Rating: 
Summary: I found the book to be far too lengthy for its content.
Review: I really was excited to read this book as I had enjoyed so many of Oprah's selections over the years. With this book, the slow start disturbed me right away. It took me until page 232 to decide maybe it was worth reading. Those first pages could have been condensed into 5-10 pages. Then, the major events in the book were in no way subtle. Every big point had to hit the characters with a ton of bricks (each individual brick weighing two hundred pounds) so ten totally devastating occurences came into play with each event. Please!! It seems as though the author wrote the first draft and didn't bother to go back and edit for content. I loved his other books, but found this work to have potential with proper revisions, but it missed the mark and was not worthy of the time required to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Dominick touches us all!
Review: Whether or not we have had it as bad as Dominick did we can all learn a lesson from him. He teaches the reader that all is not lost if we seek to reach inside ourselves. Wally Lamb has written an even better story this time than with "She's Come Undone". I can not wait til his next novel. Simply wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous book, despite Hollywood-style ending
Review: Wally Lamb can just flat-out write. He is one of those authors who can draw his readers in and make us want to keep turning those pages until the book is finished. The accessibility of his prose serves to remind us that deep, thoughtful, moving narrative need not be "artistically obscure," as so much so-called great literature seems to be. The characters in the book are wonderfully portrayed and the themes well-developed. The introduction of "Papa's manuscript" in the last portion of the book seemed curious to me at first, but by the end of the book its power and purpose became apparent. It can be pointed out that a simple, Sicilian-born factory worker would not likely write an autobiographical work with the degree of shocking self-disclosure that "Papa's" manuscript contains; nor would we expect his writing to be so consistently gripping. But this bit of literary licence exercised by Lamb is forgivable in the context of the work as a whole. The greatest flaw in the novel is its corny, Hollywood-style ending, in which both the loose ends in the plot and the many tortuous questions of existence raised in the first 800 pages seem to be wrapped up quickly and neatly--way *too* quickly and neatly. Some downbeat or at least ambiguous threads should have been included--this would have been more consistent with the "life is a crapshoot" message that is developed during nearly the entire rest of the book. However, in light of the magnificence of Lamb's literary achievement as a whole, the "watch for the film version" ending is forgiveable, I suppose.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent book, sometimes hard to read.
Review: I Know This Much Is True is a very unusual story because it concerns identical twins, but one has a severe mental illness. It entails much of the family history of the twins and how their lives were affected by their mother and their abusive step-father. But it also goes into the mother's family background with a journal written by her father. This book is fascinating the way it weaves the complete story of the family. Mr. Lamb has done a wonderful job with this book and gives a very insightful look into mental illness and how it affects families, but it is even more so because it concerns identical twins. I would highly recommend this book. It is long and takes time to read but is well-worth a quiet day on the porch with lots of snacks.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This is my second experience with Mr. Lamb and it was just as wild a ride as the first time. Upon opening the book i was unable to put it down and those 900 pages just flashed by. Just like Delores Price there were times when my mouth hung open and times when i cried (not until the very end). Oddly it ended with something i had been thinking about in regards to my own life - life is a wild and unpredictable ride, all we can do is love a little, forgive a lot and hold on.; its usually worth it in the end. What a wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: couldn't put it down
Review: Brilliant! And I enjoyed the neat little ending. Dominick was entering into a time of happiness and peace in his life because he worked on his inner turmoil and outer conflicts. It was a lesson for us that sometimes we can experience terrible things but we will come out of them and things will go well again. My only problem was Prosperine's telling of her story to the grandfather...that could have been done much more concisely. And only a few details of it were important not the whole 20-odd pages.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a Mini-Series
Review: I was dissappointed in this book; not only because it was predictable but because it focused on the lowest common denominator of human nature. It lacked any positive message and was told like a tired soap opera...900 pages of trash...I hoped for better....
Rating: 
Summary: Human complexity revealed makes fascinating read.
Review: Tough but tender, withholding and generous, arrogant yet well-meaning, the characters in "I Know This Much Is True" are beautifully realized, complex, three-dimensional people. The reader is drawn to get to know them, especially protagonist Dominick Birdsey, as the secrets of their lives and their hearts are revealed. The book's resolution, however, is not as rich and revealing of human nature as is the rest of the tale. Ultimately, it is just a little too neat and tied off. For example, the familial relationship between the Drinkwater twins and the Birdsey twins was not a pivotal plot point, but instead felt like an addendum to the story (and why was it necessary for everyone to become wealthy at the end of the book?). Similarly, Sheffer's sexual orientation, Joy's death from AIDS, Dominick's remarriage to Dessa, and the discovery of Prosperine at the old folks home all came in a big rush towards the end. Leaving some issues unresolved would have provided a more realistic ending, and ultimately, improved the book.
Rating:
Summary: I loved all the characters; one of the best books .
Review: I loved this book; it is one of the best that I have read; I actually ordered the book because of the reviews of other readers here at Amazon. I did not particularly like "She came Undone." But this book was outstanding. I did not want this 900 page book to end, even if it was heavy and cumbersome. The characters were lovable and awful at the same time. Just when you thought you could not stand a character anymore, Lamb made them quite sympathetic. It was a wonderful story of coming of age for the Boomers, with lots of good old fashioned advise on how to come to grips with your past to free yourself to live life at its fullest.
Rating:
Summary: All literary tastes - read this book.
Review: I generally read all types of books with a preference for mystery, crime, non-fiction, self-help. While I am not sure where/which catagory this books fits into, it could surely make it in all of the above. Excellent, Excellent, Excellent! Much better than I expected, I think anyone with any type of problems should read this book, especially the type of person that feels that things "always happen to me", or feels that no one has it worse than than them. I also feel that if a person only reads one book in a lifetime it should be this book.
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