Omar and the Bomb

By the time Osama bin Laden arrives in Oklahoma City late in this satirical novel, Omar And The Bomb, it's pretty clear his protege Omar Urdu has botched his assignment to pull off another terror attack in the country's heartland. You see, hapless Omar has problems, ranging from the fact he holds conversations with his bomb to the fact that he's married to a flaky Reese Witherspoon look-alike suffering from depression after her first husband was killed in the 9/11 attacks. To avoid attention being drawn to him, Omar attempts to live a typical American lifestyle with his new wife, working at a typical job, living in a typical house and enjoying travel across the country. Just after the bomb is installed in his Infiniti SUV, and it begs him ascend to Paradise with it now, Omar instead travels to Yellowstone National Park for picnics and sight-seeing. It's there that Reese, his wife, throws the switch to the bomb prematurely, only to find that it doesn't work. Omar, as well as all the others involved in the plot, is thrown into a tizzy and immediately seeks help repairing his bomb, which has become quite angry with him. Not only is the bomb angry with him, but so are the right-wing conspirators he's aligned to back in Oklahoma City. They've joined with Omar and bin Laden in the hopes of pulling off a second, bigger Oklahoma City bombing. No matter how he tries, Omar can not get his talking bomb to work, despite the help and threats of his right-wing compatriots and his Arab co-conspirators. So finally bin Laden has to show up in Oklahoma City, intent on repairing the bomb himself, after he's come to believe that Omar is incompetent as a terrorist. With all the world against him, including his fellow terrorists, Omar comes to a bittersweet understanding about just how strange his world is, but by then it's too late ...