Deboarh Levy's Swimming Home

Deborah Levy's Swimming Home is a tale of obsession, poetry, long-in-the-tooth love, & families, with just a dash of creepiness that sneaks up on you. Levy's quietly lyrical, dispassionate prose neatly captures all of the foibles of her very human characters. JRH, a highly regarded British poet, vacations with his family near Nice, along with two friends. An unexpected visitor is invited by his wife to stay in a spare room. His often absent war reporter spouse might have an ulterior motive here. The young woman is a would-be poet and completely unstable. It appears that her arrival is not an accident. I'm not sure about the ending, although it allows the understated prose to slowly build toward a climax. However, the postscript, in the voice of his daughter a decade later, is wonderful.

Fuminori Nakamura's The Thief

Fuminori Nakamura has a new book out, which inspired me to read his first novel translated into English, The Thief. This is the story of a Tokyo pickpocket, told in nihilistic-zen-noir. Nakamura captures perfectly the psyche of the pickpocket and his felt sensations as he steals. In Camus style, he falls into the web of a criminal boss who enjoys randomly manipulating the lives of others. I will likely read his new novel, Evil and the Mask, which was released in the US in July. Nakamura was born in 1977 and his first novel, The Gun, won the Shinco Newcomer's Award in 2002. The Thief was awarded the Oe Kenzaburo Prize in 2009.

Kerrigan in Copenhagen

Thomas E. Kennedy's Kerrigan in Copenhagen is an erudite, clever and fun novel. Here is a 60-something coming of age story of an expat poet who is re-entering life after his wife suddenly left him with their young daughter.  I don't enjoy 20-something c-of-a stories, they are too annoying, and the well reviewed Harvard Square is a recent example. However, Kennedy tees up a fun conceit: the likable Kerrigan, who enjoys his lager, has been hired to write a book about the 100 best bars in Copenhagen. He and his Danish "Associate" wander through Copenhagen and he offers hundreds of observations about poets, philosophers, painters, sculptors, & jazz musicians who have lived there. Along the way Kerrigan begins to allow himself fall in love with his Associate, and, of course, this does not take a direct route. The book goes sideways as well, for a bit, but finds its way back to a rewarding ending. Kerrigan is good company as he walks the streets of Copenhagen and ponders artists of all kinds and his own heart.