I Know This Much Is True (Abridged)

by Wally Lamb Narrated by Ken Howard

Overview

#1*New York Times*Bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection

""Thoughtful . . . heart-wrenching . . . . An exercise in soul-baring storytelling-with the soul belonging to 20th-century America itself. It's hard to read and to stop reading, and impossible to forget.""* -*USA Today

Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his subdued life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. Dominick is forced to care for his brother as well as confront dark secrets and pain he has buried deep within himself-a journey of the soul that takes him beyond his blue-collar New England town to Sicily's Mount Etna, the birthplace of his grandfather and namesake. Coming to terms with his life and lineage, Dominick struggles to find forgiveness and finally rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his troubled twin.

I Know This Much Is True is a masterfully told story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal-an unforgettable masterpiece.* *

Editorial Reviews

OCT/NOV 98 - AudioFile

The fates of an angst-ridden man and his paranoid-schizophrenic twin are inextricably bound in this symbolic and naturalistic first-person novel. Ken Howard does a particularly nice job with characterization and further graces the text with his understanding of its subtext and drama. Strangely, though, he detaches from the hero/narrator, whose conflicting passions animate the story. He has opted against full impersonation, perhaps because doing so would reveal more of the character’s unsympathetic teeth-gnashing. Indeed, Howard makes the most of the novel’s strengths--crisp writing and idiomatic dialogue--and with the help of an excellent abridgment renders its weaknesses--pedantry and triteness--inconsequential. This award-winning Broadway stalwart here shows himself to be as adept behind the mike as behind the footlights. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 98 - AudioFile

The fates of an angst-ridden man and his paranoid-schizophrenic twin are inextricably bound in this symbolic and naturalistic first-person novel. Ken Howard does a particularly nice job with characterization and further graces the text with his understanding of its subtext and drama. Strangely, though, he detaches from the hero/narrator, whose conflicting passions animate the story. He has opted against full impersonation, perhaps because doing so would reveal more of the character’s unsympathetic teeth-gnashing. Indeed, Howard makes the most of the novel’s strengths--crisp writing and idiomatic dialogue--and with the help of an excellent abridgment renders its weaknesses--pedantry and triteness--inconsequential. This award-winning Broadway stalwart here shows himself to be as adept behind the mike as behind the footlights. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173807182
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/10/2004
Edition description:	Abridged

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