In a pre-9/11 world, one
of the most shocking acts
of violence to unfold on
television screens globally
was the massacre in April
1999 at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colo.
It is around this deadly
rampage that master
storyteller Wally Lamb
weaves his third, much
anticipated novel Th e
Hour I First Believed.
It is the story of Caelum
and Maureen (Mo) Quirk —
he’s a teacher at Columbine
and she’s the school nurse.
On the day heavily armed
students Dylan Klebold and
Eric Harris unleash their
torrent of rage that would
leave 15 dead, Caelum has
fl own home to Connecticut
to visit his dying aunt, while
Maureen is caught in the
school’s library — the scene
of most of the bloodshed.
She hides in a cramped
cabinet, forced to hear
students being taunted,
begging for their lives,
and ultimately, being
slaughtered. It is a
nightmare from which
Maureen will emerge
physically intact but
psychologically shattered.
Panic attacks
Consumed by fl ashbacks
and panic attacks, the
reader watches — as
helplessly as poor Caelum
— as the once strong
Maureen who, before the
shootings had guided
an anguished Caelum
through the death of his
aunt, now withdraws into a
world where relief is found
only in tranquilizers.
When Maureen confi des
that while crunched in
that tiny space, she wrote
Caelum a note on the wall
of the cabinet, Lamb’s gift
for drawing the reader into
the heads of his characters
is at its best. Lamb writes:
“Should I go to her? Hold
her? Keep my distance?
I didn’t know what she
needed. ‘What did it say,
Mo?’ I asked. She looked
at me as if she’d forgotten
I was in the room. ‘What?’
‘What did your note say?
What did you write to
me?’ ‘Th at I loved you
more than I ever loved
anyone else in my life ...’
Th ere were times I had
to put down Th e Hour I
First Believed, particularly
if reading it in bed. Lamb
recounts actual events
of that horrifi c day, lists
real names of victims and
uses excerpts from crazed
Klebold’s and Harris’s video
tapes and diaries. Th eir
diatribe is chilling and not
the stuff of bedtime reading.
But this book is not all
doom and gloom. Th ere is
plenty of Lamb’s trademark
gallows humour and lots
of out-loud laughs. Th ere
are tears too, of course,
particularly in one of
the closing chapters.
Lamb’s newest novel
took 10 years to write
due, not in small part
I suspect, to the many
stories within the story.
Shocking secrets
In a desperate bid to
shake Maureen back to
reality, they return to
live at Caelum’s family’s
Connecticut farmhouse.
It is here where Caelum
stumbles upon a trove
of old letters, diaries and
news clippings that span
fi ve generations of Quirk
family ancestors and
reveal shocking secrets
about Caelum’s own
troubled childhood.
This back and forth
between present day
and ancient history is
initially refreshing. Th e
reader is immersed in
Maureen’s demons and
doesn’t necessarily want
to be drawn back in time
but Lamb so skillfully
crafts these tales from the
past, it’s sometimes then
disappointing to be shocked
back to the present.
But as much as Lamb’s
writing is a joy to read, the
stories from the ancient past
ultimately drag on too long
and can become tedious.
Too many long-dead
characters detract from
the main story and while
the author will eventually
neatly tie it all together, it’s
a long haul for the reader.
Th is 700-plus page
book, however, is worth
the eff ort and Lamb fans
won’t be disappointed.
The hour I first believed
Lamb was a phenomenal
novelist was when I picked
up his fi rst novel, She’s
Come Undone, and my
faith remains unshaken.
