Lightning People

by Christopher Bollen

Joseph Guiteau is a working actor who moved to New York to escape a tragic family history in the Midwest. Wandering through a city transformed by the attacks of September 2001, he frequents gatherings of conspiracy groups, trying to make sense of world events and his own personal history. Looming over his life is a secret that threatens to undermine his new marriage to Del, a snake expert at a city park, whose work visa is the only thread keeping her from deportation back to her native Greece.

The new marriage influences the lives of those around them: William, a dark and troubled actor whose sanity is fading as quickly as his career, leading him to perform increasingly desperate acts; Madi, a young entrepreneur who will have to face the moral complications of a business made successful by the outsourcing of American jobs to India; and her brother Raj, Del’s former lover, a promising photographer whose work details the empty rooms of an increasingly alienated city.

Christopher Bollen’s first novel captures the atmosphere of anxiety and loss that exists in Manhattan.

Genres: Fiction, New York, Novels, Literary Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

Published August 14, 2012

About the author

Christopher Bollen is a writer who lives in New York City. He regularly writes about art, literature, and culture and is the author of six novels, numerous short stories, articles, essays, and interviews.

His first novel, Lightning People, was published in 2011. His second novel, Orient, was published in 2015. He then wrote The Destsroyers, A Beautiful Crime, and The Lost Americans .

His new novel HAVOC was published December 3, 2024 by Harper.

Describing his novels, The Daily Telegraph notes that "Bollen writes expansive, psychologically probing novels in the manner of Updike, Eugenides and Franzen, but he is also an avowed disciple of Agatha Christie.

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty)]

Back in 1999 I had an Irish boyfriend called Tom. Tom was incapable of telling the short version of any story. He was also unable to give a direct answer to any question. If you tried to hurry him along or encouraged him to get to the point already, he'd get very upset and hurt and then take even longer to get to the end of the story. If you could sit still without interrupting, his stories often turned out to be very interesting or even funny, but it took a lot of patience on the part of the listener.

ME: "So, did you end up going out for breakfast this morning?"

TOM: "Well, I went into the kitchen to see if there was anything that looked good to eat, and then I got a call from an old friend of mine. He was originally from Bemidji, but he went out to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields back in the 80s. We used to tease him a lot because of the way he talked. He thought his hard hat was called a helmet...blah blah blah...He was the one who taught me all about f-stops on the camera...[insert long explanation of how f-stops work]..."

ME: "So is he in town? Did you go have breakfast with him?"

TOM: "I'm getting to that!!!! You never listen to me!!!!"

LONG SILENCE....

TOM: "So anyway, he got married and moved back to Bemidji and now he has six kids...."

Half an hour later, I just might find out if he ended up going out to breakfast that morning.

If you can tolerate long rambling storytelling from someone like my old boyfriend Tom, you might enjoy this book. It seems like the plot might have some promise. Something to do with people from the Midwest moving to New York City and getting hit by lightning...and groups that meet in the city to talk about conspiracy theories...and guys from Bemidji who know all about f-stops on cameras...(just kidding, I made that last part up).

I'm not giving this book a rating. I'm not saying it's a terrible book. Christopher Bollen writes well, but after about 40 or 50 pages I just wanted to shake him and say, "So, Christopher, DID you end up going out for breakfast this morning?!!!"

[switterbug (Betsey)]

Christopher Bollen's psychodynamic first novel inhabits the grey area between commercial and cult, between conventional and subversive, and splices a dark synchronicity with a shot of paranoia, an ache of sweetness, and a slice of fabled, stormy weather. The myth and mania of New York is felt instantly, like a Springsteen song--channeling the diamond-hard look of a cobra into every nuance. Granted, it is hard to be a saint in the city; and between the saints and sinners lies the urban maw, swallowing the serrated and sequestered denizens of the boroughs into its viscera. There's a fugitive heart at the center of this story, electrifying and transformative.

This book likely appeals to the under forty contemporary dreamers or the boomers who have witnessed stunning synchronous moments and transcendent, altered states. You have to relinquish control of the tiller, enjoy the ride, eyes to the wide, not fixed straight ahead. The story explores fate and coincidence, intersecting the lives of various individuals trying to legitimize their lives in the post 9/11 years, before the economic collapse of 2007. They are searching for intimacy and sanctuary and trying to reconcile past and present toward a redemptive future.

LIGHTNING PEOPLE is best experienced with minimal disclosure; this review aims to pique your interest, not give you spoilers. It has tendrils of Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, as well as the Oscar-winning movie, Crash, but it's its own restless animal. Frequently edgy and grim, it is also romantic and adventurous. Bollen's style is often macabre, dosed with nostalgic love. Conspiracy theories and shadow governments tunnel into suspicious, neurotic minds, or are they actually the agency of fractured lives?

Del is a fetching, educated woman from Greece, frustrated with her low-paying job handling snakes at the Bronx Zoo, pining for her green card. Her husband, Joseph, a well-paid TV commercial actor, agonizes over a bleak legacy that he keeps to himself. William, his fair-weather friend, is an out of work actor envious of Joseph. Del's ex-boyfriend, Raj, is a brilliant but hermetic photographer; his sister, Madi, is a successful entrepreneur, and Del's best friend. Madi is the dynamic glue that keeps Del and Raj connected.

These five people form a network or grid around a radiant locus of nature and destiny and severe weather. Karma and morality get a beating and is eclipsed by coincidence, inverse twists, and dumb luck. Bollen stays one step ahead of the reader, but he isn't coy. He takes the reader to shocking, aberrant, and murky places of the human condition, testing the edge of each character's endurance and self-loathing. He will also make you queasy and appalled about the law, free will, and fate. It's a portrait of doom and beauty dancing on the head of a pin, with an undercurrent of vulnerability and valor that compels the reader forward.

Bollen is audacious, a sense of mania blazing through the story, almost purple with his drama at times. You're either with him or you turn away in disgust as he smashes the coded rules, but he does it with such high voltage brio that I was seduced by his dangerous moves. This story sure talked gritty, but then it inexplicably made me cry.

[Dennis Holland]

I grabbed this NYC novel for my weekend getaway to the US Open. The book, like the action on the courts, was full of surprises and intrigue. And as the suspense of the tournament continued to escalate, the drama and intensity of Bollen’s writing did so too—leading to a very exciting climax. “Lightning” struck me as the perfect companion for my short trip.

[Andrew Cho]

This novel has the best of intentions - setting out to be a NYC novel in the vein of Bright Lights, Big City. But it falls victim to cliches and overblown metaphors. The characters are, to an extent, well-developed. But the book is a hundred pages too long. Almost every paragraph includes some sort of poorly executed analogy: "The urgency of his pale body fumbling over her as if constantly trying to find a better position like a nervous mountain climber unsure of the distance to the summit." Bollen shows glimmers of strong, emotional writing, but they're all-too-often bogged down by superfluous sentences such as these.

The biggest flaw of all is Bollen's overuse of contingency. His tragedies are too neat, organized, and convenient to the point of them being laughably implausible. These tragedies are the driving force of the plot, which only leads to more frustration for the reader. There were too many moments to count while reading the book where I felt annoyed by the unlucky circumstances Bollen depends on to keep the story going.

However, the climax is written well, and is, honestly, the only reason why I didn't give this book an even lower rating. Bollen can build suspense when necessary. It's a shame that suspense is this novel's redeeming quality.

[Gregory]

Wow that was really really really good for a debut novel. Lots of promises that Bollen continued to fullfill with his next books.

[Isabelle Angele]

dnf again, bit boring / a chore

[Allison Renner]

This novel encompasses loves lost and current, relationships with family and friends, conspiracy theories, heredity, lightning strikes and the little ways our lives all intertwine. A blurb on the back of the book compared it to The Great Gatsby - a pronouncement that originally made me scoff. Then I read through to the last line, closed the book, and could not get it out of my head. The characters are real; I found myself caring about their lives despite none of them being clearly defined as likable, as they typically are in fiction. Bollen has a way of hinting at what's to come, but when you get to the scene and think a certain thing will happen, he mixes it up on you. It's never a hokey "Ha, you thought this would happen but you were wrong!" but more of a "No, this is going to happen instead." It's very well-done and I found myself holding my breath in suspense through several sections. The beginning might be a little confusing because the narrative is told from the point of view of five characters, but it is worth sticking with. It reminds me of a movie you can watch over and over and still notice things you never saw before; I'm already eager to read it again and see what I missed.

[Lizzie]

"What if the power was unplugged permanently? Within a week the city would be emptied, the richest refugees the world has ever known clambering across the bridges in despair, a mass exodus moving on and out like seeds blown across a country that had grown inhospitable to them...It occured to Joseph as he stepped closer, just a foot from the ledge, that New Yorkers had a reputation for being hard-skinned survivalists but were probably the least equipped with survival instincts of any lot in human history."

[Phoebe]

Don't waste your time. I really wish I hadn't wasted mine. If you're going to write about characters as flawed as many of the ones in this book, you have to provide at least a slightly plausable reason for them being that way. That said, this book could have been about 100 pages shorter. I considered putting it down without finishing it many times. In the end, I really wish I had.

[Ben]

Christopher Bollen injects pure electricity into his five main characters and into a pulsing New York City still searing from the tragedy of 9/11. You feel for these characters; you ache for the pain felt by one and recoil at the monster that another becomes. A terrific read.

[Aurore Boréale]

Christopher Bollen injects pure electricity into his five main characters and into a pulsing New York City still searing from the tragedy of 9/11. A really good writting, a good story, it's a terrific read.

[Ryan]

I really wanted to like this more than I did. I enjoyed another of Bollen's novels, A Beautiful Crime, quite a bit. But this one felt over-written (his editor should have told him he doesn't have to describe literally everything in the book with similes), and overly long by at least 50-75 pages. Despite that, the plot felt under-written, as so little is explained. I don't mind ambiguity in my novels, but when characters' motivations aren't understood, and the entire premise of the story is left open-ended and a mystery, it just feels like a cop out. Not only that, the entire plot is a string of unlikely coincidences and that also feels cheap. Bollen is a good writer, but this book was very unsatisfying.

[Matthew]

I admit I abandoned this one pretty quick. The prose is ineffectual and, in places, stilted. The author spends way to much time interpreting the intentions and feelings of his characters for the reader. Just describe what they do and let your readers supply more of the meaning. Instead the author attempts to throw a metaphorical punch with every sentence and spends most of his time whiffing.

[Damian Serbu]

Good read - the depth of each character is intense, so you really feel like you know them; the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's a page turner as well, because it keeps you guessing about what's going to happen until the very end.

[Manon Rouan]

Pourquoi je me force à finir des bouquins qui m'ennuient dès le premier chapitre ? Encore des destins croisés de New-Yorkais à qui il arrive des péripéties pas possibles, bon forcément au bout d'un moment je veux savoir comment ça finit et la réponse est : comme ça commence. Boring.

[Joseph]

Well….let me just say that I’m glad his publishers gave him a second chance because he has gone on to write some very nice stories. I would say that “Orient” set in Long Island is probably my favorite book by Christopher Bollen.

[Pam]

Thanks Phoebe. I did quite reading...since I was speed reading past the yada yada anyway... whew. Way too much filler and BIG gaps between stories and/or charater.

[Visesia]

l’histoire était plutôt bien, je me perdais parfois mais ça va et j’ai beaucoup aimé les citations !

[Miriam]

Got bored and have too many other books I want to read right now. Maybe some other time.

[Viet]

A fun fact about lightning: a strike lasts for about 30 microseconds.

Lightning People (Soft Skull Press) starts with a similar flash. The narrator of the prologue, Joseph Guiteau, speaks in conspiratorial terms, suggesting a link between a rise in lightning-related Manhattan-area deaths and the fall of the Twin Towers. Joseph, a transplant from the Midwest and an aspiring actor, finds himself married to a Greek herpetologist, Del, and, possibly, hurtling towards his death.

After the brightness of that flash, the reader comes to expect a storm—dark clouds on the horizon, the wind picking up, a chill in the air. But the first-person narrator disappears, and the subsequent third-person narration jumps from Joseph to his wife; his wife’s best friend, Madi; Madi’s brother, Raj, a photographer; and Joseph’s friend, William. Bollen, an editor for Interview, infuses his characters with empathy and wit, and his capable prose provides plenty of trenchant observations about New York City’s creative class.

But with such a cast of characters, you’d expect lots of sparks. After all, static electricity is created by the friction of two materials rubbing against one another. And even though each character has his or her own concerns (Joseph harbors a Big Secret; Del is torn romantically between Joseph and Raj; Madi, half-South Asian, wrestles with the ethics of making a living outsourcing jobs to India; William has reached his sell-by date as an actor), when they intersect, they don’t create friction. The drama never builds; the characters are insulated from one another by a layer of rubberized self-absorption. The current doesn’t pass between them.

Compounding the lack of drama is the lack of tension. Even the individual choices that the characters make don’t seem to carry consequences. Del, for instance, marries Joseph, in part, for her green card. But what’s at stake if she’s deported? Joseph nearly ruins his marriage over his Big Secret, which, when revealed to his wife, makes her exclaim, “Anything but this bullshit.” The Big Secret, which drives Joseph to attend meetings of conspiracy theory enthusiasts and into the arms of a suspicious woman, is—ready for it?—the fear that he’s going to die at the age of 34.

Really.

In a curious move, Bollen illustrates the origins of Joseph’s fear in italicized sections that pretty much announce This part optional. Even as Bollen tries to draw a connection between the natures of conspiracies and of fate—how both involve the examination of random details to suggest a bigger, more sinister picture—he gets too wrapped up in the interiority of the characters. But it isn’t enough: the lack of dramatic tension and forward momentum makes the interiority uninteresting. The characters don’t make static; they are static.

Even after a hit-and-run accident shakes up the scenery (killing off arguably the most interesting character—the only one who faces a moral dilemma), the characters still seem stuck in their ruts. Del continues to vacillate between her two men; Joseph continues to fret about his impending doom. And as the novel finishes up—the resolution of the hit-and-run is particularly obvious—the reader is left sniffing the air: Wasn’t there supposed to be a storm coming? I didn’t even hear any thunder.

from Lightning People by Christopher Bollen:

We had lightning strikes all summer but no blackouts. Through May and June lightning came without rain, rising out of New Jersey like a laser concert and slicing east in white tracers through Manhattan. Storms were a huge attraction for those of us who moved here from the Midwest. We'd climb up to the rooftops as a ritual to watch them roll in from the west, feeling momentarily connected to the cereal-grain prairies and humid river valleys that we had worked so desperately to escape. For a long time we did this without worry or risk.

[Jaime Boler]

Coincidence or Fate?: The Lighting People by Christopher Bollen

The men in Joseph Guiteau's family all met a tragic fate at the young age of thirty-four. Guiteau fled his Cincinnati, Ohio, home in an attempt to escape his tragic family history. He moved to New York City and became an actor. His thirty-fourth birthday is fast approaching in Christopher Bollen's debut novel The Lightning People.
Bollen's New York City is a metropolis transformed by the World Trade Center attacks, and his characters still bear the scars of that terrible day. The loss of the towers even affects the weather. Midwesterners transplanted to Manhattan are dying from lightning strikes. Guiteau believes he knows why, "The Manhattan skyline has changed since I moved here from Cincinnati at the age of eighteen. What no one seems willing to mention is that before the World Trade Center fell, lightning rarely struck any parts of Manhattan other than the towers themselves…." The towers served as lightning rods. Without them as protection, lightning is striking many young men and women, primarily from the Midwest. Is this coincidence or fate?
One thing you should know about Guiteau is that he is a conspiracy theorist, a trait he picked up from his mother, an American history professor. Guiteau goes to meetings where he meets others of his kind and where he discusses old and new theories. During a meeting, he meets a mysterious woman with a strange story of her own. Ultimately, their fates are intertwined.
Bollen introduces other characters, as well. Guiteau marries Del, a snake expert at the Bronx Zoo so she can become a United States citizen. Del has a tragic history of her own; her former boyfriend was killed years earlier in a car accident. She then became involved with Raj, the brother of her best friend and college roommate, Madi. William, Guiteau's actor friend, completes the circle. All Bollen's characters have their own mini-dramas, making for several intriguing sub-plots that lead a suspenseful feel to the story. The Lightning People truly is a plot-driven novel.
Employing themes such as coincidence vs. fate, multiculturalism, love, and betrayal, Bollen creates complex, believable characters with the practice of a seasoned novelist. This does not feel like a first novel. He skillfully intersects multiple lives in shocking ways. Critics have compared the novel to the movie Crash, set in Los Angeles. However, I feel Bollen's New York City works even better than LA to explore traversing lives. New York is built up, while LA is sprawling. New Yorkers primarily walk wherever they go, while people in LA drive. Interconnecting characters have a better chance of coming into contact in a city like New York than they would in LA. Bollen also gives readers fascinating facts about snakes. I do sense a sequel involving Del and snake research or at least I hope so (Christopher Bollen, are you reading this?)
Will Guiteau die at thirty-four or will he be the first to escape his fate? That is something for readers to find out themselves. My only criticism is that the fates of the characters are all foregone conclusions. The reader will understand what I mean, I suspect, after reading the novel. The true beauty is how Bollen tells the story. Overall, it is an astounding first novel with brilliant plot development and superbly crafted characters. Bollen does not seem like a first-time novelist. Keep your eye on him, dear reader, for he's going places.

[BooksnPics]

New York... Ville de tous les possibles, de tous les espoirs... Combien d'Américains de naissance ou d'étrangers ne se sont-ils pas envolés pour la ville qui ne dort jamais en quête d'un travail mais s'y sont vite brûlés les ailes.

Issu de Cincinatti, Ohio, Joseph Guiteau est venu s'installer à Manhattan en quête de réussite lui aussi. Mais sa carrière d'acteur peine à démarrer. Sa compagne grecque, Delphine Kousavos ("Del"), occupe un poste précaire au zoo du Bronx. Son mariage avec Joseph lui permet enfin d'accéder au Graal, à la fameuse Green Card. William, son meilleur ami, lui-même acteur raté un peu paumé, n'est pas mieux loti.

Dans ce Manhattan, post-septembre 2001, hanté par les thèses conspirationnistes, ce premier roman de Christopher Bollen nous parle de rêves déchus. Il y dépeint une génération d'artistes en devenir, plein d'espoirs, confrontés à la réalité d'une ville en constant mouvement où chacun essaye d'exister ou de survivre à sa manière.

Aidé d'une écriture précise, nous dessinant des portraits au scalpel, Christopher Bollen signe ici un roman vérité dont New York est l'acteur principal...

Je remercie les éditions Calmann-Lévy pour leur confiance.

[Ellen]

I don't mind reading books about flawed people who blunder through their lives, shamelessly using their friends and spouses to further themselves. Even if the author adds a couple of crazies into the mix who seem to threaten the main character. But there was really just one character I cared enough about to finish the book--would Joseph die at age 34 like several other generations of his family? All the rest of the characters in this patchwork of a book which takes place in New York City, post 9/11 are either crazy or completely self-absorbed or both. And none of them were aware of Joseph's pain and fear. The one good guy in the book was totally alone even though he was always around others and trying to help them, for the most part.
I read the book based on some strong recommendations, however, it was hard spending that much time with selfish and/or crazy characters. Now I need to go read something completely different to get this one out of my system.

[Alex]

Super ambitious. After an intriguing opening, every paragraph thereafter tries too hard to wow the reader. Characters are insufferable dullards so you don't care about their fate. Writing a novel is very difficult, so I'm hesitant to disparage somebody's hard work...but...I wouldn't recommend this novel to a friend, unless that friend is big on conspiracy theories and not so big on distinct characters.

[Nathalie Vanhauwaert]

Ambiance newyorkaise post onze septembre. Nous sommes à Manhattan en 2007. On décrit la ville,la vie. Belle écriture. Comme toujours j'ai du mal avec la littérature américaine , de "rentrer dedans". Il ne se passe rien au départ si ce n'est que les regarder vivre. Petit à petit on s'imprègne et la beauté de l'écriture fait le reste et on s'attache aux personnages. Billet complet http://nathavh49.blogspot.be/2016/01/...

[Jill]

OMG, this book is incredibly great...an electrifying book, a high voltage tightrope of five 30-something characters wlaking the edge in the post 9/11 New York City. It's a book about true connections, missed connections, and downright parasitic connections. See my entire review at www.bookreview.mostlyfiction.com!

[Judi]

Due to Jill Shtulman's enthusiasm, I decided to read this one next! I didn't even finish the sample before deciding to buy the book... I've only just started the book and know I am in for a good treat.

Here's her review:

http://bookreview.mostlyfiction.com/2...

[Michael]

Characters so boring in their dysfunction that caring would be too much effort, some far-fetched plot twists, and sentences that go something like this: "It sometime seemed as if the only people left in the whole city with that New York accent were phone operators and cab drivers." New York City is an infinitely fascinating place, but setting your novel in NYC won't make it fascinating to read.

[Jerry Delaney]

This is a good first novel with characters who intrigued me and drew me in. There is a little too much incident in the book. Too many characters crossing lives due to too many coincidences. But for the most part they were real, complicated men and women. Only Joseph and William were less alive to me, being types rather than flesh and blood.

[Mairead]

A bit nonsensical, and absolutely beautiful.
There was a point in this book where I actually had to put it away in a fit of rage at one of the characters, and I avoided it for the rest of the day. That rarely happens, and when it does, it's because the writing has made me forget these people aren't real.