‘Love Bomb’ by Lisa Zeidner

Do the self-satisfactions of the middle class and its rituals somehow prove irresistible to a novelist? Is it just too tempting to consider how a big social gathering might go disastrously wrong? Consider Ayelet Waldman's "Red Hook Road," in which a young couple meet a tragic end hours after taking their vows, or, in a more playful register, Ali Smith's "There but for the," which sends a dinner party spinning out of control when a guest locks himself in a room and refuses to leave. Lisa Zeidner's funny, chaotic new novel, "Love Bomb," is pitched in tone somewhere between Waldman's and Smith's: realistic in its depiction of sympathetic characters facing a crisis, while edgy in its satire of a well-off New Jersey suburb and its sometimes hapless police force.

Illustration by Brian Rea

LOVE BOMB

By Lisa Zeidner

260 pp. Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $ 26

The book's first page replicates the invitation for the wedding that will unite Tess Nathanson and Gabriel Billips. Though pretty and proper, it also hints at the couple's political sensibilities: "In lieu of gifts, the bride and groom encourage donations to Doctors Without Borders." (Tess and Gabriel met in Mali, where they both worked for that organization.) Then Zeidner's opening sentences — "The bride did not wear white. But the terrorist did" — throw us off course, as without further ceremony, we are plunged, like the unsuspecting guests, into a startling, near-surreal hostage situation.

An unknown woman, outlandishly costumed in a wedding gown, gas mask and heavy boots, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and many rounds of ammunition, has disrupted Tess and Gabriel's wedding. For some time, her motives are unclear, but her method is considered: she forces the guests to surrender their cellphones and purses, then locks her hostages in the great room of the house belonging to Helen Burns, Tess's mother and the wedding's erstwhile hostess. The terrorist announces that the door is wired with explosives, thwarting any attempts to break out. Her basic politeness and her gentle manner with the few children in the crowd make us wonder initially if this might be a piece of guerrilla theater, but the notion dissipates when she pulls out another rifle, presumably planted in the house days earlier, and points it at the head of a stubborn gastroenterologist reluctant to surrender his iPhone.

Despite the threatening atmosphere, the novel's first half, labeled "Inside," is essentially humorous, as Zeidner fills in details of the bride's relations — the mixture of personalities that make any guest list fraught — and describes how various members of the group wilt or strengthen under pressure. Tess's father, Jake, one of many therapists in attendance, is there with his third wife and their child; his second wife and son are also on hand. Helen hadn't been worried about seeing Jake, since she's long reconciled to her divorce: "All of that agony, in memory, was like a bad overnight stay in a plastic chair at an airport." Before the hostage situation, Helen was mainly anxious about how the Nathansons would appear to the biracial groom's family, and whether using her own home as the ceremony's venue would create difficulties.

Zeidner gets nice comic mileage from the shrinks squabbling privately over their professional diagnoses (Does the hostage taker have narcissistic personality disorder? Schizophrenia?) and trying their calming best to get her to shed her mask or explain her demands. None are successful, but Helen, though less "trained," is more intuitive and better able to communicate with the terrorist on her own terms. When the woman's motives finally emerge, Helen is understatedly sympathetic. Over the course of the day, she and the terrorist will develop an oddly touching and mostly plausible bond.

The novel's second section, "Outside," takes us into the local police force as it scrambles to handle the tense hostage situation. Though these scenes also have comic moments, it's harder for the reader to gauge Zeidner's intentions as she canvasses the sexist behavior of many of the town's policemen and presents a complicated portrait of female (and male) stalkers. It isn't entirely clear whether we're meant to condemn the terrorist or root for her.

The severity of her threat, along with the fluidity of Zeidner's prose, keeps us eagerly turning the pages, but we're never too worried that the standoff will end in tragedy. Everyone here is mostly trying, with good will, to get by: Helen with her grown children, Jake with his current and ex-wives, the many other guests with the various objects of their affection. In her concluding, postcrisis pages, Zeidner gives us satisfying summaries of what will happen to these amiable characters. The only one we hope won't find a happy ending is the person who pushed the terrorist over the edge in the first place.

With the pleasing intensity of an action film and none of the boring car chases, "Love Bomb" is a witty, smart and densely packed novel, incorporating descriptions of SWAT tactics, references to NGO politics, a glance at run-of-the-mill suburban racism, a light look at "badge bunnies" (women who like sleeping with cops) and many great, recognizable glimpses of the challenges of modern parenthood. When one father catalogs the tedious rituals of his family — "How many more potlucks at the swim club? How many special breakfasts in bed for Mom on Mother's Day? How many, God help us, Halloweens?" — many readers will share his exhaustion and feel that the drama he experiences on this one harrowing day may not, in the end, take more of a toll than the regular hazards of middle-class life.

Sylvia Brownrigg is the author of five novels. Her most recent book, a novel for children, "Kepler's Dream," was published under the name Juliet Bell.

Search This Website

People Powered Portal

Sexy Scandals