely felt that he used side stories to distract from the fact that none of them had depth. Maureen, 'Mo' is the character I found the most appealing, but because the story is written from her husbands point of view, her deep tragedy goes without any sort of lasting impact on the reader. Lamb claims to have chosen events & people that occurred over the past 8 years to draw inspiration from and give them everlasting tributes through their impact in his characters lives. But all he manages to achieve is a listless and unconvincing review of the events of the stories we still see day to day on the 6 o'clock news. His closing remarks reveal that he struggled with writing this book, and I believe the pressure got to him... he wasn't true to himself in this work. Such a shame.

51 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty, confident, witty, and direct , November 12, 2008

By	Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The story begins with the Columbine School Massacre, having followed the seemingly innocent culprits before the event. It then goes into fiction centred on the two main characters, husband and wife, and how they are affected, along with glimpses into their family's past. It all makes for an epic journey.

I must admit had difficulty finishing this book, the reason? Quite simply I did not like the character who was the narrator. The narrator, Caelum Quirk, is an educated man, a teacher, but he has among other failings anger management problems, a wife who was once unfaithful, and they both are prone to using unsavoury language. To follow them through their traumatic experiences was at time almost a burden. For me it is important to feel something for the main characters in a story, to care about them, but here I was unable to connect.

Maybe the fault is mine. The book is extremely well written and reads with great ease. It is gritty, confident, witty, and direct; putting aside my reservations it would make very involving and rewarding reading. But if I am going to become involved in a story it is essential that I am able to feel something of the main characters; I do not expect them to be perfect, but I need to be able warm to them, to care about them, and here I could not.