Book Review: The Hour I First Believed

The Hour I First Believed
by Wally Lamb
***Spoiler Alert***

I really, truly disliked this book for the first 350 pages or so. It just seemed that the main characters were living life in a fog, not really impacting anything or allowing anything to penetrate them.

Once Lydia Popper, the 19th-century teenaged version of Caelum Quirk's great-grandmother entered the story, I gained interest. Finally, there were some redeeming characters in the book who I did enjoy getting to know.

What follows is a slow awakening - both by Caelum as he comes to understand who he is and has some critical questions answered that help him understand why his life was the way it was - and by the reader, as we, alongside Caelum, learn of his interesting family history and witness his redemption manifested in forgiveness and love, even when unexpected.

Like the Quirk's corn maze on their family farm, there is a maze of characters in this story, each tied to the protagonist and many impacted by chance occurences. One of my favorites is the young substitute who just happens to be subbing for Caelum on the day the Columbine massacre occurs. He confesses to Caelum at a gas station - not knowing it was Caelum he had subbed for that day - that he is no longer frightened about becoming a father, and, in fact, will be a better one because of what he witnessed that day.

Beauty out of tragedy is a theme in this book. There are many unrighteous decisions or chance occurences that develop into positive action. The main character struggles throughout to process why things happen and later finds that the "how" is the critical part. How a character handles the "cards dealt" to them determines much of the unfolding plot. Caelum presents himself honestly to the reader which makes this book both uncomfortable to read and impossible to put down.

Many of the characters are asked to make peace with people who have wronged them - Caelum must forgive Maureen for her affair and make peace with himself for attacking her lover, jeopardizing his career and ultimately the chain of events that put Maureen in the Columbine library on April 20, 1999. Lizzie Popper raises, unsuccessfully, her husband's illegitimate child. Jesse Seaberry is both forgiving and forgiven, becoming the unlikely father of Caelum's "grandchild." Maureen's exit as an angel of mercy - even to a former insolent cellmate - reinforces the book's main point through yet another tragedy. Maureen is redeemed by her faith and good works even while she serves a prison sentence for murder.

I love the way the book weaves in a decade of recent history as well as mid-nineteenth century politics and Civil War. I appreciate the brute honesty in which it deals with the most common manifestations of misplaced hope - drugs, alcohol and sex.

In the midst of the book, the maze is confusing. The presence of all of the various characters, time periods and external circumstances is overwhelming and their purpose is questionable. But, like the aerial photograph hanging in the Quirk's living room, it all makes sense when viewed from above. Yes, it is complex. No, we can't understand all of it. But, Caelum is full of hope and belief in the end, and the reader is expectant that his redemption will be complete.