Powerhouse authors deliver new fiction

Summer may be a popular time for beach books, but some major authors also delivered powerhouse new fiction. Chuck Palahniuk of "Fight Club" fame, Sue Monk Kidd of "The Secret Life of Bees" and Umberto Eco are among the famous names with new novels for the warmer months.

Queasy yet pleasing
Though nothing in Chuck Palahniuk’s latest book, “Haunted” (Doubleday, $25) really frightened me, there were a couple moments where my stomach felt queasy. Sometimes I laughed out loud, and finally, there were those times where I thought, “What the heck is he doing?” But, all in all, that’s a recommendation. Palahniuk has proven with books like “Fight Club” and “Choke” that he’s not your standard realistic-fiction writer, and in the world he creates here, a seemingly normal idea is given a good, hard twist.

“Haunted” is a collection of linked stories — all of them somewhat strange, some quite grotesque — told by members of a writers’ retreat who have agreed to three months in an undisclosed location so they can write their masterpieces. Anyone who’s ever been in a writing program will relate to these navel-gazing types, all of whom think they’re a little bit more special than those around them — and whose best work of fiction is, in fact, their own lives. It's fun to watch the characters try and create more horrible circumstances for themselves as they destroy their own food supply and even cut off fingers and toes — simply because it would make a better story.

But the stories themselves are the best part of the book. Part of me wished that Palahniuk had simply released them without the connective device. As linked pieces, they don’t really work — all share a very similar tone and have basically the same voice even though they’re supposed to come from different people. Perhaps Palahniuk is making the (very valid) point about the sameness that writing retreats like this one can create.

There are some great tales here. Some have that ripped from the headlines quality, like one about the artist who sneaks into museums to hang his own art. Others are fascinating in their oddness, as with the story of the man who destroys a child star’s life because it would make a good tabloid story. For those seeking to read something completely different, "Haunted" is certainly worth picking up.     

'Love' story
Sometimes, the most impressive aspect of a novel is the care the author takes with each and every sentence: the rhythms, the nuance. Nicole Krauss works each sentence over carefully as she writes, and her latest book, “The History of Love” (W.W. Norton, $24) feels woven together rather than written.

She first tells of Leo Gursky, a Polish immigrant now living in New York, who is sure that he’s literally disappearing as he nears the end of his life. Unbeknownst to him, he’s had a profound impact on another set of lives through a book he’d written as a young man. Fourteen-year-old Alma’s parents were brought together by the book and she was named for the main character. As she tries to discover who the real Alma is, she finds herself drawn into the power of love that drew her parents together.

Small descriptions become almost poetic. At one point Leo describes his friend Bruno this way, “The soft down of your white hair lightly playing about your scalp like a half-blown dandelion. Many times, Bruno, I have been tempted to blow on your head and make a wish.” Because Leo is a writer, it makes sense for him to speak poetically and it gives Krauss a chance to create wonderful turns of phrase.

As Alma continues her search, we gradually learn the mystery behind Leo’s book. Ultimately, this novel is about love: love that’s been lost, love that leads to sacrifice and the love that brings out the best in people. The book has a quiet power and delicacy to the writing. I can’t wait to see what Krauss comes up with next.   

Fairy tale for grown-ups
Alice Hoffman (“Practical Magic”) is known for weaving magic into her stories. Her latest, “The Ice Queen” (Little, Brown and Company, $24), unfolds like a fairy tale for adults. The novel tells the story of an unnamed woman who believes in the power of wishes, because two of her own have come true.

Our narrator can’t seem to get close to people (a prevalent theme in novels lately). When their grandmother dies, her brother Ned convinces her to move from New Jersey to Florida. When she makes a wish to get struck by lightning, she finds herself in a world of other lightning-strike victims, including a man whose jewelry has left brands on his skin and a man known as the dragon, who can spit fire. The narrator suffers effects herself, including losing the ability to see the color red — the descriptions of this highlight some of Hoffman’s strongest writing. She also comes into contact with another mysterious lightning-strike victim, whose skin literally burns those he comes into contact with.

It’s an interesting premise for a novel, but the story never really gets beyond its own fairy tale structure. The characters never seem like real people — perhaps because they’re rendered so fancifully.  The story's end takes an unexpected turn, which makes for a good surprise —but because that ending focuses on a character we don't know well, the stakes don’t feel that high.

It’s hard not to take delight in Hoffman’s world of lightning-strike survivors, but ultimately, I just couldn't care about them or the unnamed narrator.    

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