Dear Wally Lamb,
I'm *this" close to finishing your latest novel,
We are Water. I've been waiting a while to read it, ever since I knew it was forthcoming, I had it added to my Amazon cart. So probably since the summer.
What can I say? I get excited to read a good book. Ever since I read
She's Come Undone, I can always count on you for at the very best, an emotionally charged literary winner, and at worst, not a hell of a bad way to waste a week or two.
That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I'm all over the place with it, which pretty much mirrors the novel. I'm not sure exactly where this story will end up and not because it's keeping me on the edge of my seat. More like I'm having trouble figuring out which story is the actual story. Does this make sense? Is my confusion jumping off the page at you?
Look, we've got themes of racial tension, pedophilia, alcoholism, prostitution, artificial insemination, lesbian weddings, sexual misconduct between teacher/student, poor parenting, child abuse, murder, absentee fathers, the importance of one's heritage, art, religion, childhood trauma and its long-term effects, the cost of keeping a painful secret and (wait for it...) sharks (!!). We are literally all over the map here and tragedy abounds.
First let's focus on what works for me in this novel. As usual, Mr. Lamb has a knack for writing from a women's point-of-view. Don't believe me? Go (re)read
She's Come Undone. With this novel, he takes it further, writing from a slew of varied vantage points. And it works (for the most part). It feels legitimately honest, to the point of making the reader angry. Especially when he writes from the character Kent's perspective. Completely cringe-worthy. Which means it works.
The most glaring example of what didn't work was the mash-up of stories. We have a storyline from the days when racism abounds centering around a promising black artist who accidentally (?) drowns before he makes his mark in the art world. We have another storyline surrounding Annie and Orion Oh, present day, consisting of divorce and gay marriage, as well as issues of parental abandonment and abuse that they bring with them from their respective pasts. Then we intimately meet the Ohs three adult children, and we learn about how their lives are colored in shades of disarray from their childhood. There's a lot going on which makes it a challenge for the reader to decide who they should be rooting for. I feel like the novel has a little bit of everything, which can sometimes be good, but in this case makes it feel manic.
UPDATED AFTER FINISHING:
Despite the heavily-layered story lines, Mr. Lamb somehow manages to pull it altogether (mostly, though one of the most intriguing stories about Josephus Jones kind of left us hanging) and tie all 576 pages of it with a shiny bow. As a reader, I feel like I know these characters in an intimate way and feel as though, once again, Mr. Lamb manages to be an excellent writer of character development. All of the characters were completely fleshed out in their own complex way. I can't help but think this would translate well to TV (Lifetime channel, are you reading this?).
Bet on seeing this novel on many book club lists in the coming months, it leaves the reader with a lot of discussion fodder.
