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Summary: The misadventures of an aptly named family
Review: A South Rhodesian couple, Julia and Howard Lament, trek across the continents in search of contentment, after a bizarre incident changes the course of their lives. When Julia gives birth to her first child, a beautiful baby boy, unexpected complications arise. The unorthodox circumstances set the tone for their marriage, haunting the years ahead with doubts and indecision. Consequently, the Laments' are curiously off-kilter, their misadventures proof that the family is aptly named. Premature baby Will clings to life and to his new parents, inseparable from them. When the family moves to Bahrain for Howard's new job, the first of many diverse employment opportunities, life is bursting with promise, adventures yet to be experienced. A fresh start is the answer to their doldrums. What better and more exotic place to move to than Bahrain? Unfortunately, the Laments find themselves emotionally overloaded in their new home; as is his habit during stressful times, Howard changes jobs, convinced that a fresh start cure their problems. Later, Julia gives birth to twins, Julius and Marcus, and the family is hopeful once more as their lives take on another dimension. But the twins are wildly energetic and make their brother Will's days nightmarish; Will has the dubious task of riding herd on the little boys, whose daily activities are filled with mischief. At this point, Will begins to see himself as the odd one, the solitary son between two couples. Another job for Howard, another change of address, this time in England, where Howard's minimal salary barely covers family expenses. Desperate financial circumstances strain the marriage as the Laments embark upon some difficult years. Once so full of promise, their days are spent struggling for survival in an unfriendly climate. Then, in an amazing stroke of luck, Howard is hired by an eccentric visionary who offers prospective employment in America. Ever the optimist, Howard renews his belief in the future and moves his family to America. Howard's best intentions fail in America when his job fails to meet expectations and the family grapples once more with changing fortunes. Ever unpredictable, fate lurks in the wings, striking one more blow. Suddenly this new country, so full of opportunity, has turned as unfriendly as any other. But the Laments do what they do best, stick together, even though the fabric of the family is stretched cruelly out of shape. Hagan brings together remarkable and spirited characters, who set upon life with a gusto that is undiminished, certainly admirable. Even when reality kicks in, this is a family of survivors, reinventing themselves as necessity dictates. The sturdy Laments are tested along the way, often harshly. Yet Julia and Howard pass on their boundless enthusiasm to their children, a testament to their remarkable qualities. In the end, it is simple affection, trust and family spirit that render the Laments unforgettable. Luan Gaines/2004.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Family Saga
Review: George Hagen's The Laments is an excellent family saga, without all the boring baggage that so many of these tales bring along. Hagen's story bubbles with humor and is highly entertaining. The Laments, well, they travel. They are African-born British subjects, and we meet them first in Africa, where they live in several countries in search of the perfect job for dad. The oldest son is born, kidnapped, dies and is replaced with an adopted child all in the first 20 pages. That is the first of many tragedies that befall the Laments, but the novel is certain not "tragic" because of Hagen's wonderful sense of humor. The novel gets compared to Garp frequently and in that sense, it is very much like Garp. Hagen doesn't take the Laments too seriously and we are not forced to either. We follow the Laments from Africa, to England and finally to New Jersey, where the novel ends during the 1970s. Their adventures are humorous and entertaining. The Laments is a very enjoyable, almost breezy novel that should appeal to most readers.
Rating: 
Summary: The Laments
Review: I was completely captivated by the family in this warm, funny and totally engaging story. I recommend Mr. Hagen's book enthusiastically to anyone who has ever had one!
Rating:
Summary: Was this a true story of the authors life? If so, 10 stars.
Review: If this is not fiction, I would give this book ten stars, as there was plenty of readable detail with out going to far. He projected the various moods of the characters very well throughout their travels. However, if this is a complete work of fiction I want to make some changes to the story!
Deb (c:
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Summary: "Laments move - it's what we do"
Review: Marked by personal disappointment from early on, the eccentric and offbeat Lament family moves from continent to continent with a kind of steadfast fortitude that one can only come to admire and respect. When a terrible accident kills their newborn son, and the doctor at the local hospital convinces them to take on another as their own and then forges the adoption paperwork, Howard and Julia Lament are sent on a journey where a life of regret, loss, happiness, and sadness inevitably await them. Using the notion of "family" as a centerpiece, author George Hagen, has his characters facing many dramatic events, and with his formal, elegant, and finely tuned prose, he astutely observes their human foibles, while also showing their restless search for something imaginary in their lives.
The story begins in Southern Rhodesia in the mid-1950s. Howard Lament is a young, energetic, and restless engineer with a head full of schemes - he wants to irrigate the Sahara desert and has made a prototype for an artificial heart. He's a kindly, gentle man, who believes resolutely remaining the breadwinner while Julia, his wife, stays at home at take care of Will, their young son. In search of opportunity, the Laments move to Bahrain, where Julia meets the American ex-pat, Trixie, who becomes Julia's lifelong friend. After becoming disillusioned with the Middle East they move onto Albo, in Northern Rhodesia, where affluence awaits, and where Julia gives birth to twin sons, Marcus and Julius.
England was the next obvious destination. England's history was taught in colonial school, and the country's daily conventions were cast across the globe - "from boiled egg and toast in the morning to afternoon tea." But in England, disappointment and a new set of problems waits. The England that Julia and Howard had so much affection for was clearly not the one they lived in "but a world hinted at through artifacts." In Albo, they had abandoned the affluent white society and its resentment of black rule. In England they faced the paradox of being white Africans - "reminders of Britain's colonial glory but a burden to its struggling economy."
Finally the Laments settle in the United States. But the American dream remains elusive and things don't work out as planned when Howard's job goes belly-up and Julia is forced to become the breadwinner by working in real estate. The American sense of nationalism combined with the country's subtle racism grates on them - they're exiled from their neighborhood, after they put up the English flag on Memorial Day as a reminder to Americans that "we all share the same principles." Howard begins to dream of moving to Australia, but Julia puts a stop to the endless wondering, only to see her husband sink, ever more heavily into depression.
After a terrible accident involving one of the twins, the narrative shifts to Will, who has always sensed that he somehow doesn't belong: He doesn't look like either of his parents, and he's more sober and reflective than his wild, brothers. Will has an insecure sense of self and as he reaches adolescence he notices that his father has made a mission of defending unappreciated dreams, "the discarded, the obsolete and the out-of-style."
Hagen does a great job of portraying the Laments sense of rootlessness as they fanatically search for their dreams across contents and countries. But towards the end of the story, the author assembles a series of montages, which cut among various characters as he sets them up for an unwarranted, heartrending catastrophe. This comes across as contrived, and is obviously a desperate attempt to find closure for book that Hagen doesn't quite know how to end. Otherwise, The Laments is an extremely likable, affecting, and quite beautiful work. Mike Leonard November 04.
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Summary: Globe Trotting Laments
Review: Some people have compared first time novelist George Hagen to John Irving. The similarities are there: the comic overtones to a tragic situation, an eccentric family, and most importantly a collection of characters you grow to love.
"The Laments" has all of that. A horrible accident leads to Julia and Howard Lament leaving the hospital with a baby that is not biologically theirs. Young Will Lament is raised without the knowledge of his birthright, and soon what begins in South Africa, ends in America with their growing family staking their indvidual claims before they're uprooted agin by the whimsy of Howard.
Yes, the book feels similar in tone to something that Irving would write,yet it has enough of its own uniqueness to stand apart. It's both a very funny and very touching book.
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Summary: 336 pages of pleasure
Review: Start hoping now that George Hagen is hard at work on this next novel, because when you finish "The Laments" you won't be able to wait. "Laments travel," explains Howard Lament, a Southern Rhodesian engineer with a deep fascination for valves. His wife, the bold, arty Julia, their son Will (who is not really their son but an infant given to them after a peculiar mixup in the maternity ward), and later a pair of rambunctious twin boys join him in these travels which take them first to Bahrain, then back to Africa, then to England, and finally to New Jersey. In one place after another Will falls for the odd-girl-out and the twins pick up the local accent and wreak the havoc particular to that place. The Laments' adventures are charming and endrossing, even when their story begins to darken upon their arrival in the US. John-Irving-ish events occur which cast a pall over the family and make the reader wonder about the purpose of sending the story in this direction. Is it to show that suburban America can be the weirdest place of all? Don't we know that already? When Howard recommends that the Laments move again, you'll be all for it if it means getting them out their increasingly uncomfortable situation. George Hagen is a first novelist of great talent with a high-spirited, engaging style and the ability to create appealing characters. "The Laments" is the sort of book readers will look forward to getting back to. He still has some learning to do (the twins, George, the twins!) but this will not lessen the enjoyment of this novel. This would be an interesting book club selection with lots of opportunity for lively discussion.
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Summary: Cultural dissonance: Living Dad's Dreams
Review: The cinematic quality of "The Laments" works well in this novel of a family that moves to and from Rhodesia, Bahrain, England and the U.S. before the eldest child is old enough to leave home. Howard Lament, the Dad, believes that travel is in his genes -- a 50's paterfamilias, his need to seek out new horizons dominates his family's life. Howard is at the center of the action throughout the novel, but I found myself going back again and again to the more peripheral story of Howard's wife, the mother of three who follows her husband wherever he pleases, first as a folie a deux and later, it seems, because she comes to believe that loyalty will compensate for rootlessness and despair.
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Summary: High body count
Review: This is a novel that defies description. It falls somewhere between bizarre slapstick and sarcastic social commentary. The deal is that a couple from South Africa marry and have 3 children - well the first one really isn't theirs, because their real child was kidnapped at birth, then killed the same day in a car crash, so the doctor who inadvertently precipitated the kidnapping suggests that the bereaved couple just take home the baby of the couple killed in the car crash, no problem, no one will be any wiser, papers? who needs papers, everything will be fine, yada-yada.
Right.
Then they begin moving from one continent to another, always searching for the greener grass on the other side of some ocean, always slightly dissatisfied, always at odds with their surroundings. A large part of the story is told from the point of view of their eldest son, the one who was switched at birth. Not only does he feel at adds with whatever school/neighborhood/city/country/continent in which he finds himself, he also feels out of synch with his own family - as though he just doesn't belong.
Little does he know...
A little bizarre, a little unusual, a little indefinable, The Laments is a witty and sarcastic piece of writing that lampoons one society after another, from puffed up Rhodesia to suburban America. Really, really good.
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Summary: Sad but true
Review: This is a totally engaging novel that will ring true to many people: the Laments are family members, seemingly going in many different directions, even if, as in this case, they end up in the same place... Funny and very sad, this engrossing read takes no energy to get through, with its brief chapters and fleet delivery, but it makes quite an impact. George Hagen is an acute observer of family life and I hope he has more gentle humour to impart.
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