A few weeks ago, I had the great fortune of perusing through my Dad’s book collection; most of the books got passed over due to space, but I did grab a box or two of books. Of the few contemporary novels that I snagged, Layover by Lisa Zeidner caught my attention because of the fuzzy image of a nude woman on the cover and the first line: “I packed for homelessness the way I would pack for a week in Europe—wrinkle-free in a carry-on.”

Layover is not the story of homelessness or air travel, but instead is the story of one woman’s tremendous grief as she struggles to recover from the loss of her son who died a car accident while she was driving the car. The fact that the accident was not her fault is small comfort to Claire.

(To write more about the novel, I’m going to have to add in a few spoilers.)

Claire, a medical salesman, is married to Ken, a surgeon, and retreats from him on an extended business trip after learning about his affair with another woman.

In addition to her grief about her son’s death and her own doubts about her struggling marriage, Claire has also been dealt exceptionally high hormones, which she deals with by seducing (or allowing him to seduce her) an 18-year-old guy. In one of the most painful scenes in the Layover, the grieving Claire lectures the boy’s mother on how to get over her own painful divorce; Claire’s drunk monolog is one that makes you cringe for all of the parties concerned.

Claire’s grief puts her in an almost fugue-like state at times and it’s hard to determine in places how much her choices are determined by her grief over her son—who she sometimes pretends is still alive when discussing him with other people—and how much of her grief stems from her disintegrating marriage. Throughout the novel, Claire keeps thinking that things like this happen to other people, almost as if her status as part of the upper-middle class should shield her from life’s heartaches.

Writer Lisa Zeidner’s prose is at times poetic, and is always highly descriptive. Like many parts of the body of the novel itself, the end of Layover is ambiguous and leaves the reader wondering if her husband’s reaction will be as forgiving as Claire imagines it will be or if there will be more long term consequences for her