Tom Bedlam

March 26, 2007
Hagen (The Laments
) rolls out the entertaining epic tale of the personable protagonist Tom Bedlam, beginning in Victorian London and ending in post-WWI South Africa. Along the way, Tom survives a rowdy boarding school, studies medicine in Scotland (where he changes his name to the more proper-sounding Tom Chapel), elopes to South Africa with his professor's daughter and fathers three daughters and a son. Tom is recruited as a battlefield surgeon during the Boer War, but the novel slows dramatically once the war is over and he settles with his family in the Johannesburg suburbs. His steady life as a surgeon and doting father dominates the story until WWI draws pacifist Tom back to London on urgent business. Tom's trip to wartime England satisfyingly rekindles the story's momentum, aided by plot twists that require the suspension of disbelief. Realistic period detail adds texture to the humor that frequently counters Tom's personal tragedies and sometimes dour outlook. Hagen's prose is surefooted, regardless of which continent, ocean or war his characters encounter. A few lulls pockmark this hefty book, but Tom is a sturdy protagonist and a magnificent relic from a world far gone.

April 15, 2007
Hagen follows up his successful debut novel, "The Laments", with another family-themed drama set in Victorian London. This sweeping Dickensian epic follows the life of Tom Bedlam, son of a pious factory-worker mother and a ne'er-do-well, thieving actor who leaves the family when Tom is an infant. Tom's father took Tom's older brother to an orphanage when their mother was too ill to understand his actions, and Tom vows to find his lost brother in hopes of establishing the kinship that has always eluded him. In the meantime, he manages to escape his impoverished London tenement and attend a privileged boarding school, which eventually leads to medical school and a career as a doctor in South Africa. Along the way, Tom faces heartbreak, the murder of a close friend, and the ugliness of the powerful subjugating the weak. Hagen's talent for writing about family life is again evident, and, given its length and subject matter, this effort at first seems rather ambitious. However, it's difficult to tell how serious Hagen is as each situation becomes increasingly preposterous and each coincidence a farther reach. Recommended for some light fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/07.]Kevin Greczek, Hamilton, NJ

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