Gay for the Stay; Straight at the Gate

 Since I'm in prison ministry, I became very involved emotionally, in The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.  Of particular interest was the subject of forgiveness.  How do you forgive the perpetrator?

I don't know.  Some people never forgive, even when there's a deathbed confession when someone else confesses to the crime.  The poor victim and family will still not forgive.

But forgiveness isn't only part of this book.  It is a prison book.  The main character, Corbey, encounters the harsh conditions.  I can imagine some of the correctional officers acting like the ones in the story.  People are people.  Power corrupts.  

It is a sad tale on humanity.  It will make you think.

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.  

The Adventure of Life

Wally Lamb's books are always so-o-o-o long; but they're always so-o-o-o good.  They are very worth the time spent reading them.  I guess She's Come Undone is the author's first.  If this is an indication of his talent, then Wally Lamb is my new favorite author.  His character delineation is excellent.

We meet the protagonist, Dolores, as a teenager.  Her big issue was a dad that basically left the family.  He couldn't keep his zipper zipped.  Her mother had mental and emotional issues and eventually had to be hospitalized.  So Dolores retreated to Grandma's.  Good ole Grandma to the rescue. 

Grandma may have been old, old-fashioned, rigid, odd, but she was always there to pick up the pieces.  Poor Dolores coped by eating.  In high school, she became morbidly obese.  But before high school, when Dolores was only twelve, she was raped.  It did a job on her, as it would on anyone. No wonder she sought comfort in eating.  Her parents were occupied with their own demons and Grandma didn't know anything.  Dolores only friends were the gay guidance counselor and the tattoo artist, Roberta, who lived across the street.

Dolores' Mom really, really wanted her to go to college, even though Dolores didn't want to.  Then Mom died and Dolores felt obligated to try college.

It was a disaster.  Everyone bullied her.  Everyone except the lesbian custodian who befriended her.  After a mammoth fallout with everyone, (Everyone!), Dolores ran into the lesbian's arms. But Dolores was disgusted with herself and grabbed a taxi and left.  In the taxi, the radio news was dominated by a whale washed ashore on the Cape.  So she told the taxi driver to take her to where the whale was. 

From the Cape, Dolores was committed to a mental institution. It was good for her, physically, emotionally, and mentally.  She loses all that weight, and it doesn't come back.   From the hospital, she went to Vermont.  She chose Vermont because an old college boyfriend of her roommate lived there.  In fact, they had apartments across from each other.  This wasn't a coincidence (read the book).  Dolores ends up marrying him.

To make a long story short, this guy isn't her "happy ever after" husband.  He's a loser; he makes her have an abortion.  The trauma of the abortion is something she regrets for the rest of her life.  She eventually gets rid of the husband and moves into the house her grandmother left her in her will.  Dolores even tries a few college courses and straightens out her life as much as anyone can.

In the end, you're happy for Dolores but sorry because the story ended. Now that's a good book.

Too Good to Miss Out (Spoiler Alert)

I loved this book.  But you may not think so.  The book is The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  I give my books away but not this one.  I have to reread it.  Why?  Because I'm impatient.  The book was too long and if the story wasn't on my favorite character, I skimmed ahead. 

The main protagonist was Maureen, married to Caelum.  But none of the story would have happened were it not for Maureen.  I got hooked on Maureen.  I wanted to know what happened to her.  I fell asleep with the book in my hands because I couldn't put the story away.  Unfortunately, nothing else interested me.  Her husband, the other main character was just in the way of my reading.  Much of the book was on Caelum's genealogy and history.  To tell you the truth, I couldn't tell who was whom, when it came to his grandmother, aunt, lady friends and Cailum's biological mother.  I didn't care; I didn't want to read about them.  So I skimmed until I came back to Maureen.

Much of the last third of the book was on another book.  It was the history of Caelum's farm and his female relatives.  I can't be more descriptive than that because I didn't read it.  Every time the font changed to indicate that old book, I skipped over it.  It was a distraction to my seeing what had happened to Maureen.

Maureen was the school nurse at the Columbine tragedy.  She was hiding in a cabinet in the room where the killing took place.  She was traumatized and life was never the same.  Maureen was too affected to work.  She actually was in physical pain, besides emotional.  Never mind work, she could barely get through a day.  She and Caelum moved back east, to his family's old homestead.  She went through hell trying to cope.  Finally, with the help of some good drugs, she could work.  But she was addicted.  Being a nurse, it was fairly easy for her to get her pills.  On her way home, she accidentally hit a teenager.  She tested positive for drugs.  The result was a prison sentence.  Maureen's life in prison was another story.  (Please Mr. Lamb, write another book on Maureen's life in prison.) 

At the end of the book, the prison was having a "family and friends" event and Maureen, right in front of Caelum and friends had some sort of cerebral hemorrhage and died.  (There's the spoiler.  Sorry.)

Ugh.  So that's the end of Maureen.  Now I know.  Now I also know that I missed out on a lot of Caelum's story.  After all, The Hour I First Believed, is about Calum's faith journey.  And that's why I am now rereading the book.