The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed: A Novel by Wally Lamb

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
If Goodreads allowed readers to give half stars, I would have given this novel 3.5 stars. I bumped up my rating to 4 stars because I think overall this was an interesting and thought provoking read. I immediately took to the voice of the narrator Caelum Quirk. I like his name, his background and (up until the last 200 pages or so) his journey. The book starts off very promisingly -- a character who is unknowingly searching for his sense of self, a traumatic experience in his current life, and a journey to confront a troubled past and family history. This is a lot for an author to tackle in one novel but I think Wally lamb could have surmised Caleum's 'journey' in 500 pages (as opposed to the over 700 pages of the novel). Lamb's metaphors and themes of The Butterfly Effect, The Maze, and how the past affects the future are incredibly poignant for the first half of the novel. But Lamb gets repetitive as the book progresses -- he repeats his themes over and over, as though he is hitting the reader over the head with the obvious. Still, it was an enjoyable read overall. I loved the history of the prison and passages that delve into the past -- ultimately allowing Caelum to confront and come to terms with himself and his history.


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