Without Hesitation or Reservation

The Hour I First Believed (Wally Lamb, author) is one of the best books I've ever read -- and I've read a lot of books. This is one of those books to read, reflect, reread, discuss, contemplate, then tell others about ... and find the time to read again down the road, when it becomes both familiar and fresh again.

The author admits that it took him 9 years to construct the novel, which is a masterful blend of fiction and non-fiction, a family history that connects Caelum not just to his family, but to himself. Every family has secrets, but somehow we find out what's always been hiding in the recesses of our DNA, the one key that unlocks not just who we are, but why.

The author, as well as Caelum, his protagonist, share 25 years of teaching experience. I've been there and done that too, so the story became familiar in ways that other readers may not accept as readily or understand in the same way as I. I've taught many classes aboard a military base, as well as many other classes with both military and military-affiliated students, which brings a response to parts of the novel that others may read less subjectively than I read them. I've lived with school violence, with the withdrawal of students who dare anyone to reach them, much less to teach them. I've shared the frustration of trying to conduct a lesson on a reading assignment no one has read -- or intends to read, of responding to essays that lack substance because the student does not want to engage in the educational process, just endure it, and of giving quizzes and tests that few, if any, students will pass.

I've had the experience of overload, when I wonder not just what I am doing, but why I am continuing to do it because no matter how much I care, no one else does.

Nothing ever changes, Janis had said. It did, though. We lived, lulled, on the fault line of chaos. Change could come explosively, and out of nowhere (570).

This is story that changes a reader's life, an epic story, an important story, a worthwhile story that I recommend without hesitation or reservation. It'll take time and it'll take effort, but it's worth both.