Amazon.com
Tony award-winning Ken Howard (1776, Child's Play) reads I Know This Much Is True with the conviction of a used car salesman and the charm of a seasoned politico. Reminiscent of a former football coach recalling his glory days, Howard's booming, rich voice is a beefy compliment to Lamb's powerful prose. Never to be mistaken as a ventriloquist, Howard makes little distinction when moving in and out of character--his voice barely cracks an octave for dainty female personalities. However, this understatement (so to speak) lends to smooth transitions and believable, down-to-earth narration. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --Rebekah WarrenBook Description

On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother, Thomas, entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut, public library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable. . . .

Customer Reviews (1428)

Hard to put down....
When I first started reading this book, I thought it would take forever to get through. It ended up only taking one weekend, as I found it hard to put down and focus on other things. I absolutely had to know how the story continued. I am an avid reader and when a book is this captivating and you start to indulge in it, make sure you have free time on your hands, you'll need it. I also read his other novel and I will say that was enticing as well, this one was much deeper and intricate than She's Come Undone. I don't know how anyone could rate this only 1 star. To each is own, I guess.

Bad reviews?Say it isn't so!
I read the one-star reviews posted here and felt my eyebrows move to the back of my head.Did we read the same book?

It's a long book.Unless you have a severe case of attention deficit disorder, you should be able to get through 900 pages.If you can watch four hours of reality shows and sitcoms five nights a week, you should be able to get through 900 pages of ANYTHING!

There was criticism of the last chapter.I loved the last chapter.Life doesn't always have to suck.Sometimes, life can be good.We can be happy at the ripe old age of 46.And we're due that if we've had the miserableness that Dominick had for the first 41 years of his life.

Someone else said that this was bound to be one of the greatest American novels ever written and I agree.East of Eden always held that place for me, but I dare say Lamb may have displaced Mr. Steinbeck.

A wonderful read (I loved the grandfather's journal, by the way) and a very moving story.

Great read
This book goes over the psychological aspect of twins and makes it even more intense with one of the twins being schizophrenic. Fantastic to the final page.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS, EVER
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
One of the things I appreciate most about this book is Lamb's ability to show the complexity and nobility of ordinary people. He doesn't pretty up anything, showing his characters accurately and empathetically. This is a story of great length and complexity. I enjoyed every minute, as did my reading group. I'm not going to repeat things that other reviewers have said, but I will note that Lamb set his story at exactly the right time. A new generation of effective drugs to treat schizophrenia burst forth in the 1980s and 90s, with the result that a diagnosis of schizophrenia is no longer a sentence to living hell. Today, schizophrenia is a treatable disease. As the parent of a schizophrenic, I was overjoyed to see my child become indistinguishable from the normal kids around her as new drugs enabled her to recover. Had Lamb set his story a little later, he would have had a different tale. As it is, he wrote a magnificent story smacking of ancient epics.

The CD Audio Version is the way to go with this one
In my opinion, this is a great book, but it may be because I got a lot out of it personally. I could relate to the string of losses and family abuse and mental health issues that are covered in this book .. I don't think I would have finished it though, if I had read it ..it's such a long complex story.

I listened to the Audio CD read by George Guidall.. I don't think anyone could have done a better job with the voices and characterizations, and the book really flew by. I liked it so much, I bought the CD, and every year or so, I re-listen to it.The back story of Dominic's grandfather is very good. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Any book that can give voice to the voiceless should be celebrated. No one feels this more strongly than Wally Lamb, editor of Couldn't Keep It to Myself, a collection of stories by 11 women imprisoned in the York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. Teacher and novelist Lamb was invited to head a writing workshop at York Correctional Institution in 1999. His somewhat reluctant acceptance soon turned into steadfast advocacy once the women in his charge began to tell their stories. Lamb maintains that there are things we need to know about prison and prisoners: "There are misconceptions to be abandoned, biases to be dropped." However, as heartfelt as his appeal is, nothing speaks more convincingly in this book than the stories themselves.

Those collected here are disturbing and horrific. They reveal, often in graphic detail, the worst kind of abuse: incest, drug addiction, spousal violence, parental neglect, or incompetence. They're also testimony to what social workers and health care professionals have confirmed for years--that those who populate our prisons are often victims first themselves. Thus, the telling of these stories serves as a form of therapy. They are also sad accounts of the brutalities many suffer, yet few discuss: "One day I figured out a dying little girl lived inside of me, so I threw her a lifeline in the form of paper and pen." Considering the degradation the contributors have experienced both in and outside prison, the courage,candor, and honesty with which they speak truly make these stories, as difficult as they are to read, "victories againstvoicelessness--miracles in print." --Silvana TropeaBook Description

In a stunning work of insight and hope, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb once again reveals his unmatched talent for finding humanity in the lost and lonely and celebrates the transforming power of the written word.

Customer Reviews (55)

Deeply moving and memorable
A lifelong Connecticut resident, I'd often driven past York Correctional Institution but never knew much about it. All I saw was a bleak-looking exterior. I never really paused to wonder about the people who lived there...until I read this book.

For the most part, the women of York Correctional Institution seem fated to be defined by the crimes they committed -- nothing more, nothing less. Then author Wally Lamb came along, offering them a chance to explore the life events that brought them to where they are today -- and more importantly, let the outside world gain a better understanding, too.

This volume includes 12 short stories -- 11 the work of ten inmates, and a final piece contributed by a teacher in the prison school. Despite the huge differences in the women's socioeconomic backgrounds and the crimes that engulfed their lives, several things remain constant throughout most of them. In short, unstable parenting, poverty, and sexual and physical abuse created many victims long before the women were faced with situations in which they victimized others. (This doesn't excuse their actions, of course, but simply sheds more light on their frames of mind and where they were coming from, both physically and emotionally.)

One of the stories that left the biggest impact upon me include "Snapshots of My Early Life," where Diane Bartholomew, convicted of homicide, details her childhood as the youngest of four children, abandoned by a father who continued to haunt their lives after his absence, leading to Barthomew's young pregnancy and marriage. Sadly, Bartholomew died of breast cancer in 2001 and never saw the publication of her work.

Each of the stories is accompanied by a large black and white photograph, providing a literal face to each woman's voice, as well as an epilogue, detailing a bit more about what happened after the woman's release (if applicable), or what happened between the time of the events detailed and the present day.

Never stereotype
After reading this book, we have to be reminded that not everyone in prison is a bad person, although all have done bad things.All of the stories were heartwrenching, but one of the most disturbing was Diane Bartholomew's. What she must have endured during her marriage to an physical, mental and sexual abuser.These stories were haunting and very moving. We all have a testimony, but these women shared them with all who would read them.Powerful reading.

Fantastic Book
I am an avid reader and belong to a book club so I have read many good books but this was one of the best.I liked the author's previous book, She's Come Undone, so I knew his work when I purchased this one.It was lengthy, 891 pages, but it carried me along until the last page was read.Good writing and good storytelling made this a powerful essay on human strengths and weaknesses.

People-stories and the humanity behind their writing (despite some official hounds of persecution)
We need more often to be reminded that people whom we stereoptype/label/classify are actually persons, looking for their lives to be lived long after we (amateur social analysts, all) have made our judgments and assigned others to categories that we can either dismiss or simply feel superior to. Wally Lamb and his hard-working partners have brought us vibrant humanity between book covers. Real-life experiences in skillful language. Nice job!

Great Book Couldn't Put IT Down
I really enjoyed this book.It gave a lot of insight into the lives of imprisoned women before there incarceration and afterwards.Changed my outlook on those imprisoned not only by their incarceration but by their lives. ... Read more

Book Description

In 2003 Wally Lamb—the author of two of the most beloved novels of our time, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True—published Couldn't Keep It to Myself, a collection of essays by the students in his writing workshop at the maximum-security York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's only prison for women. Writing, Lamb discovered, was a way for these women to confront painful memories, face their fears and their failures, and begin to imagine better lives. The New York Times described the book as "Gut-tearing tales . . . the unvarnished truth." The Los Angeles Times said of it, "Lying next to and rising out of despair, hope permeates this book."

Customer Reviews (1)

Moving and thought-provoking
Excellent anthology of writing by women in prison who took part in Wally Lamb's writingn classes. Several of the most touching pieces are by young women serving long sentences for crimes committed at very young ages. Great reading for anyone interested in social justice issues. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 1997: "Mine is a story of craving; an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered." So begins the story of Dolores Price, the unconventional heroine of Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Dolores is a class-A emotional basket case, and why shouldn't she be? She's suffered almost every abuse and familial travesty that exists: Her father is a violent, philandering liar; her mother has the mental and emotional consistency of Jell-O; and the men in her life are probably the gender's most loathsome creatures. But Dolores is no quitter; she battles her woes with a sense of self-indulgence and gluttony rivaled only by Henry VIII. Hers is a dysfunctional Wonder Years, where growing up in the golden era was anything but ideal. While most kids her age were dealing with the monumental importance of the latest Beatles single and how college turned an older sibling into a long-haired hippie, Dolores was grappling with such issues as divorce, rape, and mental illness. Whether you're disgusted by her antics or moved by her pathetic ploys, you'll be drawn into Dolores's warped, hilarious, Mallomar-munching world.Book Description
In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

Meet Dolores Price.She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye.Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies.When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder.But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1663)

Couldn't put it down
I could NOT put this book down.It's now one of my top recommendations to friends and family.One of my favorite books.

Undoing the past
She's Come Undone is a novel of disintegration. Dolores's life begins to unravel with the arrival of a free television set, though her life has always been poised to erode.

Like all unhappy families, Dorloros's is unhappy in its own, special way, though I admit that I'm getting tired about reading about unhappy families. It seems like this is yet another my-family-sucks-and-that's-why-I'm-so-messed-up book. It seems like people in America blame their parents for everything. Yes, your parents gave you your problems, but they're YOUR problems now. Deal with them and move on.

Lately, I've been branching out from the so-called chick lit genre into more diverse books just because, although Tolstoy would disagree, it seems like there are only so many variations on the unhappy family, and I think modern literature has run through them all.

Try Rabid: A Novel, for a truly original take on the unhappy family and recovery. It's a much better book.

Minna

One of the few fiction books I read regularly...
This book manages to be depressing and uplifting at the same time.I read it whenever I start to feel sorry for myself (about once a year for the past ten years) so I can remember that things can always be worse, and if they are worse, they can get better.

Fans of the Book of Job will love it.
A week after finishing this book, I still have conflicting opinions. It's hard to synthesize them into a coherent review, so I'm just going to summarize what I liked and disliked.

On the plus side:

Easy to read: The story is told as a first-person narrative by the main protagonist, Dolores. Though her actions can be exasperating to the point where you want to shake some sense into her, she is always engaging, keeping a sense of (sometimes gallows) humor as she recreates her story. And it's impossible not to admire Lamb's skill in writing from the perspective of an overweight, overwhelmed woman as he tracks her history over the 25-year span of the book.

Growth and development: It's incremental, it's painful, there is backsliding - but there is growth. The ending offers a measure of comfort, but to a degree that seems deliberately subdued - there is no fairy-tale ending here. Lamb is showing us that adversity can be overcome, but doing so is hard work. And don't get too comfortable - any ground that you gain in life could be lost overnight. There is something completely admirable in the way that Dolores doesn't simply buckle, but - against considerable odds - manages to reach a level of self-awareness that affords her a measure of contentment in her own skin

As against that: (WARNING - SOME PLOT DETAILS INCLUDED)

Hard to read: For the same reasons that the book of Job is not your favorite book of the bible. The tribulations just keep coming. Guilt about parents divorcing? Daddy abandonment issues? That's just the baseline. Let's pile on a little molestation, rape, 150 or so excess pounds, several years in a psychiatric facility, peer rejection and gratuitous cruelty, marriage to a philandering narcissist, abortion, and the death of almost everyone dear to you. You can almost hear Satan betting with that dear old-Testament God, as further trials are heaped on. Dolores's failure to conceive is almost a relief - at least we're spared the prospect of a child-immolation scene.

Growth and development: Wait now. Didn't I list this under the `things to like' section? Well, yes I did. So sue me for also disliking it. Because there is that unavoidable Oprah sticker right on the cover of this book. It's completely obvious why - the kind of uplift that is doled out makes this book a shoo-in for Oprah-approval. But it's hard not to feel that one is being emotionally manipulated throughout, on a grand scale. To which my -admittedly irrational - response is "If you're going to play the reader like a cheap violin, then at least have the decency to provide more of a feel-good ending than you do".

Dead whale metaphors: Give me a break! Was this really necessary? Best you could come up with? Why not just club the reader over the head and have done with it?

Also, if I were a lesbian, I think I'd be within my rights to be offended by this book.

You can tell I'm all over the map where this book is concerned. Which means it got under my skin more than I might like to admit. Which is what allows it to keep its third star.

In the end, a book more to admire than to like.

Good story
To me, this story is a cross between a Judy Blume book and Forest Gump. It was very good, but did seem to drag at times... it was close to 500 pages. She lives a dramatic life (you go from early childhood into her adult life) and the author does a great job painting the picture in your mind with wonderful description. It will tug at your emotions and can be difficult to put down. Some parts were a little raunchy for my taste with homosexual encounters. I would have liked the ending to have turned out differently. I don't believe you will be disappointed with this one, although it can be exhausting with as much life that is covered in one book with such drama involved. I could see this being made into a movie. ... Read more

Product Description
A best-seller and New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Shes Come Undone whisks you on a wild journey through life with an unforgettable heroine, both heartbreaking and comical. In award-winning author Wally Lambs remarkable coming-of-age odyssey, a lonely girl satisfies her cravings for love and happiness with her own unsettling solutions. Reeling from her parents bitter divorce, 13-year-old Dolores Price retreats to the safety of her bedroom. There she fortifies herself with potato chips, six packs of soda, and bags of cookies while attractive families laugh at life on her TV. When adulthood forces her on her own, she rolls out at a startling 257 poundsleft with only her cynicism and wisecracks to protect her. Wally Lamb paints such a realistic picture of a young womans inner world that youll have trouble convincing yourself he never was a teenaged girl. With narrator Linda Stephens dramatic narration, youll be cheering for Dolores every step of the way as she stumbles through victories and setbacks. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Wally Lamb, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2235 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
An extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey of a novel that was selected for Oprah's Book Club. ... Read more