Gabriel's Lament [Import] [Paperback]

Paul Bailey (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Fourth Estate; New Ed edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857025881
• ISBN-13: 978-1857025880
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,256,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another o.p. Gem, August 27, 2001

By 

Lawrence W. Prichard "lj-and-me" (Kent, OH, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gabriel's Lament (Hardcover)

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.