Book Club: The Hour I First Believed

Last Friday was my ladies book club and we discussed The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  Overall I enjoyed the book.  It is a fiction as the main characters are imagined, but I felt it was more of a historical fiction based on the level of true information intertwined in the story.  Which I really like, as I am normally a huge fan of historical fiction.

It was a great book for a group discussion.  Lots of controversial elements and interestingly flawed characters.  The main character and narrator is a man in his third marriage, Caleum.  The basic premise of the book is that the married couple has been having problems and they relocate for a fresh start.  The settle in Littleton, Colorado prior to the Columbine school shooting.  He is a teacher and she is a nurse at Columbine.  The story follows their relationship as they navigate the aftermath of the school shootings, including post traumatic stress disorder, addiction, and death.  I did not really connect to any of the characters on a personal level, with the exception of remembering when the Columbine shooting happened and the general fear that existed in the aftermath.

I have never read Wally Lamb before and I enjoyed his writing style.  My biggest complaint about the book is the length.  It was over 700 pages, and in my opinion it could have been edited down a couple hundred without losing much of the story.  The story spans about an 8 year period in the couples lives.  But the length of the book really comes from the flash backs that trace the lineage of Caleum's family.  The flash backs are interesting, but go into more detail than necessary to make the necessary connections to the current events happening.

Overall on a scale of 5 stars I give it 3.5 starts.  Have you read this book?  or other books by Wally Lamb?  If so what do you think?