Lisa Zeidner

Claire Newbold is still struggling to deal with the death of her young son several years ago when he husband confesses his infidelity. This confession pushes Claire over the edge, and she runs away from her life, cutting off all contact with her husband, abandoning her job and clients, and engaging in sexual relationships with strangers.

Claire is an interesting and well-developed character. She is seemingly in control of choices and decisions, yet strangely unable to cope with details such show more as returning a rental car or checking out of a hotel. She becomes obsessed with her physical health (perhaps as a way of avoiding her emotional issues?), and this obsession seems to help her find her way back to reality. Very complex, nuanced look at grief and its impact on a mother and a marriage. Well done. show less

Layover is narrated by Claire Newbold, a woman in her early forties who some years before the events chronicled in this novel endured the death of her only child in a freak traffic accident. This tragedy and the struggle to get past it have defined her recent life, but it is only after her husband Ken (a cardiothoracic surgeon) confesses to an infidelity that she comes more or less unhinged. Claire is a traveling sales rep for a medical supply company and while on the road she finds that show more Ken's confession has sapped her of the will or ability to pretend that it’s business as usual. Without warning she blows off meetings with clients, swims at all hours in the pool at whatever hotel she happens to be in, and enjoys late evening/early morning room service dinners. After her travel schedule goes out the window she avoids phone calls from people who are concerned about her and comes up with a variety of imaginative contrivances that enable her to stay in hotel rooms without paying. Eventually she lands in Philadelphia and checks into the Four Seasons. Here she seduces a teenager and begins to suspect that whatever is causing this erratic and uninhibited behaviour is not emotional but physical. She contacts her therapist for advice and obsesses over her condition, eventually after much research settling on a diagnosis. In her spare time she indulges in sex with absolute strangers. In Claire Newbold, Lisa Zeidner has created a sharp, witty, observant heroine whose risqué antics and wry musings make for compelling reading. Whether or not we actually care about her is another matter. Despite her emotional fragility, Claire exudes confidence, especially in matters sexual. When she strolls into an office building where she doesn’t belong, she knows that no one will challenge her. When she approaches a man (or in the case of Zachery, a boy) there is no doubt in her mind that he will want to have sex with her. She sets up these encounters and is in complete control of them, which makes her come across not so much as vulnerable as calculating. It is a line that she occasionally crosses, at which point some readers may lose patience with her. Still, Zeidner has written an absorbing, original and daring novel about a woman struggling to keep her life from unraveling. It’s a precarious balancing act, but in the end we’re still pulling for her to keep heart and soul together. show less

When an intimate suburban wedding is interrupted by an armed woman wearing a gas mask, wedding gown and steel toed boots, the guests assume it is a joke. Only as the woman confiscates their mobile phones and explains the back door is wired with explosives does the reality of the surreal situation set in. The terrorist has a single demand, she wants a simple, heartfelt apology from 'one particular piece of shit', but no one in the crowd knows who that may be. In an effort to placate her a show more handful of guests confess their sins while a clutch of psychiatrists analyse her behaviour and the groom's grandfather, Colonel Delbert Billips Snr (ret.) attempts to take charge. As the hostages flounder, Helen the mother of the bride and host of the wedding, seems to be the only one the HT (Hostage Taker) is inclined to confide in, revealing the tale of pain and heartbreak that sparked the unusual siege and the woman's plans for Helen's guests.

Probably best described as tragi-comedy, Love Bomb is a satirical examination of relationships, parenthood, sex, obsession, heartbreak and loss. Zeidner explores the drama of the hostage situation with a healthy dose of humour and wry insight as the crowd deals with the absurdity of their situation.
Carefully developing empathy for her characters even as she mocks them, Zeidner reveals the complicated nuances of the cast's relationships with others and with themselves. The omniscient viewpoint invites the reader to observe the lovelorn hostage taker, the pompous thrice married father of the bride, the celebrity guest, the hysterical teenage caterer, the African Muslim polygamist and the man wounded by his divorce and custody issues amongst others whose personal histories are mined for awkward truths and well kept secrets.

I have to admit I found my interest wavering in parts of Love Bomb, a little overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters whose relayed stories have varying degrees of relevance to the situation they are in. At the every end of the novel is a guest list, something I feel would have been more appropriate and useful to provide at the beginning. There is very little dialogue and not much in the way of action through the middle of the story which I find tiring to read and the pacing suffers for it. Unusually the author provides an epilogue to the story, revealing what happened to many of the primary characters in the months after the siege which was an element I appreciated.

I find myself fairly ambivalent about Love Bomb, I didn't dislike it but neither can I find much enthusiasm for it. I think it would most strongly appeal to readers who enjoy social satire and observational comedy. show less

As hard-boiled as anything Raymond Chandler ever wrote, with hard surfaces and a compelling modern view. Hard, but not quite hopeless, nor merely depressing or depressed. Perhaps the main flaw lies in the heroine's never having a moment of true vulnerability, so that the reader never has the chance to fully empathize. The narrative is so self-assured, even when describing the process of mental breakdown, that the narrator does not seem to actually ever need anyone's help. There's little in show more the language that is beautiful, but nevertheless an effectively told story. show less