Encounters

Combining mystical, cruelly poignant situations with a lyrical, labyrinthine prose style, Mexican author Garcia Ponce makes a tantalizing English-language debut. In ``The Cat,'' a young couple's mesmerizing erotic bond is first interrupted, and then eerily controlled, by the presence of a stray cat they befriend. Both ``The Square'' and ``Anticipation'' depict aging men in thrall to memory. ``Anticipation'' is especially striking because most of the story consists of a nostalgic monologue delivered by one of the two characters: A-1 tells A-2 of an experience of his youth that is ``the total image I have of the perfection of life, of its supreme beauty, when it is life alone and at the same time something more than life because it includes it. . . . '' In the novella The Seagull , adolescents Katina and Luis discover each other's--and their own--sexuality one summer at the beach. They confront a simultaneous knowledge and ignorance, a fierce empowerment and a gaping impotence. (Apr.)