Books Beatrice Has Noticed

Minnesota readers will recognize Kien Nguyen's name; his first novel, The Tapestries, was part of a "one state, one book" project a while back. His latest, Le Colonial, is out now (first chapter online).

Sean Brijbasi also has a new book out from Pretend Genius Press. Well, Still Life in Motion often has a fragmentary, dream-like quality to it, even in the passages that maintain a unity of scene. It got a rave review from Darkbloom.net, though that site does seem to have a fairly tight relationship with some of the Pretend Genius stable. I found its minimal surealism somewhat uneven at first glance, but if experimental fiction is your bag, this might well be worth a look.

Professional translator Arthur Goldhammer has restored Emile Zola's La Curée to English audiences as The Kill. I had a look at the first chapter earlier today, in which a young cad and his stepmother play out a complicated sexual dance around each other, and it's quite gripping.

David Abrams has very good things to say about Pete Duval's first collection of short stories, Rear View. I considered some of the shorter stories, and they're damn good. All three stories I read, including "Rear View" itself, deal with encounters that go wrong, yet each takes on a very different type of situation with equal rough grace. The collection features an intro by Jay Parini, who selected Duval's stories for Bread Loaf's Katharine Bakeless Nason fiction prize last year.