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James W. Brown

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My Last Lament Hardcover – April 4, 2017

by James William Brown (Author)

4.0 57 ratings

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Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Berkley
Publication date

April 4, 2017
Dimensions

6.38 x 1.09 x 9.29 inches
ISBN-10

0399583408
ISBN-13

978-0399583407
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley; First Edition (April 4, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399583408
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399583407
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.09 x 9.29 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #12,386,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,688 in Jewish Historical Fiction
- #8,967 in Jewish Literature & Fiction
- #93,344 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.0 57 ratings

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4 out of 5

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sally johansson

A must read

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018

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Amazing story telling ability.
Made us care for the characters as we learned of Greece’s history
Remarkable and a page turner

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SMG

My Last Lament is a novel that should be read ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2017

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My Last Lament is a novel that should be read more than once. As he did in Blood Dance, James Brown uses a Greek woman (Aliki) as the narrator. Th reader is drawn into her world so completely that she/he is driven to read rapidly through the action in each chapter to find out how Aliki and those who are dear to her will get through the chaos of war and foreign occupation.

The rich scene descriptions in the novel (which include references to Greek history, culture and literature. as well as descriptions of rural landscape and urban street life) require a second reading to absorb all the information. Since the story line allows readers to see these settings before, during and after war and occupation, it is not difficult to see similarities between events in this novel and daily news reports of conflicts currently raging in countries not far from the borders of Greece.

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Amazon Customer

I might have enjoyed this book

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2017

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I read The Gentleman from Moscow before reading this book. I might have enjoyed this book, unfair that it might be, more if I had not just read
The Gentleman. The writing and phrasing was just so much better and the flow gave it a better pace.

One person found this helpful

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Wyleigh

Good book

Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2017

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Interesting & great charecters

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plc

Greece in the 1940s and consequences

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2018

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This novel provides a clear view of the 1940s in Greece and the consequences of the World War. The writing is intelligent and in some scenes brilliant. Most impressive to this reviewer is the puppetry, from the most literal and physical level to the more abstract where I puppets, shadows, and staging are the stuff of political and cultural life.

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Daffy Du

Poignant. heartbreaking and hard to put down

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2017

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

How to review a book that's beautifully written, about a little-known period in a well-known country, but that's so relentlessly sad that at times it's painful to read? That's the dilemma with My Last Lament, a Greek tragedy set amid the darkest times of the 20th century. My admiration for the writing and interest in the story were tempered somewhat the unhappy account it relates.

My Last Lament is the story of Aliki, a Greek woman whose role is to "lament" at wakes and funerals. It's a gift she's had since childhood--the words of her dirge poems just pour out of her to celebrate the life of the recently departed. Ostensibly, the book consists of her tape-recorded account of her life, for an American researcher interested in capturing and studying her laments, who has given her the recorder and cassettes. But the project turns into an autobiography, and a sad one it is.

Aliki lives in a small village with her father--her mother left the family for reasons she never knew--but when the Germans invade during WWII, and requisition most of the food, everyone starves and resorts to extreme measures to feed themselves and their families. Her father is executed for taking a squash, leaving her an orphan. She's taken in by Chrysoula, a neighbor and the mother of her friend Takis, a young boy who hears the trees and wind talking to him and periodically engages in bizarre behavior as a result. When Sophia, a Jewish woman, and Stelios, her teenage son, come to the village after fleeing Athens, Chrysoula takes them in as well, hiding them in her basement.

The Germans, predictably, are brutal, and Aliki, Takis and Stelios find themselves orphaned. Although the end of the war is nigh, and the Germans are retreating, Greece soon descends into civil war, sweeping the three up in the chaos.

The book switches between the present (which I believe is the 1980s), when Aliki is an old woman and the last professional lamenter in her village, and the account of her life all the years before. It's a life of constant upheaval and unexpected turns, in which she is buffeted between her love for Stelios and her affection and sense of responsibility for the difficult and erratic Takis and is constantly contending with the jealousy of those around her. A particularly delightful aspect of the book is its accounts of the traditional shadow puppetry that Stelios and then all three engage in to earn a living.

Author James William Brown is an excellent writer who has clearly researched the times and settings he describes (he includes a bibliography) and brings them to life. His characters are sympathetic and utterly believable, and he keeps the story moving--it never bogs down. While I didn't have as deep an emotional response to the book as I have with others I've read (most recently, The Clay Girl absolutely blew me away), My Last Lament definitely engaged me, and I recommend it for lovers of literary fiction and history, as long as you're prepared for a story of heartbreak, loss and man's inhumanity to man.

One person found this helpful

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The Write Edge

The book rambles way too much.

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2019

A girl barely survives the Nazi occupation of her village by running away with a family friend and a Jewish refugee. As the three make their way across the country, they will lose and find one another and themselves countless times before the war ends. Author James William Brown tries to follow his characters but lets the story meander in the rambling novel My Last Lament.

In modern-day Greece in a small northeastern village, Aliki is approached by a graduate student focusing on the tradition of lamenting. Aliki is one of the last lamenters left in the region, a professional mourner hired to keen when people die. Left with a tape recorder and several blank cassette tapes, Aliki begins sharing her thoughts on her life, the heritage of mourning for those not related to her, and her experiences during World War II.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Germans have occupied major sections of Greece. A teenage Aliki watches in horror as these men in their crisp uniforms and tight formations shoot her father for stealing squash, a crime committed only because of the abject hunger he and Aliki are experiencing. Other villagers are beaten, tortured, and killed for even lesser deeds named as crimes.

After her father’s death, Chrysoula, a family friend, takes in Aliki. Aliki gets along well with Chrysoula’s son, Takis, and views him with fondness and affection as a younger brother. The two play and laugh; it’s almost like life has taken a new shape of normal.

When Aliki discovers that Chrysoula has also taken in two Jewish refugees, however, her world changes. The mother and son managed to escape the Nazis in Athens and have scurried from village to village since then seeking help. Their arrival means an increased level of danger for everyone, especially Aliki, Chrysoula, and Takis. Takis, in particular, takes an instant dislike to the son, Stelios, and the way Stelios captivates Aliki with the shadow puppets he creates and the stories he tells with them.

Despite Chrysoula’s best efforts to keep Stelios and his mother hidden, someone eventually alerts the Germans. A bloody battle ensues, and Aliki, Takis, and Stelios manage to escape. They head to Athens where Stelios is sure they can find help. The journey takes them from Athens to the island of Crete, from a grand home to a prison camp. The shadow puppets become a means of survival and a way to forget the horrors they have witnessed, but they also stand as testament to all that they have lost.

Author James William Brown begins the book with a unique framing method. Dividing the story into “cassettes”—that is, the number of tapes Aliki uses to tell her story—he gives readers the chance to “listen in” as Aliki shares her thoughts with the unnamed college student. The unusual storytelling method may entice target audience members to begin reading, but the story ambles along. While some of the experiences Aliki relates certainly make for compelling reading, at some point readers might wonder what any of it has to do with lamenting.

The argument, of course, could be made that the tapes themselves are a final lament for Aliki before she finishes out her days as an old woman in a forgotten village. Unfortunately, that idea isn’t strong enough to sustain an entire book. Anyone personally touched by the Holocaust has a right to lament, to grieve, what they’ve lost. Brown misses out on an incredible opportunity to showcase this unusual rural institution; what follows, instead, is just another book about World War II.

Brown scores a few points for giving readers a glimpse into the horrors of Nazism as they affected Greece, a country not normally associated with the extreme movement. The book serves as a reminder that this terrible period in history affected many more people than initially known. Had Brown attempted a more straightforward approach with the novel, it would have offered much more compelling reading. Instead, one character suffers from mental illness, another goes to a prisoner camp, and Aliki slips into her laments at the strangest times without much rhyme or reason.

On almost all accounts, the book flounders until it limps to an end that doesn’t seem to do much. I recommend readers Bypass My Last Lament.

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