Caelum Quirk is a teacher at Columbine High School, and his
wife, Maureen, is the school nurse there.
As the novel opens, they are struggling through a difficult time in
their marriage and dealing with infidelity, bitterness, and resentment. Of course, the shooting in April 1999
ends any sense of normalcy and changes everything. Although Caelum was out of town at the time, Maureen was
right in the middle of the shooting.
She emerges with her life intact but deeply scarred emotionally.
All of that happens at the beginning of the 700-page
novel. The rest of the novel follows
Caelum and Maureen as they try to put their lives back together and deal with
both the aftermath of the tragedy, as well as all the issues they had before
the shooting. The couple moves out
to the Quirk family farm in Connecticut, to try to help Maureen heal and tie up
some loose ends in Caelum’s family.
From there, the action moves back and forth from the present into
Caelum’s childhood and the events that shaped him and into the distant paths of
Caelum’s ancestors who once lived on the farm and were instrumental in starting
the women’s prison next door.
If that sounds far ranging, well, it is. This is something of an epic, and the
Columbine shooting is not really the main focus of the novel. It’s more of what Lamb specializes in –
digging deeply into a character, finding out what makes him the way he is, how
events in his life have shaped him, and how he will move forward. I felt the novel was probably a bit too
long, as was Lamb’s other epic, I Know This Much Is True, but I enjoyed it and didn’t have trouble finishing
it. It’s a fascinating look at
human nature, and the in-depth research Lamb did on the Columbine shooting was
captivating. He intricately weaves
real-life events with the lives of his fictional characters, and the result is
an engrossing read that stays with you long after you close the book.
