Read halfway, but just got bogged down in the endless trials and tribulations of the MC's life.

The subject is real; the topic important. Schizophrenia and how it tears apart not just the person who has it - his or her life - but so many around him. And not confined to just family, friends, coworkers, health professionals. This is the story of identical twin brothers, one who develops the condition (disease) and the other who does not. However, the main focus here is on the one who does NOT.

Set in two timelines: past, when the twins are young - as kids and teenagers, then the early 90's...


Dominick and Thomas are twins, born to a single mother, living in a hellhole existence with a stepfather (Ray) who has zero empathy or awareness of the harm he does by constantly berating, belittling and beating the boys. (He torments both, but Thomas gets the worst treatment.) Ray is a colossal jerk/tyrant in the household, as shown in several graphic scenes where he terrorizes the twins for minor infractions - like eating NECCO wafers in church - always saving the worse for Thomas. But still, despite scenes where the adult Thomas is incarcerated, mistreated, or has heart-rending episodes of delusion and paranoia, the book is mostly about the Dominick.

And Dominick alone could have his own book without the brother. He has a wife he loves who leaves him. A baby daughter who dies of SIDS. An abused mother with a cleft lip who struggles with spousal abuse and does next to nothing to help her sons when they're being abused. And from childhood on, he's in a constant struggle to help his brother, Thomas, who he only barely understands. (Though sometimes he just stands by and let's Thomas get bullied, etc. Later he has to deal with all the guilt.) It's a nightmare world for Dominick which never lets up, which never ends, and even when things are looking a (little) better...

Dominick is a house painter - he was a teacher but loses his job when he breaks down in class. Anyhow, as he's taking shutters off a third-floor window, he watches the man inside shoot himself in the head. Of course. Then Dominick falls off the ladder, breaks a lot of bones, misses an important meeting which will determine the course of his brother's future treatment - and oh, did I leave out that earlier Thomas cut his hand off in a public library as he feels this will avert a war in the Middle East? Well poor Dominick doesn't take that very well either! Nah, there's just TOO MUCH HERE.

I got dizzy reading this.

Let me also add that Dominick entrusts his grandfather's hand-written autobiography (for translation from Italian) to a woman who runs off with it. That his current girlfriend, Joy - ironic name - gets pregnant by someone else and tries to pass it off as Dominick's. (She deserts Dominick, too, running off with the baby's father. Her subplot borders on the absurd: she invites the baby's father to hide in a closet and watch her and Dominick have sex.) Let me see, what else?

Dominick has a friend, Leo, who is one of the biggest jerks to ever live in a book. Why Dominick just doesn't DUMP the guy, I don't know. (Funny how so often characters in books have these truly terrible friends and KEEP them. I'm looking at you, 'Goldfinch.') And to top it all off, adult Dominick stays 'friendly' with the stepfather who made his childhood a living hell for him and his brother. There are also scenes where Dominick is getting some help - therapy-wise - but fights constantly with those who are trying to help. Just goes on and on ...



It's endless. I've often had trouble with books with never-ending scenes of degradation, despair, defeat, depression. It just piles on and on and yes, I've had some issues in my life, too. And I'm a real person, not a character in a book but I just couldn't...

Read...

Anymore.

Three stars, for catching my attention, some excellent writing, but the endless pain and suffering? Too much!

"Kartais pažiūriu į jį, ir toks jausmas, kad jis... lyg koks apleistas pastatas. Name, vardu Tomas, jau daugelį metų niekas negyvena.
Mano brolis visą laiką buvo man tarsi akmuo po kaklu. Traukė mane žemyn...Aš jo nekenčiu. Jis yra mano prakeiksmas. Mano suknistas nupušęs brolelis."
Gėda dėl brolio, pažeminimas, patyčios, jo liga, silpnumas.

Aš išėjau į šviesą, rankose laikydamas šias savo surastas tiesas: kad meilė tarpsta tik sodrioje atlaidumo dirvoje, kad mišrūnai yra patys geriausi šunys, ir kad Dievo buvimo įrodymas yra visa ko apvalumas.
Bent jau šiuos dalykus aš sugebėjau suprasti. Bent tiek aš žinau".

Gal kiek ištęsta knyga, bet visumoj patiko.
Du broliai dvyniai, vienas iš kurių serga šizofrenija, jų stiprus tarpusavio ryšys; pažadas motinai ginti brolį.
Sudėtingi šeimos santykiai,vaikystės traumos, pasiaukojimas, kaltė -knygoje bus visko, kad užteks su kaupu.

4,5⭐️

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.

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 was a really good book. It is 900 pages and we read it for book club. I think everyone was nervous about finishing. Everyone loved it but this is a book I would also recommend to men. It has a lot to do with male relationships. Looking forward to reading another by this author.

I found this book immensely frustrating. The concept was beautifully set up, the emotions felt real and true, and certain passages were among the best written that I've ever read. And yet, Wally Lamb insisted on adding in extras - extra plot lines, extra characters - that detracted from the core story that was so, so good.

The basic setup is simple but allows so much room for Lamb to explore complex relationships and emotions. Twin brothers, Dominic and Thomas, grow up with their subjugated mother and abusive step-father. As Thomas slips into paranoid schizophrenia, Dominic is plagued with guilt for being the one to survive their childhood relatively unscathed and confusion over how to treat his once abusive step-father, who becomes a far more sympathetic figure as he ages. Lamb's exploration of all the relationships involved in this scenario was near perfect.

It was almost as if Lamb felt this story on its own wasn't meaningful enough. Partway through the novel, various other elements (a diseased ex-girlfriend, another set of twins struck by disaster, a grandfather's biography) are introduced and as a reader, you almost feel betrayed because the story in which you were so invested starts to feel contrived and disjointed.

Sunku įtikint save, kad karo kontekste prasminga knygas skaityti, apie jas rašyti ir galvoti, tai tik atbula ranka ir atbula galva kažką paklikinau. Jei žinote, kaip tą įveikti, pasidalinkit (nors dabar jau vien toks noras atrodo nepadorus).

Gera knyga, Lambas turi iš ko parašyti visus savo 900 psl. Apie sunkius šeimos santykius - visai priminė Mūsų smagiausias dienas, tik čia mažiau šeimos sąveikų, taip nešokinėja emocijų kardiograma.

PATIKO:
1. Šeimos struktūra: pasakotojas yra suaugęs vyras, brolis dvynys; jo brolis serga šizofrenija ir nuolat - nuo pat vaikystės - atsiduria globojamo, gelbėjamo pozicijoj. Be to, brolius mama užaugino viena, jie niekada nežinojo, nors norėjo sužinoti, kas yra jų tėvas. Gražu, kad Lambas, nors ir išlaiko gyvenimišką detektyvėlį (greta visko kitko, pasakotojas vis tiek per visą knygą ieško savo tėvo), nespekuliuoja jokiomis juicy paslaptimis, neprikiša kriminalinių ar apskritai neįtikėtinų istorijų į ir taip gan toksišką paveikslėlį. Nu maždaug kaip būtų 900 psl romanas apie brolius dvynius ir jo pabaigoj vienas brolis paaiškėtų besąs dar ir kito tėvas. (kaip tik prisiminiau, kad dar neskaičiau naujausios Yanagiharos knygos)

2. Kaip pasakotojas lanko terapiją (visai adekvačiai parašyta) ir jo terapistė-antropologė kalba apie mitus, pasakojimus, visokias legendas. Kažkaip vos ne pirmą kartą pamačiau, kaip šie pasakojimai iš tiesų gali kažką gilaus apie žmogų atskleisti, kaip Greimas-Jungas ir kiti rašė. Respektas taip aprašyti, kad skaitytoja/s staiga išvystų teorinį dalyką kaip visiškai suvokiamą ir akivaizdų. Net užsinorėjau daugiau tų mitų iš kitų kultūrų paskaityti, man taip dar nėr buvę.

3. Personažų, ypač nemalonesnių, kūrimas. Ir apskritai visokių neigiamų dalykų aprašymas. Pasakotojas labiausiai man patikdavo, kai būdavo piktas, o piktas būdavo kone nuolat - tai ką nors sudaužo, tai nori iškeikti (o ir iškeikia), tai dar kitaip kelia chaosą. Ir dar - labai didaktinė, bet gerai parašyta "geresnio vaiko" istorija: savo mamai pasakotojas visada jautėsi esantis tas blogesnis vaikas, nepatikimesnis, ne toks artimas ar geras. Ir sykiu visa istorija, kaip jis globojo ir buvo atsakingas už silpnesnį, mėmiškesnį, pažeidžiamesnį brolį. Atrodo, skaitai ir tave kartu ima pyktis dėl visokeriopo toksiškumo (gal ir man reiktų pas tą daktarę Patel, kur su pasakoja apie mitus). Bet sykiu ir pats pasakotojas, ir kiti yra bjaurūs, negailestingi, tiesiog neteisingi kitiems, ir tai niekaip neišsprendžiama, tiesiog taip yra, - ir tas kažkaip labai tikra.

4. Šizofrenijos aprašymas. Ir priepuolių, ir gyvenimo su liga, ir artimųjų bandymo susigyventi su sergančiuoju ir jo liga. Neegzotizuojant, bet ir nenuglaistant, nedemonizuojant, kad vat koks čia Džekilas ir Haidas. Tiesiog pagarbiai - to mokytis ir mokytis.

NEPATIKO:
1. Pabaiga, kurioje viskas susiveda, išaiškėja, o LT leidime dar ir pateikiamas keliolikos psl autoriaus pasakojimas apie save ir lyginimas savo gyvenimo su romano personažais. Plius tokia terapinė pasakojimo struktūra: išmoksti atleisti, nepykti, susiduri su praeities demonais, dar blogiau - išsiaiškini ir supranti savo traumas - ir tada įvyksta magija, atsiranda prarasta meilė, grįžta ramybė, vėl dirbi mylėtą darbą, o dar kažkaip padaugėja draugų ir pamažėja naštos. Lol it no work that way.

2. Karo kontekstas ir tai, kaip jis pasitelkiamas. Apie tai skaitydama kažkaip nuolat prisimindavau Aš čia. Lambo knyga prasideda tuo, kad pasakotojo dvynys Tomas, protestuodamas prieš "Audrą dykumoje", nusipjauna ranką (jei tavo ranka skatina tave nusidėti...). Buvo ir gaila, kad realiai prieš karą protestuoja tik tas personažas, kuris dar ir serga šizofrenija (yra neveiksnus), bet sykiu ir liūdna dėl to. Juk ir šiaip tarsi jautriausiai į globalinius įvykius reaguoja tie, kurie nerimauja dėl savo pačių problemų, ir represuodami tai tampa hiperjautrūs pasaulio neteisybėms. Bent taip sako psichologijos mokslas. O gal tik stereotipas taip sako?
Bet kuriuo atveju romane būtent taip ir nutinka, šizofreniko dvynio pacifistinis protestas tampa kreivu veidrodžiu "sveikojo" dvynio ilgamečiam procesui nuo pykčio prie susitaikymo ir vidinės taikos. Ir būtent šiandien kažkaip itin neteisingai atrodo kolektyvinio skausmo ir jautrumo sąsaja su vienu iš ligos veidų.

One quality I consider a "good" novel should have is a sense of "completeness" in its story - and this novel feels complete. The writing is wonderful and the characters are vivid. I like its exploration of mental health issues. This is a domestic fiction of epic proportion.

There was a review with date started and finished but it didn't survive the import from Shelfari. Slowly adding my missing books but too time consuming to review again.

I know this to be a true masterpiece. It was a riveting page turner . Despite the size of the novel , it was not intimidating in the least. Each character was crafted so wonderfully and I couldn’t wait to read each one’s story . From start to finish, I was completely hooked and so impressed with the storyline. I’m looking forward to reading more of Lamb’s novels .

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.