wally lamb i know this much is true synopsis

As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense.

Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness-pounced on it. Take it from the uncrazy twin-the guy who beat the biochemical rap.ĭominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth-her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control.īorn in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful 'monkey' and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle 'bunny.' From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness-and ultimately self-protection-in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper-if you've promised your dying mother-then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands-the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness.Ī masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal-this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth.

With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery.

Wally lamb i know this much is true synopsis