This is absolutely my favorite book ever. It's quite a long read, but the story pulls you in almost immediately and you can't stop reading until the end.

Though it ended quite well, I remember finishing it and just sobbing. The insights on humanity (both the good and bad parts of it) were utterly profound. Plus, you felt like you truly had come full circle with the main character, Dominick. I'm not sure why I cried... relief that a character so flawed and human like Dominick could get a second chance (and hence there is hope for the rest of us) or from the profound gratitude that you can only feel when you've found something precious that you lost, or maybe I cried b/c though Dominick had been "saved," he still lost his brother.

All emotions come forth, powerfully, when reading this book.

This is one of those books I read that has never left me. After I finished it I just sat in my chair and cryed for a long time. And I can't explain why exactly, as the ending was surprisingly hopeful. It explores the nature of close family relationships and how you can love someone and also hate them and be embarrassed by them, and the guilt that results from these conflicting emotions. The main character has a mother with physical defects which have inhibited her whole life, a brother with severe mental disabilities that have profoundly affected the entire family, and an abusive step-father who damaged everyone under his control. Yet in spite of all the really depressing themes, it is really quite moving and inspirational. It's about survival and forgiveness and atonement. I also loved the secondary story about the grandfather. The book was an astonishing achievement.

This book should have been titled: "Bad stuff happens then even more bad stuff happens and then everything turns out ok."

While Lamb's writing is engrossing and I finished the book rather quickly, the plot became less and less credible as the story progressed. With each additional problem or crisis that Lamb threw into the mix, the more disconnected I felt from the story and the less I related to the characters. By the end, the personas in Lamb's story became caricatures, not real people who I cared about or with whom I felt any connection.

And then, when Lamb tied it up neatly at the end, all I could do was close the book in disgust.

It's too bad; this could have been a great book. Between a self-indulgent author and a lax editor, it didn't get there.

This book has been reviewed by so many times so I'll be brief and say this was a great journey. I really loved this book. Much better than She's Come Undone.

I don't get it. This book was depressing, not particularly well-written and had a meandering story that sounded like someone's disgruntled ramblings. Then, all of a sudden in the last two of 900 pages, something decent happened. By that point I was already in therapy..

While most have raved about this story which is soon to hit the big screen, I found it overloaded with unnecessary details, back story and a litany of characters unrelated to the plot. Having attempted a couple of others by this author, it's clear his style appeals to others, though I'm not one of them. DNF!

4,5⭐️

I Know This Much is True (My Kindle Review)

Taking place in 1991 Connecticut, the novel begins when 40-something painter Dominick Birdsey learns that his schizophrenic twin brother Thomas has cut off his own hand inside the public library of their hometown Three Rivers in response to the Gulf War. Dominick is now left to deal with the many hurdles he has to go through to try to get his brother out of the hospital they’re holding him in while struggling to also deal with his paranoid behavior.

We also get a look at Dominick’s own tough life with his own struggles that include his broken first marriage, his already doomed current romance with a younger woman and a grander look at the twins’ backstory which center on their relationship with their army stepfather, the story of their Sicilian grandfather and their submissive mother who made Dominick promise to take care of Thomas when she was gone.

From start to finish, this is a powerfully emotional and bittersweet odyssey with lots of harsh baggage and story to tell about life, brotherhood and family. Dominick being the narrative, his journey involving helping his twin brother getting the help he believes he needs while looking at his own troubled life is full on relatable and tough moments that never stop. The twins’ rich backstory is also the most compelling as we learn of the two’s shifting relationship during their childhoods up to their college years and the issues they face. We also learn about their self absorbed grandfather’s Sicilian life and his immigration journey that does get overlong.

It’s a near-flawless novel as I wished we could have read some of the novel through Thomas’ perspective and their stepfather Ray. “True” is still one of the most gripping novels I’ve ever picked up as through the sorrow and unexpected, there are touching moments and hope for Dominick as well as the answers to some important questions. So much from this novel that is true. A (100%/Outstanding)

This is officially the longest book (900 pages) I've ever read; it also happened to be the book on my TBR for longest (a decade). I'm so happy that I read it! Put on your 1998 thinking cap for this one-- it doesn't necessarily age well or land like it would if it came out now. But I absolutely see why this was a spellbinding read for so many when it was released. Dominick is a deeply flawed but overall very compelling character. A third or so of the book is the diary of his grandfather coming from Italy to the US in the early 20th century and it was some of the most bonkers shit I've ever read. I love a villain's POV and they don't get much worse than him. I buddy-read this with friends and we came up with a laundry list of flaws, but I still loved it.

Don’t you feel antsy when a writer drags the story on and on just to make the book longer? That’s not the case for this novel: it is long but there are no fillers here, Wally Lamb had so much to say and, through Dominick, I felt that I knew every character in the story.
What a beautiful book. Highly recommended! 4.5 stars

Favourite quotes:

The point is this: that the stream of memory may lead you to the river of understanding. And understanding in turn may be a tributary to the river of forgiveness.

I am not a smart man, particularly, but one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family’s, and my county’s past, holding in my hands these truths: that loves grows from the rich loam of forgiveness; that mongrels make good dogs; that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things.
This much, at least, I’ve figured out. I know this much is true”

Dominick. What a cross to bear. What can I say about this book? For 2 days straight, it was just me and this book. One of those rare ones you can’t stop thinking about.

“Renovate your life, the old myths say, and the universe is yours.”

this book only gets 3 stars because in the end it held my interest. most days i find mr. lamb's writing tedious and sometimes far to drawn out. however, just like with undone, he picks up this ending book speed and wraps it all up in a neat bow. i am shaking my head but the truth is if another lamb walked into my life i would read it. I would probably also want to haul off and throw at it his head.