June Publications
Edited by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Walter K. Lew, Kori is the first anthology of Korean-American fiction; as such, it identifies a literary void, but barely begins to fill it. Featured are works by 16 writers, including Chang-Rae Lee and Susan Choi. All but three are excerpted from previously published books. Themes of assimilation, racism and immigration prevail, and the selections are of uniform high quality. But the short essays preceding each entry, while instructive, often assume the stilted tone of a doctoral dissertation: the editors seem to be trying too hard to drive home ideas that the authors articulate with more grace and style. (Beacon, $23 288p ISBN 0-8070-5916-1; June 29)
Doug Bowman's (West to Comanche County; Houston; etc.) latest western, Pilgrim, begins several years after the Civil War, when strapping young Eli Pilgrim decides to leave behind his family's pig farm in Ohio to seek his fortune in Texas. Upon his arrival, he lands a job at the Oxbow Ranch and kills a man in self-defense, which makes him some new enemies. When the troublemakers ambush him and his boss, Big Step, he swears vengeance. Good and bad guys are clearly drawn, but there's just enough ambiguity to make things interesting. Western fans will be entertained. (Forge, $23.95 288p ISBN 0-312-87864-8)
The Cuttlefish is the first book by French novelist and poet Maryline Desbiolles to be translated (by Mara Bertelsen) into English. The narrator is preparing a dinner for friends. Each chapter begins with ingredients and instructions for a stuffed version of the eponymous mollusk; the narrator's cooking is the impetus for ruminations on love, memory, childhood (including a terrible accident she endured), dreams and, above all, food. "Turned over and over in the juices of the mouth, the memories are there," she observes. Though at times a little overcooked, this slim novel is a charming diversion, especially for foodies. (Herodias, $20 128p ISBN 1-928746-21-7; June 15)
Following her acclaimed 1999 novel, Cracks, Sheila Kohler returns with the spellbinding Children of Pithiviers, once again mining themes of childhood and lost innocence. The specter of Nazism hangs over a small French village where Jewish children were detained before being sent to the gas chambers. Now, 25 years later, Dierdre, an 18-year-old girl with a troubled past, is spending the summer with an aristocratic couple who were somehow involved in those awful wartime goings-on. Dierdre gradually realizes what happened, while at the same time becoming her mysterious hosts' sexual pawn. Kohler's elegant prose propels the sinister, almost dreamlike narrative. (Zoland, $22 224p ISBN 1-58195-032-2)
A Palestinian girl's transgression has strange repercussions ("little waves of consequence that travel like vibrations") in Zeina B. Ghandour's The Honey. Young, impulsive Ruhiya gives the morning call to prayer as her father lies on his deathbed, even though it is forbidden under Islamic law for a woman to do this. Elliptical and lyrical, this is less a novel than a glimpse into the minds of the five narrators: Ruhiya herself; Yehya, her childhood love and a would-be terrorist; his father, Farhan; Maya, a foreign journalist; and Asrar, the little girl who was the only eyewitness to Ruhiya's deed. (Quartet [Interlink, dist.], $12 paper 124p ISBN 0-7043-8120-6)