CM - The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb

This book was extremely well written and flowed nicely for the reader. I kept seeing the book everywhere, and as someone who takes a hint pretty quickly, I decided to read it. It was a work of fiction about a schoolteacher named Caelum Quirk and his wife Maureen who works as a school nurse. However, the book places two fictional characters at the scene of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. If that makes sense...Caelum and Maureen were fictional characters, and their story was fictional, but all the facts surrounding Columbine were legit.

Had I not known better, I would have surely believed that these two people were real and so was their experience. That gives credit to the author for writing such an enthralling book. In April of 1999, Caelum returns home to Conneticut to be with his aunt, the only living member of his family and also the only one who ever cared about him. His aunt "Lolly" had suffered a stroke and although she was unable to talk, she manages to say "Cae", so he went. While he was there, he receives bad news followed by horrific news. His wife Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine (where the majority of the killings occured) locked in a cabinet saying Hail Mary's and etching a note to her husband in the cabinet fearing that the sadistic teenaged killers had only a matter of time before they found and killed her too. She survives, but not without cost...she is unable to recover from the trauma.

The effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues. I have to admit this book caught me off guard. What I thought was meant to be a book about Columbine turned into a eye-opening read. It questions the faith that lies at the heart of everyday life and questions why those who claim not to believe in God, nevertheless turn to Him in times of trouble and in the face of tragedy. I can't give away too much more because that would defeat the purpose of you reading the book, but it was a worthwhile novel. Great read. Oprah even picked Wally Lamb's books to go in her bookclub. I am personally envious of the fluidity in which he writes.

Ratings:
Hey, if its good enough for Oprah, it's good enough for you.
Great read, thought provoking, well written, I give it an A