I'd never wanted to read any Wally Lamb, and then both of his books were given to me by a friend. And I count them both among my all-time favorites. This one is LONG (800+ pages!) but worth it. It's the story of two brothers, and you'll feel like the narrator and his family are part of your life by the time you finish it...

A lovely surprise in my mailbox! Thanks twanggrrl, it goes on the TBR shelf (just so you know, at this rate, I may not get to it until next spring....)

At first I disliked this book. For some reason, I had always been convinced this was a non-fiction memoir and so when I began reading and realized it was a novel, I was disappointed. And I didn't like Dominick, the chief protagonist. What a miserable hateful man! But I try to give books at least a hundred pages or so before giving up on them, and so persevered.

Am I ever glad I did. After a while I began to see past Dominick's outward hatefulness to his inner pain. Anger and attitude were his survival skills, the coping mechanism he learned early in life and continued to use well into adulthood. Being the normal twin with a schizophrenic brother, being the "strong" one, being on the defensive from the time he was very young -- all these contributed to the ugly demeanor he presented to the rest of the world. He just didn't know any better.

I came to admire Dominick for his mule-headedness and his "fuck you" attitude. He tried to honor a promise he made to his mother to protect Thomas from the world, from their step-father and even from Thomas himself. He tried to take care of his family. He tried to find out where he belonged. He struggled with a form of survivor's guilt (why am I the normal one?) and a desperate crippling fear that schizophrenia would take his mind the way it had taken Thomas's.

The story is exceptionally well-told, with flashbacks from the boys' childhood through their adult years interspersed with the current events resulting from Thomas's action at the beginning of the book. I even cried a time or two, and by the time I finished the book late last night I had come to love both Dominick and Thomas.

Thank you, twanggrrl, for sharing this with me.

As a side note, the main thrust of this story takes place during the build up to and engagement in the first Gulf War (1990-1991). I found it, ummm, interesting that many of the same issues and rationalizations used to justify that conflict were recycled for our current engagement in Iraq.

Promised to beatrice-s.

Mailed to beatrice-s today.

In true BookCrossing fashion, this is one of four books that have descended on me all at once ;) And it's a big 'un! Very cute cover. I'm very interested in psychology and it is one of the subjects I'm covering in university, so this is right up my alley. Can't wait!

Thanks Avanta!

Released on Saturday, November 30, 2002 at to another bookcrosser in Little Rock, Arkansas USA.

Just realized I never made release notes for this! Sorry about that...hope you all are enjoying. (Private release)

Just making an entry to take it off the go hunting pages since it's not actually huntable, being safely ensconced on beatrice-s's shelf.

To be honest, I don't really know what to make of this book. I liked it and I didn't like it. The first thing that bugged me was that I felt that the author had somewhat corrupted his own language through his particular method of giving voice to the narrator, which I think could've been avoided. I had trouble for almost the first half of the book, but fortunetly I rarely give up on books and it started getting very intense from there on. I found the insight into the dynamics of the dysfunctional family very profound, especially when trying to look at the situation from the perspectives of the different characters. I really found Domenico Tempesta's memoirs an artful inclusion; however, it could have done without the forced parallels as there were enough subtle ones. I really liked all the characters, including the unsavory ones. Lamb really illustrated the depths in each one and didn't characterize any of them in a purely good or bad light. Just when you *know* you can't stand a certain character, there's a sudden about-face that makes you question your conclusions. That was probably what I appreciated most about this book.

From a psychology student's standpoint it's also very interesting, especially the gene-environment interplay. At times it reads almost like a monozygotic twin case study in which both brothers may have had the diathesis (precursor) for schizophrenia, but because of increased stress and less effective coping skills, Thomas had the greater chance of actually developing the illness. And from the father-son relationship it seemed that Dominick's avoidance of it may have come at Thomas' expense, which really hit me. Also interesting was the description of the conditions at the forensic hospital, something that is a huge controversy in the mental health world.

Overall very glad I read it! Thanks! I plan to leave this is the psych building at UBC sometime this week, for some unsuspecting undergrad student to pick up ;)

Just making a journal entry to say that I've released the book at UBC, appropriately labelled, sticky-noted, articled, and altogether extremely hard to miss! Not doing release notes cause when I went back to check on it, it was gone.

Hiya, just finished it. Found it here at UBC. Left it in Victoria.

The end wrapped up a it quickly! But was satisfying enough.

Hywel.

CAUGHT IN VANCOUVER/UBC BC CANADA