In The hour I first believed that tells of how the Columbine killing affected the lives of a teacher and a school nurse, the writer, Wally Lamb, draws on his experiences as a teacher of creative writing at university and a teacher in women’s prisons, to create this story.
Being a teacher of English myself, I particularly enjoyed the connections he made between the mythology he was teaching in class and the real life situation he and his students were facing.
In writing about post-traumatic stress disorder, he drew in a character who had been a serviceman in the Middle East war. I found that a little out of place. However, I became engrossed in the lives of the main characters as events unfolded. The reconstruction of the lives of the ancestors I found tedious by comparison. It was a parallel story (a bit like Bryce Courtney’s Matthew Flinder’s Cat) written in a style which did not draw me, the reader, into the story.
I was drawn to this book because, having lived through some years of the civil war in Lebanon, I am interested in tales of how severe trauma affects the lives of people for years to come.I used to say that politically, the Lebanese people learned nothing from the civil war, but , having read this book, I feel a whole lot more compassion for people who have faced such trauma.
Read the review from the New York Times. Click here.
Comment on The hour I first believed by Wally Lamb (Harper Collins, 2008) from Brenda.
Book no 2191 - Sue W.
