I Know This Much Is True Study Guide & Plot Synopsis

I Know This Much Is True Plot Summary

Preview of I Know This Much Is True Summary:

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb follows Dominick Birdsey on his quest to care for his schizophrenic identical twin, Thomas, and figure out their dysfunctional home life in the 1950s and 60s. Many of his revelations come from reading his maternal grandfather's self-serving memoir about life in Italy and Three Rivers, CT, in the early decades of the 20th century.

In 1990, in the Three Rivers Public Library, paranoid schizophrenic Thomas Birdsey amputates his right hand to end the growing war in Iraq. His identical twin, Dominick, the novel's anger-filled narrator, becomes his full-time advocate against a politically-motivated bureaucracy, in alliance with quirky caseworker Lisa Sheffer and psychologist, Dr. Rubina Patel, who soon begins treating Dominick's own anxieties over a broken marriage and a lifelong jealousy of Thomas for having been their mother's obvious favorite. As an adult, Dominick still hates his violent stepfather Ray and...
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