A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006, 237 pages, $24.95.

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Perhaps not since Kramer vs Kramer have we seen a fictional account of this hostile a divorce, and, except for the fact that antagonists Joyce and Marshall Harriman already were in proceedings before 9/11, one might get the idea that their disharmonious state might all have been the fault of Osama bin Laden.

So, what is the Jewish angle in this tale conflating our national tragedy with a messy, nasty divorce?

Joyce's sister, Flora, is about to marry Neal Weiss.  Marshall, who had managed to get out alive from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001,  insinuates himself into the all-Jewish bachelor's party, then starts a row over whether the action of the terrorists resulted from America's support for Israel.

Marshall hurls just about every canard at the Jewish bridegroom and friends one might have heard after 9/11—except for the one about how the Jews supposedly were warned by Israel about 9/11 to keep away from the Twin Towers, which would have gone against the grain of the argument. 

Here's Marshall on Jewish "fanatics from Brooklyn" who have settled in Palestinian areas: "They take the land by force, they take the water, and then they claim the Bible as their authority.  I call that fanaticism. And somehow the U.S. has made its entire foreign policy hostage to these few thousand dickheads."

Neal's brother, Joel, responds: "Perhaps you could be better informed, but this reflects the bias of the American news media. First of all, if you look at bin Laden's statements before September 11, there's no evidence that he even cared about the Palestinians; his complaint is with the American military presence in Saudi Arabia...."

Yes, we've heard all this before, and anyway, it's just a backdrop for the psychological warfare that Marshall and Joyce carry on against each other.  Marshall strikes again at the wedding, causing a hubbub by spiriting away the chuppah that usually unreligious Neal had reserved from a religious items store.  This sends brother Joel into a panic, exposing the underlying family stresses of intermarriage.

Joyce and Marshall ostensibly were the same religion, yet their marriage was a disaster.  What chance will Joyce's sister have with potentially even more stresses on her marriage?

What does this foray into Christian-Jewish relations mean?  Is it "scratch a Gentile and you'll find an ant-Semite?" as Joel suggests during the first encounter with Marshall?  Or, is it, another manifestation of post-911 stress syndrome,  as the book's title suggests, "A disorder peculiar to the country?"

Either way, Ken Kalfus' novel makes for mildly interesting reading.