Wally Lamb:

How does the Oprah book club author deal with pain? "As horrible as life gets, laughter is a survival strategy."

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Advice from Wally Lamb
Ask Wally Lamb for advice

ey! watch out!" someone yells at novelist Wally Lamb. We're at a high school track meet in Storrs, Conn., waiting for Lamb's 16-year-old son to run the mile. We've been sitting on the infield grass, deep in conversation, unaware that we've plopped ourselves in the path of the javelin competition.

Lamb and his 2-year-old golden retriever, Echo

If Lamb doesn't move, he'll be shish kebab.

We run for safety, his son wins his race, and it's as if we were in a surreal scene from Lamb's new best-selling novel, I Know This Much Is True. The 901-page epic probes "the relationship between pain and humor," and hits its mark like a javelin aimed for the heart.

A story of mental illness and family secrets, it is both deeply moving and very funny. The book follows twin brothers as it reveals their late grandfather's unpublished autobiography. In their legacies "the dead whisper to us," says Lamb, 47, "and have answers that point the way."

In the six years he spent writing this novel, the former high school teacher had astounding success: His first novel, She's Come Undone (written from the point of view of an adolescent girl all the way through middle age), sold 2 million copies. He also faced several tragedies. A brother-in-law died in a skiing accident, and a student died in a car accident on the very day Oprah Winfrey picked She's Come Undone for her on-air book club. Then Lamb's mother had a stroke that has left her unable to walk or talk.

"Yet the day after her stroke," Lamb says, "she had the ability to laugh out loud. As horrible as life gets, laughter is a survival strategy."

People ask of his last book how he was able to write so wonderfully from a female point of view. The charming Lamb says growing up with two older sisters, his wife, Chris, and his female students give him perspective. Along with his elementary schoolteacher wife, he has three sons.

Lamb's new book, Oprah's summer '98 selection, explores childhood horrors. Adults can heal by seeing the comic side of painful memories, he says. You can't change your past, Lamb reminds us, but by learning from it, you'll change your future.

"If you renovate your life, you can inherit the world."

Listen to Howard Stern: To learn how humans interact, "I listen to Howard Stern. I'm horrified by what he says. I'm not always proud of myself for listening. But I like the banter. ... If you listen, you see the power structure."

Don't let success go to your head: The success of his first book, "She's Come Undone," "got very surreal, with calls from celebrities. I had to stop and figure out what's important. I did two things: I started volunteering at a day-care center, and I went to a therapist."

Read! The former high school English teacher supports literacy and was the judge of USA WEEKEND's Student Fiction Contest.

Wally Lamb will write or call a reader who seeks advice. By Aug. 9, write to "Straight Talk," P.O. Box 3455, Chicago, Ill. 60654 (fax: 312-661-0375; e-mail: talk@usaweekend.com).