Book Of The Month: I Know This Much Is True
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Oprah gave the thumbs up on this one, and since we know that her opinion is worth ten others’, we know this pick is worthy of our October Book of the Month. Published in 1998 by award-winning author Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True is a hefty, intense read. It is an incredibly tragic, well-written, and in-depth narrative, so realistic that after about fifty pages, the reader flips back to the front cover to check if they picked up an autobiography or true story. (They haven’t.) Lamb delves relentlessly and sharply into sensitive topics, such as: serious mental illness, domestic abuse, failed marriage, infidelity, and the heartbreak of infertility.
I Know This Much Is True
Originally Published: 1998
Pages: 928
Available on: Kindle, Audiobook, Paperback, Hardcover
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Dominick and Thomas Birdsey are identical twins, connected acutely through this deep-rooted link from birth, but while Dominick was always strong, protective, and tough-skinned, Thomas was the sweeter, calmer, painfully vulnerable of the two. One more difference separates and defines their relationship: Thomas suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
Dominick bears the weight of his brother’s mental illness, taking it upon himself to make sure his brother is cared for. The story winds us through the past, to the illegitimacy of the boys’ births, to the childhood bullying and physical abuse of their step-father, to the favor of their mother towards Thomas on account of his sensitivity, to Dominick’s failed marriage due to infertility, to the challenges that Thomas’ schizophrenia presents, including a startling self-mutilation that jumpstarts the novel.
When Thomas severs an entire hand from his body publicly as a religious sacrifice and political protest in a local Connecticut library, that sets the tone for the grim narrative that lies ahead in all 928 pages. Dominick puts the rest of his life on hold to make sure his brother is properly cared for in a safe facility.
Dominick, as a main character, is dryly honest, abrasive, and on his way to coming to terms with a lifetime of unresolved past grief, trauma, and pent-up emotion. Throughout much of the story, it becomes apparent he is hanging on by a thread; he has reached a breaking point.
““When you’re the sane brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your hands—the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. 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. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman’s gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the indifference of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin—the guy who beat the biochemical rap.””
I Know This Much Is True is a beautiful story of a broken man who has every appearance of outward strength, but learns that a more fulfilling source of internal fortitude is truth, humility, and self-honesty. Up until age 40, Dominick has relied on brute strength and guarded impenetrability to push through life. These end up being only crutches, as he clings to self-sufficiency and denies that he needs the support of other people.
While deeply troubled and flawed, Dominick is nonetheless a very likable character. We see pride and resentment deeply instilled in someone who is struggling to be and do the best he can, but is inevitably hindered by his inability to be fully honest with himself about how past and present mental and emotional burdens have impacted him.
The way that Lamb goes into Dominick’s mind is stunningly smart and real. Lamb has great talent in describing a very whole, damaged human being. Each character has obvious faults and virtues, making them empathetic, and Lamb makes them very accessible to readers.
Lamb has a great understanding for why people do what they do, whether good or bad, and a talent in conveying this through his words.
““I am not a smart man, particularly, but one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family’s, and my country’s past, holding in my hands these truths: that love grows from the rich loam of forgiveness; that mongrels make good dogs; that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things. This much, at least, I’ve figured out. I know this much is true.””
That last quote is the very ending of the book (don’t worry, it reveals very little of the outcome of the plot), and it packs a huge punch at the end of the novel. After such a long, well-described, well-rounded narrative of a man’s mental transformation, these lines really strike the readers soundly. It shows how much a person sometimes has to endure in order to see the truth of themselves; self-revelation does not dawn on one like a sunrise or a thunderbolt.
Self-realization is a long, grueling process where you take one step forward and three steps back, where you get up on your feet and an unseen circumstance knocks you back down again. Time, experience, communication, the acknowledgement that you can’t fix yourself entirely on your own, all aided Dominick in his story.
One of the most touching parts is that, after all he suffered and encountered, after all the setbacks and grief and tragedy a person can go through, you’d think that all of Dominick’s humor and hope would dissolve into cynicism- that he’d feel like he’s seen it all, know it all, and “it” all just plain sucks.
“With destruction comes renovation.”
Instead, Dominick was far more of a cynic at the onset of his story. As he gradually loosened his hold on pride and accepted that he could neither control nor predict his own or others’ pathway, humility—life’s great floodlight—taught him that he has a very small place in such a huge, unpredictable world.
He gives in to the idea that life can bring even the strongest person to their knees, but an individual doesn't have to bear the weight of the world on their own two shoulders—that is why we have loved ones in our lives. Strength comes in unexpected ways and from unexpected people. “I know this much is true,” he says, these few things, with a sort of amused shrug.
There is much more to know—more than any one person can ever hope to understand—but every day can serve as an opportunity towards that pursuit.
““Life is not a series of isolated ponds & puddles; life is this river you see below, before you. It flows from the past through the present on its way to the future.””
Enjoy!
If you appreciate this novel, try Wally Lamb’s equally successful novel, She’s Come Undone (1992).
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