Big book. Literally and in scope. Weighing in at 740 plus pages I thought it would be a challenge to read in a week but turns out.. not so much. This is the story of Caelum and his (3rd wife) Maureen, he's a high school teacher and she's a school nurse. They have left Connecticut to start a new life in Littleton, Colorado, where they both get jobs at Columbine High School. While Caelum is back in CT tending to his dying aunt, Maureen is at school on that fateful day in April of 1999 when Harris and Klebold unleashed their devastating fury. (As an aside, a few years ago I poured through the book, Columbine by Dave Cullem, an almost minute by minute account of the tragedy, not for the faint of heart but an excellent read, giving some understanding to the tragedy)
Maureen was in the library that day, where some of the worst killings occurred, hiding in a cabinet, fearing for her life.. Caelum rushes back not knowing if she is dead or alive. Lamb uses this real tragedy, with real names and facts, along with his fictional characters to great effect. Instead of creating a Columbine-like school shooting, he has chosen to take on what really happened, to give faces to the victims and make their stories real again for us, 10 years later.
Maureen is shaken and in great pain, emotionally and physically after what happened to her, so the 2 of them hobble back to CT to take over his aunt's farm and to try to recover. With their marriage barely surviving and Maureen hooked on pills to numb her pain, their story takes twists and turns, ending up with Maureen in prison for vehicular manslaughter and Caelum on his own on the farm, eventually taking in Katrina 'refugees' as tenants and learning about his roots and family history.
I loved this book, so many timely topics and such thoughtful writing... It's been a while since I've read a Lamb book (in fact this one took him 10 years to write), well worth the wait and obvious struggle for him to produce this gem.
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