Full Description
How does infatuation become love? And when does the flame extinguish?
Lamento is an artist's novel which tells the story of a doomed love affair in an entirely unexpected way, lamenting the impossibility of reconciling the magic of infatuation with everyday life. The novel begins with a fire and the fire permeates the entire novel. The narrator, a writer, meets a playwright and theatre producer. They fall in love, spend every minute together, completely untouched by the outside world. But when they finally have a child and everyday life stifles the passion, the love turns destructive. The woman fights for every minute she can to write, while the man turns his back on family life to focus on his art. Ultimately, everything breaks down; love turns to hate.
Lamento offers a fascinating perspective on the author's marriage before her transition, told from the woman's perspective but exposing the artistically narcissistic behavior of the male protagonist (based on Nielsen herself). Linguistically ravishing and unsparingly honest, Lamento is a profound reconciliation of gender and memory, asking what remains when we turn our lives into our work.
