Meet the Laments—the affably dysfunctional globetrotting family at the center of George Hagen's exuberant debut novel. Undeniably eccentric, the Laments are also universal. Through the Lament's restlessness, responses to adversity, and especially their unwieldy love for one another, George Hagen gives us a portrait of every family that is funny, tragic, and improbably true. [Random House]
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Newcomer Hagen's understanding of the mix of love, banality, humor, and sadness that are the features of family life is deep and nearly flawless: a lovely book.
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Favorable
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Library Journal David A. Berona
Although the characters could have been developed more fully, Hagen's strong writing offers a significant understanding of contemporary family relationships.[1 May 2004, p.140]
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
A funny, touching novel about the meaning of family, with an oddly high body count.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Jonathan Wilson
The tragedies and difficulties that afflict the Laments...are carried carefully in a basket of bitter humor; any apparent invitation to either characters or readers to fall into a sentimental slump is quickly withdrawn.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."
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Mixed
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Wall Street Journal John Freeman
Readers with a yen for armchair traveling will enjoy Mr. Hagen's lush descriptions, his 19th-century poise. But it seems a lament that a novel with such global reach should say so little about the world.
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Mixed
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Washington Post Jonathan Yardley
The novel reads easily and pleasantly, but once it ends you're left with the sensation of having been on a long journey that never went anywhere in particular.
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Mixed
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Booklist Vanessa Bush
Julia shifts from a spirited woman with artistic tendencies to a harried mother, real-estate broker, and breadwinner, determined to stay put and make a life for her family. [1 June 2004, p.1700]
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Mixed
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Chicago Tribune Art Winslow
At times Hagen sets up situations that are less original than is common in good fiction... And feminist and anti-racist themes are sometimes ventilated like position papers rather than skillfully teased out of nuanced events and characters. [4 July 2004, p.C4]
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Hagen paints his central characters with such light, indifferent strokes that by the end of this meandering, maddening novel it's hard to feel much for any of them.
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Mixed
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The New York Times Janet Maslin
Mr. Hagen's nimble, semi-autobiographical story is marred only by the fact that its punch lines seems to be missing.
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