Madame L apologizes for being late with this review. Some of you Dear And Gentle Readers may have seen "I Know This Much Is True," by Wally Lamb, mentioned on Aunt Louise's blog in a list called "Some Books I Wish I Had Time to Read Again."
One Dear And Gentle Reader definitely saw that and sent the book to Aunt Louise for Christmas (Thank you Aunt Neva!), and so (of course) Madame L had to read it as soon as she could.
Her only excuse for not reviewing the book on time is that she thinks it's a good idea to finish reading a book that she's going to review, and one thing she knew shortly after she started reading this 900-plus-page tome was that she needed to review it.
Usually finishing a book, even a long book, is not a problem for Madame L, but none of her tricks worked here because the book was so interesting and so well written that Madame L couldn't bring herself to skim through descriptions, second-guess dialogue, or give up on any of the characters. All the characters are good and bad, as human and complex as anyone Madame L has ever known. In fact, this is the kind of book that helps the reader understand some of the real-life humans s/he might not have understood very well in the past.
Even the central mystery of the life of the main character and narrator, Dominick Birdsey---who his father was---remains a mystery to him and to the reader until the very end of the book.
Madame L cannot think of any way to write more of a summary of the story without giving away too much. You, Dear and Faithful Reader, should read this book! You'll love it, you'll hate it, you'll put it down and pick it up again several times during the 3 or 4 days (or longer) it will take you to finish it.
Madame L warns those who are sensitive about coarse language and sex scenes that they do exist in this book, though they don't seem gratuitous and do seem to fit in context.
The mass paperback edition of the book is available new from Amazon.com for $7.99, and used for prices starting at under a dollar.
Enjoy!
1 comment:
Keep these reviews coming!
And thanx for the warnings (900+ pages, sex scenes, coarse language).
When you are a sky-intist and read slower than the rest of the world, this sort of summary helps.
~~~~~
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