Gabriel's Lament

by Paul Bailey

Book Overview

Gabriel Harvey is happy until his father inherits a lot of money and becomes a snob and his beloved mother, 35 years younger than his father, vanishes. Gabriel feels that he'll see her again, but... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670816566
• ISBN13: 9780670816569
• Release Date: June 1987
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Full of life.

The protagonist is a "Mommy's" boy, whose mother deserts him when he is 12. Not a very promising subject for a novel, and in fact, the early part of the novel is unappealing. Then Bailey works his magic. Gabriel's Lament is filled with characters, mostly misfits, as is the protagonist, really, who are full of life. Most notable is Gabriel's father, kind of an Archie Bunker type. The conflict and tension between Gabriel and his father gives substance to this work. As in two other Bailey novels which I have read, the story is told looking back, but it is mostly linear in time, and does not display the technical virtuosity of "Kitty and Virgil": for new Bailey readers, I would recommend that work first.

Another o.p. Gem

This wonderful book was nominated ('shortlisted") for England's Booker Prize, a major British literary award. Gabirel Harvey is the son of an elderly, emotionally tyrannical father, and a sprightly young mother. Oswald and Amy are mismatched.The live a scraping-by existence in Postwar Britain, (the novel ends in the early 1980s). until Oswald comes into a fortune.Instead of being delighted with the money, Amy chafes under Oswald's flowering pretensions. She leaves abrubtly just before Gabriel's thirteenth birthday.Gabirel descends into a proverbial decline, but through common sense and wit, collects a great deal of experience, while waiting to hear directly from his mother.Bailey's description of London and its characters is insighful and zesty. We lean about Oswald's secrets. He claims to be an honest man, but it is revelaed near the end that he is anything but honest. This book is a well balanced combination of humor and sadness.