Summary
Caelum Quirk lives in Littleton Colorado with his third wife, Maureen. He is a teacher at Columbine High School, she is the school nurse there.
When Caelum's aunt Louella dies suddenly of a stroke, Caelum, her last surviving relative, travels to Connecticut to arrange the funeral.
On April 20, 1999, Caelum is at his dead aunt's house in Connecticut, his wife Maureen is in the school library, helping a student when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold enter.
The plot of this novel follows Maureen's recovery from post traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings. It's told from the perspective of her husband and deals with his issues as well.
Eventually, Caelum digs into his own past and into the lives of his ancestors.
What I liked
This novel was very well written. One of the best. And the storytelling was well done too. It was evocative, the characters were awfully believable. And the story wrestled with some really weighty questions that made me think real hard.
What I didn't like
It was a very difficult book to read. It's kind of dark until the very end. Even then, the light is murky. None of the characters are very likable. I could relate to them easily enough, but the story is more about how they succumb to their flaws rather than how they overcome them.
Also, I've never read anyone who could make sex as dirty as Lamb makes it in this book.
Conclusion
I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was well written, it tells a story that's well worth reading, and it wrestles with very important questions. On the other hand, it's unnecessarily dark. At the end, it talks about hope, but hope in what? The ending seems to point to human goodness or innocence as a source of hope... but it's not convincing. Realistically, human goodness isn't something you can count on, so, to me, it doesn't seem to float much as a source of hope. All in all, it's a book worth wrestling with, though. I'll give it a 3.9/5 alcoholic school teachers.
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