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The Laments

The Laments

by George Hagen (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2005

    $4.15

  • Used

    Hardcover 2006

    $18.83
Synopsis

When Howard and Julia Lament adopt Will, a baby secretly switched at birth in a bizarre hospital debacle, the Laments begin a journey which takes them from Northern Rhodesia to the Persian Gulf, England and suburban America, as they search for their place in the world. Howard is an engineer and dreamer, who studies the conveyance of liquids through valves. Julia is woman of fiery spirit and a passion for Shakespeare, who is constantly called upon to reinvent her family's life and her own. Will's twin brothers, Marcus and Julius, force Will to question his place in the family, and Will struggles to find a sense of his own identity through the characters he meets en route - from Ruth, his first love in Africa, who carries around a biscuit tin lid to admire her reflection to Dawn Snedecker, the lisping intellectual who breaks his heart in America. Through the Laments' restlessness, their responses to adversity, and especially their unwieldy love for one another, George Hagen draws a picture of every family that is funny, tragic, hopeful and true.

$4.15

Save:$5.69 (58%)

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 384
 Edition: paperback / softback
 Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 23 May 2005
ISBN 10: 0340832746
ISBN 13: 9780340832745

Media Reviews
'A fine novel, about family, migration, identity and the struggle to find and hold onto it. It is also hugely entertaining and very, very funny.' -- Roddy Doyle 'The family story has been a durable mainstay of the novel for more than a century ... THE LAMENTS is a lively corrective to the subgenre, a family story on speed, with a jolt of black comedy that makes it a close relative to that greatest of all American family stories, THE SIMPSONS ... any apparent invitation to either characters or readers to fall into a sentimental slump is quickly withdrawn. The only other novel I can think of that creates this effect with equal success is John Irving's WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP ... There is an admirable and enviable range and ambition ... the appearance of George Hagen on the literary scene is a gain for readers everywhere.' -- New York Times Book Review, Jonathan Wilson 'Immensely readable, funny, and touching - a complete joy.' -- Elizabeth Strout 'George Hagen's highly entertaining debut novel features an irresistibly headstrong family, a global sweep, and not only a sense of loss and displacement that's perfectly in tune with the world we live in but also a full measure of resilient humanity.' -- Gary Shteyngart 'Luminous, humane, and wonderfully acerbic - as if Evelyn Waugh got a hold of John Irving's characters and handed them all Pimm's No. 1. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this is one of the best debut novels I've read in years.' -- Peter Blauner
Author Bio
George Hagen was born in 1958 in Harare, Zimbabwe, and later moved to Northern Rhodesia, the London suburbs, and New Jersey. He studied film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and spent several years in Los Angeles as a screenwriter. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.