Water, Water, Everywhere

Many people think Wally Lamb’s novel, We Are Water, “eh”. But I liked it.  But of course I like Wally Lamb because he also has a prison and God discussion.  Two of my favorite subjects.

We are Water we see a dysfunctional family even though the father is a psychologist.  The mother keeps a big dark secret.  She’s an artist and divorces her husband of 27 years for another woman.  At first, the family is shocked but by the end, they’re OK with it.  I guess the purpose of the story is to portray that lesbian couples are good people, like straight ones.

I was thinking of giving this book to a friend to read but thought again.  There’s too much sex in it.  But it’s not gratuitous, though.  It’s necessary for the plot.  It begins with child molestation to sadistic machoism, masturbation, to lesbianism.  It’s not as crude as my sentence.  The molestation is shown to lead to the other perversions. 

The characters are wounded people but good people, even when they sin.  And I think the novel is a good attempt to portray a lesbian marriage, and how child molestation leads to adult sexual dysfunction.  But there is always hope.