“We are Water” by Wally Lamb – The Family Connection

Anna Oh, mother of three and artist, has spent twenty-seven years in marriage, and has now fallen in love with a wealth art dealer by the name of Vivecca. Though it may be a bit late by some peoples’ tastes, Vivecca and Anna Oh decide to get married in her hometown of Three Rivers, Connecticut.

However, as the wedding starts the winds of change begin to blow. This rather unconventional marriage produces many mixed reactions from the family as well as the people, and what’s more, this turn of events inadvertently opened up the Oh family’s Pandora’s box, unleashing into the world all of their dreadful truths they have kept secret for so long. 

This is how We Are Water by Wally Lamb starts off, and it continues onwards as an exploration of how different people face the big challenges and tragedies of this life.

On the surface, We Are Water is an in-depth exploration of the family and how each and every one of them reacts to the difficulties they come to face. We get to see things from different perspectives, including Anna’s ex-husband, a psychologist, and of course, the three children (the good daughter, her evil twin, and the free-spirited youngest child). 

I have to admit that getting all of these different perspectives adds a lot to the novel, perhaps in itself being an analysis of how the world is as we perceive it, rather than the other way around.

If we dig deeper below the surface though, then we are going to find that this is a novel which explores a whole host of different issues which are relevant to modern society. For instance, various class-related issues are explored through character interactions, the concept of changing values through generations is looked at through the children, and even racial violence is given some thought. 

Of course, the topic of homosexual marriage, tolerance and acceptance are at the forefront of this work, meditating on the notion of not letting others live their lives due to our own beliefs and convictions.

All in all, We Are Water is a rather slow novel that needs to be thoroughly explored and re-read in order to be appreciated to its fullest. If you don’t mind doing a bit of work, I can promise that this book will leave its mark on you. As you can guess, I definitely recommend it to those looking for more than just brain-dead entertainment for their next reading.

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Wally Lamb Personal site Wally Lamb is an American writer whose books She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much is True were both selected in the Oprah Book Club. In addition to being a writer, he also taught creative writing at the University of Connecticut and has served as the director of the Writing Center at the Norwich Free Academy from 1989 to 1998.