Illin' Oy weighs in on This Much I Know

I have started to read the book. There's quite a bit that goes on in just the first couple of chapters so i just wanted to throw my thoughts out there.

Wally Lamb has such an absolute command of the mind of the psychopath. Even though the book is written from the perspective of the "sane" twin Dominick, I TOTALLY get the crazy brother, his motivation and his justification. The conflict is firmly established for me in the scene of the brother cutting his hand off in a public library and Dominick's decision to honor his wishes and not have the hand reattached.

First of all the narrative is told after the fact, from Dominick's point of view, in his home, being pestered by the librarian regarding her own selfish needs. The next chapter reveals more about how Dominick never puts himself or his needs first and is frustrated by his life's burden of the consequences of making decisions for others who may or may not be able to speak for themselves. The librarian is at Dominick's house asking for absolution of responsibility, concerned she'd triggered the event because she'd spoken to Tom harshly. Dominick provides the solace she was seeking for his own selfish motives, to get her the fuck out of his house. The scene I believe is important for two reasons: 1) because it gave Lamb an opportunity to review a gritty scene in hindsight, able to communicate gore appropriately and allow us to evaluate the mental health of Tom ourselves and 2) because I believe the decision to let the Librarian off the hook will bite Dominick in the ass later. It's written in as almost an afterthought on his part and I think he'll regret it down the line.

Even so, the brother's insanity is firmly set in cement. He can't seem to recall what year it is but he has a love of the newspaper, the daily record of current events. He's obsessed with them and has an emotional, passionate reaction to the Gulf War (the first one, in the '90s), but his only voice is to act out in a gruesome, heinous act of self mutilation. He's also obsessed with religion's capital punishment aspects and uses this as a rationale to carry on his "war protest" actions.

The librarian's visit also enables a flashback to the hospital where Dominick essentially has the fabulous codependent "fuck it" moment where he makes his brother live with the consequences of cutting his arm off. I adore this -- he's so angry with the responsibility of having a mentally ill brother who just cut off his own hand for a political statement and he's so angry with himself for not having seen the signs and whatnot, that he just honors the wishes of his insane patient brother and says fine you'll have a stub of a hand. Awesome!

So far I love Dominick. When his mom was dying a sad and painful death of breast cancer, he tried to make up for not being a better son by completely refurbishing her kitchen even though she didn't seem to have asked for it or want it. Unable to talk about his feelings or identify how he's feeling about the prospect of an astronomical loss, he turns to a busywork project.

Those are my thoughts about 30 pages in. More to come!

PS I wanted to hate this book because it's an Oprah book but Wally Lamb has such a delightfully wicked understanding of the minds of insane people and those who love them, I couldn't help but fall in love on the first page. I do hate the pro life embryo picture on the cover, though. What's up with that?