I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE (Wally Lamb) - June 8/20

Good lord, this must be one of the longest books I've ever read. I'll admit, though, that I found I Know This Much Is True surprisingly absorbing in its first half, as Lamb does a superb job of establishing the various characters and the Three Rivers locale. It's grim stuff, but Lamb creates such a fully-realized world that I found myself reading longer than I might've planned. But Lamb's decision to eventually alternate chapters with the grandfather's autobiography proves fairly disastrous, as I first skimmed that stuff and eventually skipped it altogether. It's just too much, and should have been omitted. **1/2 out of ****