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51st out of 68 books
—
16 voters
Love Bomb
by
Lisa Zeidner (Goodreads Author)
An inventive, mordantly funny novel about love, marriage, stalkers, and the indignities of parenthood
In quaint Haddonfield, New Jersey, Tess is about to marry Gabe in her childhood home. Her mother, Helen, is in a panic about theguests, who include warring exes, crying babies, jealous girlfriends, and too many psychiatrists. But the most difficult guest was never on the li...more
In quaint Haddonfield, New Jersey, Tess is about to marry Gabe in her childhood home. Her mother, Helen, is in a panic about theguests, who include warring exes, crying babies, jealous girlfriends, and too many psychiatrists. But the most difficult guest was never on the li...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
September 4th 2012
by Sarah Crichton Books
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A very amusing and well written book. The first two sections are priceless! A very complicated family and diverse group of friends gather for wedding in a NJ house. The wedding is taken over by a woman HT (hostage taker) dressed as a bride with a gas mask and sunglasses, guns and a bomb. The HT wants the guests apologize, not clear for what... And so we start to get to know the guests' back-stories as they start apologizing. :) This does not go on too long, it turns out that the HT has a complet...more
A masked terrorist takes a wedding hostage in Lisa Zeidner's LOVE BOMB. Zeidner wisely doesn't keep us trapped in the home in which the wedding's taking place, expanding on the themes of such a celebration (as well as the terrorist's soon-to-be-revealed motives) to flashback to many of her characters' romantic histories. It is in these vignettes that her sharp-tongued wit and finely-tuned relationship sense really shines; these devices keep the story moving and in my opinion, set LOVE BOMB a cut...more
Amusing comic novel about a terrorist at a wedding. She storms up the aisle in a wedding dress with a bomb and takes all the wedding guests hostage. The guests are largely comprised of psychologists and psychiatrists, which makes up a lot of the book's humor (as they all try to deconstruct the terrorist's reasons for doing this. Did she have a troubled relationship with her father? etc. They fight over who gets the right to try to talk her down).
It was amusing but not laugh-out-loud funny. The b...more
It was amusing but not laugh-out-loud funny. The b...more
As a Jersey girl, (but from the central Jersey shore, not South Jersey which is a different world altogether) I enjoyed this satire of life in Haddonfield. The story is totally improbable. It's like Agatha Christie setting up a murder in an isolated country house, only nobody gets murdered. Oops, belated spoiler alert.
Helen is a PhD and a successful, though sometimes unorthodox, therapist. She is the reluctant hostess for the simple, small, homel wedding of her daughter, Tess and her colleague...more
Helen is a PhD and a successful, though sometimes unorthodox, therapist. She is the reluctant hostess for the simple, small, homel wedding of her daughter, Tess and her colleague...more
In the opening chapters of this book, a terrorist dressed as a bride storms into a wedding being held in the living room of the mother of the (real) bride. The many psychiatrists in attendance (including the father of the real bride) try to analyze just what this woman wants and who she might want "to apologize" in order to let the hostages go. This was a fun read, but I feel that the ending didn't live up to the beginning. I guess the resolution to the hostage situation and the hostage taker's...more
Overall I would say this was a very entertaining and well written book.
For those of you that haven't read the book, I want to make you aware that if you go to the very back of the book, you will find a guest list that I feel would have been extremely helpful to have at the beginning of the book - whose idea was it to put this at the end??! Several times while reading the book I wished that I had some kind of who's who to keep track of the stories of the cast of characters.
With that said, I enjoy...more
For those of you that haven't read the book, I want to make you aware that if you go to the very back of the book, you will find a guest list that I feel would have been extremely helpful to have at the beginning of the book - whose idea was it to put this at the end??! Several times while reading the book I wished that I had some kind of who's who to keep track of the stories of the cast of characters.
With that said, I enjoy...more
The most original “ensemble piece” I’ve perhaps ever read. The cast of characters isn’t united by a quilt or a cooking school, but by a terrorist in a wedding dress, a gas mask, and clown socks. The book does take a bit of “work” up front to keep the characters straight (the guest list at the back of the book proved helpful and would have been better placed at the front of the book, because it took me a while to figure out the list was back there), but settling in with the large cast was well wo...more
Quick,zany read about a woman who takes a house full of wedding guests hostage. The setup of a large group of diverse wedding attendees is a great device for creating a slew of interesting, overlapping and dysfunctional characters, mixed with just enough action to keep the story moving. The background stories on the characters cover the gamut of themes: marriage, divorce, race, aging, parenting and more. Sounds depressing, but it is actually a cheerful, upbeat book, presenting these things as th...more
This was one of those "can't turn out the light" books. It often felt like a guilty pleasure because especially in wake of recent events regarding shootings it can make one squirm a bit. But for the most part it's so clever, especially in its send-up of psychiatrists that it's impossible not to smile. I enjoyed the Inside/Outside format of the plot and the way that it went into so many heads. The annoying folks were meant to be annoying and the truly good, meant to be so. This is a case where th...more
Tess and Gabe are about to be married in a quiet little ceremony at Tess's childhood home. When a bride shows up (not Tess) wearing a knee length gown, white combat boots with lace, a gas mask, carrying a sawed-off shotgun on her hip and a rifle in her hand, all the guests believe it is a performance for their entertainment. Soon, however, they find out this is not the case. They are being held hostage by a derranged woman and spend the next several hours trying to figure out why she has taken t...more
My Review:
Well lets see where to begin with this review. I start with saying it made me laugh.
Author Lisa Zeidner's creative writing in this book makes you look at subdivisions in just a little different light. As one who has and does live in one, it has made me kinda wonder about who is really living around me.
I am not going to go into much about this book. I liked it, finished it, but not much else. Maybe it was or could be just a little to life like. But the wedding quest list to kidnapper...more
Well lets see where to begin with this review. I start with saying it made me laugh.
Author Lisa Zeidner's creative writing in this book makes you look at subdivisions in just a little different light. As one who has and does live in one, it has made me kinda wonder about who is really living around me.
I am not going to go into much about this book. I liked it, finished it, but not much else. Maybe it was or could be just a little to life like. But the wedding quest list to kidnapper...more
Starting with a terrific, offbeat premise worthy of Christopher Moore -- the amusing interruption of a home wedding by a bridal gown-dressed, fully armed woman -- the novel devolves into a series of lengthy backgrounders on several of the guests and the hostage taker herself. The quick pace of the setup is so much fun and full of social satire promise, it's really disappointing to watch the book slow to a crawl that never gets back up to speed. Though sprinkled with some genuinely witty and insi...more
First time reading this author. Serendipity! She has an amazing vocabulary and uses it in marvelous ways loaded with meaning!
The setup is this suburban New Jersey wedding party at home with a cast of iconoclastic characters which is taken hostage by a woman dressed as a bride in a terrorist outfit. The central character is Helen, the woman of the house and a professional psychologist, who has a profound insight into all of the people at the gathering. It makes marvelous reading. Helen sifts thro...more
The setup is this suburban New Jersey wedding party at home with a cast of iconoclastic characters which is taken hostage by a woman dressed as a bride in a terrorist outfit. The central character is Helen, the woman of the house and a professional psychologist, who has a profound insight into all of the people at the gathering. It makes marvelous reading. Helen sifts thro...more
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 handful...more
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Marvelous. Though this book appears to be a comic, domestic thriller about a hostage situation, it is really something much more: a brilliant de-construction of what psychiatry does and mostly doesn't do, and how the human heart and human motivations are far more complex and mysterious than any pat theory or any easy pill. Zeidner's ability to create believable characters with fascinating complexities is on full display here. Virtuoso, funny, sad, human, and completely compelling. Brava.
A very frivolous story focusses on a group attending a small wedding party interrupted by someone wearing a wedding dress army boots and a gas mask. By the end we know much about everyone in the room and yes why this strange person has decided to capture all these people....her only hint that she is waiting for an apology from one piece of shit. It was ok enough that i listened to the whole drama, it is a kind of comedic attempt to slam society. Do I recommend it hmmmm I don't know.
This looked like it was going to be a lot more interesting than it turned out to be. The premise was original: a wedding at a quiet home in Haddonfield invaded by a "terrorist" dressed as a bride, albeit with gas mask and sunglasses. I wanted to know which guest she was targeting, and the novel did delve into the backgrounds of various guests. But this just didn't pan out.
This is a strange one, in which a hostage taker crashes a wedding, dressed in a wedding dress and combat boots. The guests, including many psychiatrists, and the wedding party are puzzled,fearful and finally, engaged by the young woman who is familiar with both firearms, and SWAT Team protocol. Unusual, and satirical, a scary situation diffused with humour.
This book is clever and funny. I would have given it a higher rating except for the glaring mistake Zeidner and her editors made: referring to Henry James' character from The Portrait of a Lady as "Isabella Archer". It is "Isabel". Somehow that really lowered my opinion of the book, which had so many other great cultural and literary references.
Bizarre story about a terrorist appearing at a wedding in suburban NJ. Interesting plot, but the story relied (in my opinion) way too much on psychiatry, and I just didn't like or care about the characters. I skipped about 70 pages to see how the story turned out, and even that was boring.
Totally light weight but fun book about a group of psychiatrists and celebrities gathered to celebrate the wedding of 2 people who meet in Doctors Without Borders. The wedding is disrupted by someone n a wedding dress and gas mask and the book is an amusing tail of what ensues. Fun beach reading.
Sylvia steered me a little wrong on this one. I wasn't crazy about the format, the constant breaks in the albeit slow action to summarize everyone's beef with love. They were all a little too long and not all of them were people I actually wanted to hear from. The ending summaries were pretty satisfying, and I'll concede we have to get to know these people beforehand to have them make sense. I don't know, I feel like page one had a ton of potential and it never really got used.
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars on this over the top satire of a stranger in bridal dress and gas mask who bursts into a private home wedding and takes hostages. It was zany and fun, highly readable, but with no overall tension in the story. I enjoyed it, but had no real concern about how it would all end.
I heard this might not be a good "guy book", but what can I say, I really enjoyed this tale of wealthy suburban NJ. Short, funny, and times poignant, and keeps you interested.
The opening lines say it all "The bride did not wear white. But the terrorist did."
The opening lines say it all "The bride did not wear white. But the terrorist did."
Fun to read. If you can get by the premise of the twisted bride terrorist, it's interesting to meet the characters, and see what the author does with them. Perfectly silly, with plenty of commentary on bad behavior, mostly by men.
As a plot-driven book, this is just fine. When it tries to say something, it gets a bit lost. After all, who reads a book with the opening line of "The bride did not wear white. But the terrorist did." for a message?
This is my first review! I enjoyed this book. It is a good "yarn" from start to finish. I particularly liked the introduction and interplay of the characters. Plus, such a satisfying wrap-up at the end. Also, fun because it is local -- Haddonfield, NJ.
A great book - wise and funny. A literary romp from beginning to a most satisfying ending, I must have laughed out loud, sitting all by myself reading it, a half dozen times. Highly recommend.
Picked this up because setting was a town in NJ and story sounded quirky and funny which turned out o be true. Second book I've read recently about weddings gone awry and damaged people who attended. More time on the guests than on the bride and groom. Story focused on lives of various characters. Part 1 the guests, part 2 outside the wedding. Cringed when laughing as humor was dark and sad.
I have tremendous respect for the work Zeidner has done at Rutgers-Camden, so I was excited to read her work. Love Bomb was entertaining but fell a little flat. I enjoyed the Haddonfield setting and the premise of the novel. I am confused by the time spent giving lots of background on the many wedding guests/characters. It was clever, fascinating material, but most of it wasn't relevant to the plot. The mother of the (real) bride was a fantastic character and the most developed. The ending was a...more
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Lisa Zeidner has published five novels, including the critically acclaimed Layover, and two books of poems. Her stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, GQ,
Tin House, and elsewhere. She directs the M.F.A. program in creative writing at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
More about Lisa Zeidner...
Tin House, and elsewhere. She directs the M.F.A. program in creative writing at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey.
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