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The Hour I First Believed: A Novel | 
| Author: Wally Lamb
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.97
You Save: $11.98 (40%)
Rating:  130 reviews
Sales Rank: 83
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 752
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.9
ISBN: 0060393491
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060393496
Publication Date: November 1, 2008
Availability: Pre-Order (0-0 Business Days)
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 125 more reviews...
 A great American novel! November 12, 2008
70 out of 79 found this review helpful
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!
 Gritty, confident, witty, and direct November 12, 2008
37 out of 48 found this review helpful
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.
 Utterly Devastating November 15, 2008
27 out of 49 found this review helpful
I hardly know how to begin this review. What to say about this book. I read The Hour I First Believed in ten hours. Feeling all the while like a moth drawn in to a flame, knowing I was going to be burned but unable to pull away.
I bought the book because of the title... which is a line from an old hymn, written by man who had lost everything yet held on to faith and hope in the goodness of life.
The Hour I First Believed, written about a man and woman enduring similar, catastrophic losses, led me to hope this book would be equally inspiring.
But instead, I'm sitting here, struggling for words, feeling a solid dose of the PTSD described in the book. Except this PTSD was brought on by what this author made me endure in his story.
If you mix a coming of age story, with a historical biography from the Civil War, and a non fiction book on the Columbine murders, and then throw in a few political rants, and an oversized helping of truly raunchy erotica, you've got The Hour I First Believed.
To Lamb's credit, the book is brilliantly written. He's obviously poured his guts into the telling of this tale.
And yet, this book is so grueling, often utterly base, emotionally draining, and for the most part devoid of hope. I turned the last page feeling as though I'd had all wind knocked from my lungs. Exhausted. And in need of a full bucket of brain bleach to wash away some of the more horrific and despicable images painted in the story.
Perhaps I've been sheltered--though my own life has had tremendous challenges--but is is our world truly this vile, this hopeless, this lost?
The author covered just about every horrifying and despicable act mankind can perpetrate on each other. In just one novel.
And at the end of it all, the payoff we receive for suffering through the whole thing?
Not enough to fill one page. Out of nearly 800 pages of story!
My advice to interested readers? Save your money. You'll not only save yourself the nearly $20 for the book itself, but also all the cash you'll need for counseling after you finish the book.
My advice to the author? Dear God, man, you're obviously a talented writer. But anyone can suck people down and spread misery. Use your gifts to give people HOPE instead. Please!
Good, but doesn't come close to "She's Come Undone" November 15, 2008
25 out of 27 found this review helpful
I really wanted to love this book. I liked it a great deal, I devoured it in two days, yet I'm still looking for a book to compare with "She's Come Undone," a book that I am literally unable to put down, one that wrenches out my heart every single time, leaving me sobbing with her final self-discovery of happiness. But this is not that and cannot be compared, but must be evaluated as an individual book.
Story wise, I really liked most of it. The recent/current stories of Caelum and Maureen were compelling. The family stories, however, were less fascinating, even distracting. Janis's document, in particular, seemingly had no place in the novel for me. I didn't feel compelled to know every detail of his family's history. A few paragraphs here and there would have been sufficient to shape how he came to the present. The interactions and stories about Cae and Maureen, however, were among the best I have read in years.
Lamb has a definite knack for creating characters I care about and want them to succeed. Minor characters as well (Ulysses) develop major importance for me and I care about them no less than the protagonists. He also has incredible foreshadowing skills - by about page 200 I could sense the eventual end.
Overall a great book that will be reread many times. Bravo, Mr. Lamb!
 Love Wally Lamb - very disapointed December 3, 2008
19 out of 24 found this review helpful
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.
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