Customer Reviews

Layover:: A Novel

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I read this book on a business trip, and it gave the whole time a strange, hyper glow. I may never look at a chain hotel room, or a desk clerk, the same way. Was worried when I saw the word grief--books about dead kids are seriously not my thing--but this is not at all a tearjerker. It's more a meditation on memory, and longing. A very satisfying read.

The grief of losing a child and the process one woman has to go through afterwards, when she is "freed to behave in an irrational manner" after discovering her husband's infidelity (his own reaction to losing their child) is the crux of this, at times painful, at times wry, novel written by Lisa Zeidner. As a mother, I almost could not buy this book...the prospect of losing a child is so awful, I could not imagine being able to read it. However, the reviews were really good, and it had the addition of a possibility --improbably,but I read it in some review somewhere-- of some good sex scenes, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Surprise, surprise. Ms. Zeidner handles this first person narrative, told by Claire Newbold, sucessful travelling saleswoman of medical supplies, wife of Ken Newbold, cardiothoracic surgeon, former mother of Evan, now dead for three years, with extremely deft perception, humor, and compassion. Nobody who makes an appearance in the book is let off the hook, not Zach, Claire's young lover,she picks up while swimming laps in the pool at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, not his mother...not his (oh no! oh YES! ) father, and especially not Claire... her pain and semi-breakdown/alienation remind me of another lost soul's: Holden Caulfield. Her intelligence and the extreme oddness of her behavior counterpoint each other until you are gathered so effortlessly into her psyche that her actions make sense, when they shouldn't--and even when SHE herself is pointing that out to you.

Very strikingly written book, charming at times, intense at times, sexy at times, sad at times (yes, and at the end, I cried--but not from sadness...), very different and worth your time.

I was amused by the critic from NY NY who compared this book unfavorably with Salter. Having just finished reading "A Sport and a Pastime" I would say that Salter never gets around first base, whereas Zeidner hits a home run. Layover, by Lisa Zeidner, is misleadingly described in the ads as a spicy tale about a liberated woman who has a romp with every stranger she encounters, as she runs a scam that gives her free hotel rooms. In fact, it's the moving story of a terribly disturbed woman who has lost an infant son in a car crash; her surgeon husband has admitted cheating on her; and she has cracked. On the road in her sales job, she comes to a complete halt, fails to go home or call, stops calling on customers, and spends her time swimming in hotel pools without bothering to check in or out. She seduces an 18-year old boy she meets in the pool, and then asks to meet and have dinner with his mother. Her behavior becomes more and more bizarre, and she knows it. She tracks down the boy's divorced father and seduces him too. But there must come a resolution, and readers will find the conclusion to this story unsurprising but satisfying. All through this poetic, exquisitely written book, we sense the disintegration and confusion the author provides this sassy, humorous, quick-minded but wounded and dependent woman, as well as her anguish as she tries to work her way through her life's major crisis. In the hands of any other author, it might be a soap opera story, but Zeidner, a published poet, makes every word count and every scene come to vivid life.

This fascinating novel gives us a new kind of female character. See the occasional huffy comments here for a sense of just how different, and threatening, Claire Newbold is. This is no standard-issue "women's novel" but a serious, sensual look at some big questions (and also, along the way, great fun).

...the agony of reading this book, it will be worth taking the time--although not the price I paid. Zeidner's prose is uninspiring at its best, and borders on the pretentious at its worst. The main character, Claire, starts off interestingly enough, but quickly becomes whiny and entirely too fascinated with her own naval, so to speak. The 'plot' is prototypical--don't be fooled by the fact that Claire is a mathematician--Zeidner gets no more original than that. Women readers may be offended, especially those who have lost a child, by Zeidner's completely inept portrayl of a grieving mother--why Claire would view this event (and four years after the fact, at that!) as reason to go to bed with everything in sight boggles the mind. Zeidner has written a particularly awful scene involving over-40 sex in a backyard--again, very original. In all, the first 30 pages or so aren't too bad, but everything after that is down hill. Disappointing at best.

Lisa Zeidner's LAYOVER is the kind of book you read straight through, hardly stopping to feed yourself or make a trip to the bathroom--it's that good, that engrossing. Zeidner's sparse, beautifully crafted prose is right on the money--the work of an accomplished storyteller and, if this novel is any indication, a closet comedienne. (Let's face it, there simply aren't many writers around who can make you cringe and guffaw in the same breath.) I suspect that Claire Newbold, the novel's grieving, unstable protagonist, will be heralded as the prototypical character for the next century, and as such, she's worth listening to. Kudos to Lisa Zeidner for creating a truly sympathetic character whose behavior we, as readers, may also see fit to condemn (even as Claire runs red light after red light, there we are, slouched in the front seat, glad to be along for the ride). Like the book itself, Claire is smart, funny, and brutally honest. LAYOVER is long overdue.

I was astounded to find myself connecting very intensely with the main character as I have also lost a child. (I fully expected this to read as a made-up literary extravagance, bearing little resemblence to my actual experiences.) If nothing else, Zeidner clearly captures the total chaos that an experience like this throws one into: believe me, the world no longer is a rational place where our actions or anything else make sense. I refute the statement by the reader who said that it is not believable for a woman to still be acting on such intense grief after 3 years. Three years is not a long time at all after the loss of a child; as a matter of fact, neither is 5 years, or 10 years, or 30 years.

The tragedy Claire experienced is unfathomable. Readers who complain that Claire is unlikable are missing the point. You don't have to like someone to care about them, to understand them or learn about life from them. In books, people get to live out their fantasy response, and Claire's actions are believable, impulsive and exciting. I loved being on the receiving end of Claire's witty insights and I enjoyed her Xray eyes. Interesting, how she never connected with other mothers before, perhaps that aggravated her experience. Zeidner's style is classy. Can't wait for the next one.

The first third of this book was innovative and a fun read. Then it began a downward spiral of ridiculous plot and unlikeable characters. Yes, Claire was self-aborbed, grieving, etc., but then she just became rather sick and stupid. I finished it hoping for some change which never appeared. The author had a good storyline, jauntily descriptive writing style, but the characters kidnapped her story and took it for a sorry joy ride.

The only reason I did not give this book one star is because the beginning of it was very well-written. Had the tone and pacing remained the same, it could have been great. However, the middle and end of the book were atrocious! The author was attempting to wax philosophic in a gritty, detatched voice, but merely succeeded in writing a story completely devoid of plot or purpose. I agree with the reviewer who said that mothers who had lost a child would find this book insulting. Yes, everyone deals with loss in different ways, but bedding a teenager AND his father as a means to heal the pain is just disturbing. I kept hoping there was a padded room and a straight jacket waiting for her at the end of the book. I would have been satisfied if she'd ended up with a prescription for Xanax; after reading this book I feel like I need one!