I Know This Much Is True

From the time he is quite young, Dominick is told, proudly, of the grandfather whom he has never met. His mother boasts of the man’s success, emphasizing the obstacles he surmounted as an immigrant to the US from Sicily. Domenico looms over the novel as an absent presence—a reminder that the past continues to shape the characters’ lives in the present.

Likewise, much of the novel’s backstory unpacks the events of the summer of 1969, which Dominick pinpoints as the period when Thomas’s illness emerged in earnest. Being able to trace Thomas’s decline from “the real Thomas” to the version of his brother that Dominick has come to know is a helpful way for Dominick to understand the social factors that may have contributed to his condition. Likewise, Dr. Patel points out how her knowledge of Thomas’s past can help her understand the delusions and mistaken reality that he experiences in the present day, thus aiding her in treating him.

In order to understand his relationship to his brother and unpack his complex feelings, Dominick must delve into his past. Throughout his adulthood, he has resisted revisiting the past, as it contains unpleasant and painful memories. Among these are abusive episodes by Ray and awkward or discomforting interactions with Thomas due to his undetected illness. As Dominick seeks to understand Thomas, he must trace back the onset of his schizophrenia. In doing so, however, Dominick is forced to examine his relationship with all the central people who have shaped his life, including his mother, his grandfather, Ray, Dessa, and Joy.

However, history as it is recorded is not always accurate. This notion is introduced when a teenage Ralph Drinkwater argues with his American history teacher, pointing to inaccuracies in the reports of Indigenous presence and involvement in the United States. When Dominick returns to his teaching career at the novel’s close, he seeks to correct these inaccuracies. This process of revising misinformation about the past parallels Dominick’s experience of reading his grandfather’s manuscript. As he comes to the realization that his grandfather was not the honorable and flawless man Dominick’s mother perceived him to be, Dominick must reconcile these conflicting versions of his grandfather and of his own past. Not knowing his father’s identity creates an additional hole in his personal history—a hole he longs to fill. When he finally obtains this knowledge, Dominick understands what may have motivated his mother to keep this information secret from him, and he begins to understand how his lived history has been shaped both by the lack of this knowledge and by the presence of his adoptive father, Ray.