The Damage Done

What if humans could no longer harm each other? That’s the intriguing premise of the unconvincing latest from Landweber (after The In Between), in which, out of the blue, violence is magically curtailed. Guns will still fire bullets, but if a gun is pointed at another, discharged ammunition just hangs “suspended in the air.” This strange development leads the Pope to consider whether the sixth commandment (“Thou shalt not kill”) is still needed, even though in the absence of an understanding of what exactly has happened, no one has any basis to believe the miracle is permanent. The change is recounted from a variety of perspectives, including that of Dab, a bullied student whose assailant’s fist never connects with Dab’s face because, against the bully’s will, it “unfolded, fingers unfurling like the petals of a flower at dawn.” Serious issues, such as whether an incarcerated murderer should be freed just because he couldn’t kill again, receive short shrift. This thought experiment is a head-scratching oddity. Agent: Stacy Testa, Writers House. (Mar.)