The Vivisectors

In the hypnotic sophomore outing from Williams (The Doloriad), a professor’s personal assistant gets drawn into a strange triangle with her boss and a male student. Four years after graduating from the university where the unnamed professor teaches, Agathe, who studied literature, is disillusioned by academia and holds a low opinion of herself. The professor, who hails from an unnamed foreign country, originally hired Agathe for childcare and then sought her help with English grammar. She now tasks Agathe with befriending troubled new student Adam, a native of the professor’s city whom the professor defends from a colleague’s claim that he’s “disruptive.” Afraid her obsession with Adam will take her on a “path of self-destruction,” the professor tasks Agathe with reporting back to her all the conversations she has with Adam, an arrangement that has profound effects on all three. Though the plot takes a backseat to the prose, Williams is an accomplished stylist, and her writing accrues a magnetic rhythm, calling to mind Clarice Lispector or Marie Redonnet. “Everything I saw was wooden and ugly,” Agathe narrates. “I was speaking automatically too. At this point I had accepted my failure. I no longer believed in my capacity to learn anything from Adam.” It’s a singular and arresting work. Agent: John Ash, CAA. (May)