About the Book
Howard
and Julia Lament are reveling in the birth of their first
child, a son. Undecided on the perfect name for Baby Lament
(A child’s name is his portal to the world, thinks Julia),
Dr. Underberg asks them a most unorthodox question: would
they consider letting their child nurse as a surrogate for
a mother whose baby was born prematurely? After a brief deliberation,
they agree, and this single decision shapes the rest of their
lives.
The surrogate mother subsequently kidnaps
the Laments newborn and both are killed in a fatal car accident.
Julia and Howard reel from their loss, but Dr. Underberg
suggests they adopt the premature child as their own. As
far as most were concerned, the matter ended there, but
Julia struggles for years with the hidden story of her sons
true identity.
Howard is an
engineer who dreams of irrigating the Sahara and is determined
that he and Julia will see the world like other Laments.
Julia is a fiery spirit who must balance her husband’s
oddly peripatetic nature with unexpected aspirations of
her own. The baby named Will is a waif with a paper-thin
heart. As Will makes his way from infancy to manhood in
an affably dysfunctional family that careens from continent
to continent, one wonders where the Laments will ever belong.
In Bahrain, Howard takes a job with an oil company and young
Will makes his first friend. But in short order the family
is wrenched off to another land, due to his mother’s
complicated friendship with American siren Trixie Howitzer.
In Northern Rhodesia, during its last days as a white colony,
the Lament twin enfants terribles, Marcus and Julius, are
born. But soon the family’s life is upturned again,
this time by their neighbor Major Buck Quinns suburban tirades
against black self-rule. Envisioning a more civilized life
on the sceptered isle, the Laments board an ocean liner
bound for England.
However,
life in the United Kingdom begins to tear at the family:
Howard is extremely unhappy in his job, Will suffers the
torments of his schoolmates, Julia begins to wonder about
working outside the home, and the twins engage in mischievous
activities. No sooner has Will settled into his new life
does Howard accept a job in New Jersey. Both Will and Julia
are hesitant to start over again, but they follow the family
motto- Laments travel!- and head to America. It is in this
final chapter that the family is forever changed. Roles
are reversed, fates met, identities revealed, and the story
of The Laments comes full circle.
Critics
/ Reviews
“A thrill ride: bleak, deep and hilarious… 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.”
—The
New York Times Book Review
“Charming…
enjoyable, inviting… Hagen has shaped an affectionate
family portrait in which the characters come vividly to
life.”
—The New York Times
“Heartrending
and surprisingly comic… The briskly paced narrative
crackles with dry wit, and its abundant surprises will make
you weep and guffaw in equal measure.”
—People
“Part
travelogue, part melodrama and part tall tale, The Laments
is the playful and heartfelt story of a family and a world
that can’t sit still.”
—Los
Angeles Times Book Review
