I Know This Much Is True (Part 3)

now a series on HBO. This week we finally get a peek into Domenico's memoirs and they are something Oh my stupid wife who I love, Oh my god, my soulmate never gave me any sons. So my line ends with me and my stupid daughter, who is annoying and is a burden upon me. This is part three of our conversation, So if you haven't listened to parts one and two yet, go ahead and start there. Don't worry. This episode will be waiting for you when you catch up.

Trust me, we're not going anywhere. We've talked about. Thomas sort of has that that origin of what dominic usus is schizophrenia. The summer after freshman year, Thomas then drops out of school is drafted, fails the psychiatric exam of the draft. They go to McDonald and that's really where Dominic I think, Let's allows himself to see for the first time how um, how affected his brother has become

by his his mental disorder. And and they mentioned that that's when when Thomas is committed for the first time. But we sort of get a series of incidents. We get I think he literally has a tinfoil on his head watching TV. He's he's talking erratically, he dates um,

Angie does his system. And there's a strange event where where Angie I'm so sorry that I'm gonna say these words, where Angie talks about how she breaks up with him because he's weird, because he comes while she reads the stories of murdered saints, like the violent stories and murdered saints, uh, which she just thinks, it's like, oh, that's so gross and weird, but it's clearly a symptom, a sign of

his h descended to mental illness. I'm wondering if Angie just didn't even have the language for how traumatic that was. So like gross and weird was the only thing that she could use to describe how like disturbing and traumatic. That must have been to the experiencing that. Yeah, and I think it's interesting that Angie says I just want

a normal boyfriend and then starts dating Leo. It's also like if anyone has if you guys have sisters, um, the idea that like, yeah, like I'm competitive with my sister, and like if you're competitive with your older sister, you're like, oh, she has a boyfriend, I'll get a boyfriend, I'll date. She didn't that, she didn't do it for tones, No, there was it was that. And she said when she first met Dominic that he had a hot body or something to that effect, like when they were having dinner

with their parents. Angie. I honestly think that it makes sense that Angie together in a way because they are both very chaotic, except she is a benign chaoic Eleo is literally evil. Yeah. Yeah, she's chaotic neutral, Yeah, she

is chaotic neutral. And Um, so she says that Dominic has a hot body and then dates his twin brother yeah yeah, and then moves on to his Dominic's best friend, Like she's just trying to get in with her sister, like trying to find a way to like be in competition with her is so interesting when you compare it to the relationship between Dominic and Thomas as well, because your competitiveness between Dominic and Thomas, it just Thomas can't

really function in the same way that and she can. Yea, yeah, yeah, I will say that Angie definitely does know how to lean in because she was like, I can't have Dominic, how can I get close? Yeah, she like dried one bath that She's like, no, no, no, this this experiment failed. Let's redo the variables. And she's like, Leo, this is in. This is my way in. She saw him and you're a good man Charlotte Brown and he played Snoopy. I

can we just say a side note? I love this comedic. Uh, the story of that Leo is an actor, it's like an aspiring actor. And how he's like when he visits him in the hospitals, like, oh, yeah, your friend. He said he's going to be in a movie this like it's gonna it's gonna be my shot this time. I just love It's the only comedy. Yeah, Like when he's when he's talking to the insurance agent and he Leel's like I was in New York recently. Like it's so

it's like so perfect. You know who that you. I think it's because we're all, yeah, we're all sort of in the industry, and you know exactly who Leo is as an actor. It's that like douche bag of a person who just wants to drop at any moment that they've done an audition here, or have gone here, or like was in a city here. It's so perfect. If this were happening now, he would be the type of actor who has his head shot as his Facebook profile picture. Yes, yes, yeah.

He also feels like he would be like a hat a necklace guy. Yes, I mean I just looked up who wait, guys, who has not seen the show I have? I haven't seen. I haven't gonna start watching. I guess who Leo is played by. It's a tough one, but just I want you guys to know. But that would be great. Guest. How how old is he? Forties? And he typically is known for more like comedy comedy. You know.

I looked up the cast on IMDb, and for the life of me, I cannot remember anyone except for Mark Ruffalo and of course Juliette Lewis, who we talked in the group chat who I'm afraid of running into because waved her dog? Well, now I can only picture Matt Dylan, who is sorry. It's it's Rob Hubill, which is such a great. Yeah. I like Eilent casting. And I didn't know. You guys know who plays deatha Catherine. Yeah, of course it's it's of course she's so good the Angel Yeah

she's Yeah, this is perfect. I was. I was waiting too, because this is so twisty and turning. I just I wanted to wait to finish the book before I started the show because I didn't know exactly because it's like going back and forth between like the sixties and the nineties, and oh, I just want to say time wise, I went back to the beginning to check the date that Thomas cuts his hand off, and it was October twelve. And the car accident, which we literally haven't talked about yet,

a car accident was on Halloween. So all of this stuff that we're reading about, because it's also about him recollecting, like every time it goes back to the sixties or the fifties, it's about his recollections and like him talking it over in therapy and relating it to what's going on now and stuff. So this is all like two and a half weeks. Oh yeah, because she said it's two weeks for his visitation. Yeah if Yeah, I was thinking about it, I was like, this feels like it's

been a lifetime. This truly feels like this has taken ninety years. So I don't even talked about the fact that he like fell off a balcony. Three stories. Yeah, alright, I'm gonna I'm gonna just whip us through the recap of this situation and then we have to get to the last chapter because that one. Yeah, alright. So Dominic is prepping for While he's prepping for visitation to the committee to get his brother out of hat, he's really stressed.

He's anxious. He goes home on Halloween. His girlfriend it tells him that in the middle of the night, tells him that she's pregnant. He is angry and homophobic and reeks out, and a bunch of kids in the middle of the night egg his car on Halloween because that's what high schoolers do. Um. But for whatever reason, he decides to take his anger out on a drive. He goes out on a drive in the middle of the night, crashes his car. Oh bad, and I'm going through this

so fast while he's high on pain medication. Um. He has his dad pick him up from the dealership because that's just where he had the people drop him off because he doesn't have a car anymore. And he met Leo there, his stepdad. Sorry, he'd be mad that I called him. His dad, very stepdad. Ray picks him up and it's like, we need to pick up your prescription for more medication, and he's like, well, I need to

take these shutters off this goddamn house. They kept bugging me about it and I and he's like timing into the hour. He's like, okay, I could spend like forty five minutes there and then I'll go home and shower and then prep for this nap somehow a good man. That's not good, but it's never gonna happen. But he's at a certain point. He does the math and he's like, this nap is not and he's like that's the one relatable thing. I'm like, I've done that math before. Like, no,

there's no room for a nap. And he's like, okay, I just gotta make it to two hatch for my brother's meeting, but first I got to take off these shutters. Well, I'm high on pain medication from my car crash that night, and my hand hand is actively bleeding from and also the stitches are are splitting as he works. So while Ray leaves and he leave drops him off at this house. The wife is like, you need to go. My husband's having a really tough time. And he's like, but you

let me voicemails, so I'm kind of do it. So, while his hand is actively bleeding and these stitches are splitting, he angrily starts ripping the shutters off his home, being like, I don't even know how I'm going to get these shutters back. My truck is broken. Um, he decides to climb up to the third store someone else take it over. I don't want it. I read this right before I fell. I fell asleep and I was like, God, damn it, Wally. So he goes up to the third story starts taking

off the block the shutters. At first, a bat freaks him out, and you're kind of like, who is he going to fall? Because the bat, like, there's a bat there, and he's like trying to get rid of it and wax at it. And then he looks into the attic window and it's Henry Rude. The client of his stares at him and puts a gun to his into his mouth, pulls the trigger, and because of that, Dominic falls off the roof. And the next thing we know is that he is at the hospital and he missed obviously, and

he obviously missed Thomas. Thomas is hearing and several days later for a hospital stay. Yeah, he comes to like four days or something and that he has a FARTI roommate. That's so hilarious. Details, Okay, police, police, Mr Police. He's one of the few good men, good guy book. He's just like a sweet, gassy guy loves and he loves lime dancing. That his girlfriend line dancer. His girlfriend, uh huh, yeah, they got matching Western alf That's cute. That's cute. And surprise, surprise,

who is his girlfriend but our good friend. Even in that moment, I had to laugh too, because I was like, this is just this is just too soap opera now, like everything is coming to your ahead, Like the woman's boyfriend is in the same hospital room as Dominic, Like, come on, it is a small town. It's a small town, that's true. I kind of thought that Needro Frank had just driven off, like into the sunset, though I thought she might eat any different part of the country. By now,

she was always going to come back. She was. We gave her too much real estate earlier. I didn't find it too soap opery, only because I think when you we're reading it, we forget that, like that happened a long time ago, now, like when your mother died, so it had. I mean, I don't know how many years ago that. I think it was four. Okay, I think he was where his mother died and he was forty. As this as the occurring, I buy a coincidental run in at this point. You get one, Wally, you get one.

You get one drop off with the autobiography where he has nowhere to go and has to stay in and read it. The perfect the perfect Needra detail is she dropped the heavy manuscript I had shattered black. She's she's nice, funny, she's great. I love her. You're listening to Popcorn book Club for My Heart Radio, and we'll be back right after the break. Okay, we're back with Popcorn book Club. Then we get the first taste of Dominico's autobiography that boys,

she was she was absolutely right. He's a terrible person who thinks very highly of himself. I'm also glad that the mom didn't read it, because all he says is that she's a deformed like rabbit. I'm like a burden and it would never give him to great children like what he did. But well, I know, I think the grandchildren was the issue because he was like or whatever, what was his last name. No, it was Tempesta Tempesta, which sounds like it might need to store angry. You're

very angry. Yep, exactly. So he was like, oh, my stupid wife, who I love. Oh my god, my soulmate never gave me any sons. So my line ends with me and my stupid daughter, who is annoying and is a burden upon me. He's always trying to keep me. Yeah, like, my stupid daughter has made dinner for me again, I gotta go. I love that he's throughout the chapter two he's like, I'm the best man of the town and I'm the smartest. They're lucky to have me. I'm the

man about town. I'm just like, you suck. So it's actually made points, and he leaves his mother like to be essentially a beggar on the street and then marries as an enemy whatever. But it was just like, what a terrible thing to she marries his uncle who's his enemy. And I was like, Oh, this is big Hamlet energy, which is funny because Leo did not get cast as Hamlet did. That's great. Yeah, another Shakespeare rest Shakespeare happening.

And I also thought it was interesting there's the parallel of um of Domenico the grandfather and Dominic both being people who went into academic fields but then because of family reasons, had to leave those academic fields and then end up involved in manual labor of some sort. Oh yeah, because Domenico was going to be a priest. Because when they first started saying that, I'm like, Okay, that clearly

doesn't pan out. So what happened? Uh? And it was like I love, I like, Domenico is clearly a jackass, but I think that he does have a very interesting story, like from his his grandparents being like burned in a volcano volcanic eruption and his mother burning her hand and having this deformity because she tried to like cling to childish things by trying to grab her dollies from the hot lava, all the way to the fact that the town was like, Wow, you're special because this virgin statue

cried in front of you. We will all pull our money together to send you away to study so you can become a priest. You are especialey Thomas has convinced that he has also been touched by God and he's so special God on earth. There are so many parallels in the in this chapter to Thomas, the schizophrenia that his mother, that the grandfather's mother clearly had, with the

moth speaking to her, and all the religious obviously qualities. Um. One thing that I blag that I was like, oh, this has to mean something, and then I realized that it was written when written in the night right. Yeah. So they sailed on the morning of September eleven one, and I was a hundred years before. Sometimes I was like, oh, no,

the ship is but a prophet. Yeah. Um. I thought the parallels were interesting with with the wife burning her hand, the thing they reference it as like her twin, like her her hand as her twin, like the scarred twin. And it was a lot of twin. Uh. That's so interesting about about hands. I mean, that's the idea of that hand is that they are mirror images of each other, but they're not the same, They're not identical. They have they have symmetry across the horizontal axis. I don't know

Matt for that. For the listeners, we are all holding and I'm sure there's that weird trauma of the fact that Dominic's first accident his truck accident. I means stitches to his hand. I think damage to that and he was always holding up his pristine hand is like I'm different than my brother. I have both hands. Uh always.

I mean blessed Wally for really making it clear when when that tension is ramping up between him coming home finding out that Joy is pregnant and crashing his car like that period until he falls off the roof, He's like tension City. Yeah yeah. Earlier I could, like hear the score of the HBO Committed series in my head, I was like, oh man, this is not good at home. Okay,

where do we think it's gonna go next? Before we wrap up, because I want to put in over that for the worst possible outcome, which is um I think he's going to end up with Jasa again. I really hope yourselves. I'm just saying that's uh, it feels like it is curving in that direction. He's single now, Dosa is still a big part of his life. She's still helping out Thomas. It is my worst I mean, the worst version of that is if he showed up and gave her this book read about my grandfather, and then

they get back together. Oh you mean okay, wait, Tan you mean the book that Domenico wrote. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought you met like, oh I wrote this is true. Okay, maybe that's better. My my worst fear prediction is because we got so much of text from Thomas talking about paranoia but also being raped that I'm very scared that some of the bad orderlies the one that like doctor not Dr. Lisa Shepherd was like, oh, I don't like

that one. I feel like maybe Thomas is actually being violated in terms of in terms of trauma BEINGO that's what because they clocked that a few times. I wonder if it ends with Thomas and Dominic living together, if Thomas comes home, that's the ending, you know, I don't know. It just feels like It's interesting to me with a book like this, with with a character that has done such horrific things of like, what is redemption for a

man like this or what what is his destiny? What is his fate based on all of these horrible things he's done. But it feels like it feels like they're like magnets, right, and they're gonna like come back together. But I don't know. See, my thought is that maybe Thomas doesn't end up with him because Dr Pateell keeps saying things like this treatment can't like one brother's health

can't come at the expense of the other brothers. And so for me, I was like, maybe his redemption is finally realizing that he doesn't have to always take care of Thomas. Maybe like that is a burden that he is, like because he clearly is just trying to take on way too much in this last like forty eight hours of his life, that maybe the lesson is him just

being like, you can't fix everything. Yeah, it feels interesting because for Thomas, I hope that he does end up in a you know, a good group home with UH

with some support. But it it does feel like you're right, Dominic, he has has this murdyr complex, which is interesting because murders are talked about so much in reference to Thomas Dominic and but Dominic has behave excused his bad behavior be through Thomas, like he is angry because of this brother that he was given and he has to protect him. Therefore he can act in a way that is um. Should he constantly um? And I wonder if that really You're right? It depends on what kind of ending Wally

wants to aid. I was checking to see how many pages the book was and I accidentally read the last line of the book. I will not tell you what it is, but it did not give anything away. I'm curious. Oh, it's I know as much as true. I was. Yeah, that's I saw that. I was like, oh, stop looking. Um, So I'm not going to say what I think is going to happen. I'm going to put in a bid for what I want to happen. This will come as a shock to you, but I want to know who

their father is. I think, yes, we should know that this will here plot twisty, that like it's a soap operate, that like, there's no way he's not going to give us a surprise. Father reveal Melissa, Y, Yeah, I feel like it's not good going to be a happy and well okay, just there was a point at which I was like, here are my options for who their dad is. I'm very focused on finding out who their dad is. Um I was like, what if it actually is Ray,

like really hates them in the way that a stepfather would. Well, there are some dads who hate their kids the way stepfathers stepkids up in the fact that these aren't his children, or maybe he hates them because, you know, because he had and he felt obligated till they come back. Like he got this woman pregnant that he didn't love, I didn't care about, and he resents the babies for forcing him to stay with this woman. Okay, so that's one option.

Then for a minute I was like, what if they have the same father as Penny and Drinkwater and Ralph Drinkwater because they're both twins. But then I did a little bit of genetic research, by which I mean I googled can twins come from dad's And the answer is only, uh no. Basically no, there is a gene for fraternal twins, but it is through the egg that it comes because it's about releasing a lot of eggs as also, are right? Are right? They aren't Ralph and Penny half black and

half Native American. Well. The thing about being mixed race, though, is that not all kids come out looking the same. And it made sense to me for their mother not to say who the father was if he was a person of color, and yeah, so I was like, that's it and it still could be true, but the twin gene thing doesn't make it likely, like because I was wrong um. And then the other option, of course, was there's the guy that does the transcriptions for um for Domenico,

the Italian man. Yeah, because he just disappeared. And then it's like, well, my kids are Italian. That's all I needed. That's how it felt like she was. And then here's the sad option. What if it is Domenico and I don't think it's I don't think it's Domenico because he has said the implications about his daughter. I wonder that I was thinking about the uncle's that came over. That makes sense with Domenico, which I hate, But it's already

let's listen, uncle stuff has already been presented. It's not gonna be I don't think it's gonna be happy. I don't think it's gonna be like, it's not gonna be happy. I know that's Disney. I know it's not going to be happy, But just one I want to know because I am nosy and too. I want to know because I never got the satisfaction of knowing who um Connall's father was in normal people like some I need to know who someone's dad is. You're listening to Popcorn Book

Clive for my Heart Radio. We'll be right back after this quick break. Al Right, so let's get back into it. Is there anything else about these pages that is that someone is uh eager to talk about? Because I feel like we will. A lot happened really fast, and we've probably missed some stuff. Well, just the um, the relationship that the town has with the Native American people in it and the tribe which I am probably gonna butcher the pronunciation. I think it's aquantic um, and that sounds

like it's in the realm. But the aquatic tribe and how they're building a casino, and that's a big thing that keeps coming up. And I think it's interesting the way that all these white people in the book are like, Oh, they're gonna be so rich, Like, screw these guys, man, Yeah, I can't believe that electric boats going under. We're not gonna make submarines anymore. But these dudes get money from an investor in Malaysia and get to build a casino.

Screw though, was lucky Baster, Yeah, lucky Ralph who's been exploited for child pornography as an orphans stage of ten now working as a janitor. Oh, what a lucky break. But it seems very interesting because there was that history teacher in high school who was basically like, oh, whatever happened to the Quantics? They've disappeared? Who will ever say?

Who could know? And then Ralph is like, um, I'm here, and like there have always been in at least through Dominic's eyes, because we are seeing this through Dominic's eyes, There's always been this relationship, and there's this specific burial ground that the Department of Public Works also tends to. So this there's this like relationship that is unspoken but

ever present. And I thought it was interesting that the night nurse for dominic Um also was married to a woman who was part with Quantic, and so it's like a thing that is a part of their society, but it doesn't come up until it needs to come up. And like with the rest of the country, where it's like we've ignored the fact that this is their territory

and we're trying to wipe them out. But it's nice to see that they're still there and they're still active in the area and still active in the community and trying to build. Yeah, the attitude is like who can never know, like the teacher, just like it's like very passive voice, like they were massacred. We don't know how. It just happens. They walked into some disease. Um. Yeah, oops, all genocide. America loves it passes it really does Dollywood and they do a show about the history of America

and all the Indians turned into birds. Uh, it's just one day. They all decide Native Americans all decided to become birds, and then they put on their costumes and flutter away. Um. Then I asked, how does Dollywood? How does Dallywood do the civil It's very upsetic. I'm not sure if you already know because it's just like a leading question. So, um, I hope that since I went to Dollywood, this has changed. This was years ago, but

um fingers crossed, this has changed. So they rereate a civil world through pig races where USh, I'm sorry, there's a blood race. So okay, I have the follow up question, who are the pigs? Is everyone a pill? Okay, this is very important. Um. All of the pigs get um weird little names like Scarlett o'hamma, like exact for General Robert E. Lee. They do not funk around with General Robert E. Lee. That pig is just called general. How would you stuff a pig pun into Robert E Lee?

Robert Piggy Rocky Piggley, Piggy Piggy Wiggligley, Like, I don't want to have to mom on the spot. So then they raced the pigs and it was out the way. Mostly Winds. I talked to worked there, and they were like usually the South Winds because they have better pigs. Okay, I have more follow up questions. Yes, yes, go off for his name though they were pigs Robert e squeaks. They wanted to do a pig punch. I would love

to afrational comedian. No no, I would just love to do a special podcast episode on Dolly because I did not expect this when I love Dolly Pardon, like, what what a lovely woman. Um I I went there for my bachelorette party and uh, you know, we we spent the day of the amusement park and it was really fun. And then in the evening they were like, they do this show, it's kind of like a rodeo. We should get tickets. And it was collectively the weirdest thing we

have ever seen in our lives. And the South won the Civil War. What I was, what a gift to exit being single. It's like, yeah, no, I don't need anymore Mary Daniel and lock it down. Yeah, I'm just I'm just gonna I'm gonna be gone. Um yeah, good goodbye to the South, to the North, to the north where where history is accurate and there are so many pig puns. So yeah, sin, they's still a part of the sense that is trafficking very heavily in Native Americans.

Just disappeared, just became surely. Yeah, I'm just really I cannot stop focusing on this, Like Man in the High Castle, but the Civil War but pigs. Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna move on from that one. I think if you were to want to write about it. Um, if they are still doing this, you should a going write about it, because I don't know I'm going to. Yeah, just get to hang up and call that send you out there to write about that particular phenomenon. Oh, for sure,

it was Sorry, that was an interesting digression. No, I mean necessary, clearly, But that's where the book ends. Dominic and Thomas go to Dollywood, Dolly. The pigs all raced, and we were the pigs, and the pigs were us. I know, as much as true. I left from from

pig to man and man to pig. The other thing that I didn't want to say that we didn't touch upon was I really liked chapter thirty one because it was primarily Domenico's autobiography, and it was kind of refreshing to have a voice that wasn't Dominic's narrating, even though truly the worst voice he like, nature was right. She was like, he's kind of horrible, and that was her polite way of saying he is truly a monstrous human being.

But it was very interesting to hear somebody else's voice and to remember, like, oh right, not everyone in the world is Dominic. Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting is right the chapter right before that was the joy type and so that obviously, but it was interesting to put

those two chapters right next to each other. Of like that's why it does feel like it's an interesting time to stop, like for this section to end, because it is like sort of feels like a shift into like what is Dominic's next chapter now, and we you kind of buffer that with the grandfather with the Grandfather's letter and Joyce take. Maybe this is so dumb, but from Dominico's writing style, I got like a very warrior energy for party, just like his use of exclamation points, like

I am degree to party, he is warrior. I would love a side trip to the the guy that um that typed it all up for him, just like yes, you're just like drinking and be like you're sure you want to say that, you want to say it's that word, Okay, No, it's your book, your book, buddy counter. I don't think he's a warrior. I think he's a wallauigi. Oh yeah, Italian energy energy. Yeah, love that, love those Italian caricatures that Nintendo continues to profit from. Well this was a

delight of trauma. Yeah, all right, Well, we'll see how. We'll see if we find out who that is. See how, see how it is? Thank you can't wait to keep reading the worst stuff Thomas would Gemba And that's our show for the week. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Danish Swartz and you can find me on Twitter at Danis Schwartz with three z's. You can follow Jennifer

Wright at Jen Ashley Right Garrama. Donqua is at Garama Drama, Melissa Hunter is at Melissa f t W and Tan Tran is smart enough to have gotten off Twitter, but she is on Insta at Hank Tina. Our executive producer is Christopher Hassiotas and we're produced and edited by Mike Johns. Special thanks to David Wasserman. Next week we continue I know this much is true. We'll get some more birdsy family history and things, frankly get a little bit bizarre.

I will not have a wife. I will have this monkey. If you saw that in a cross stitch on someone's house, you'd be like, I gotta get out of this house. Popcorn Book Club is a production of I Heart Radio