"The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears

"The Dream of Scipio" recounts three major crises in Western culture. This is a novel of ideas, and not of fully-realized characters with a unifying plot.

This book deals with how a Roman nobleman in Gaul plans to deal with the threat of Euric the Visigoth in 475 AD. The second crisis occurs during the Avignon papacy in the fourteenth century, and the third major threat afflicts France and Europe during World War II. The principal premise here is the often-forgotten value of beliefs from the East and Asia. The Christian Church too often compels its adherents to act as nothing more than benighted, superstitious fools.

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"Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn

How do you review a book like this? There's an outrage on every page, and I mean that in only the most admiring sense. This vivid, surreal story features mutated individuals, but underneath all the lovely, diverting carnival atmosphere, is a scathing indictment on the Ameridcan focus on appearance. There are appalling, although true-to-life, events and consequences, but they're all seen from the inside out.

I don't know if Katherine Dunn has published anything else, but "Geek Love" secures her a place in my pantheon of amazing, awe-inspiring authors.

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"Our Lady of the Forest" by David Guterson

A close, damp, green, cynical, and very real recounting of a young woman's hallucinating vision of the Blessed Virgin in a rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. The most telling part is the speed with which the faithful gather for this purportedly concrete manifestation. The use of chat rooms and Web forums leads to a camper city forming overnight on the site.

Guterson is genuine, vivid, and unblinking in portraying the various players. And the cupidity - both in its lustful and avaricious meanings - shows through in this closely- and well-observed story.

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"The Intuitionist" by Colson Whitehead

In a startlingly well-done piece, Colson Whitehead creates a real-enough reflection of America, in which we focus on a quirky discipline. The realists struggle against the intuitionists to see who will construct the perfect elevator. We find ourselves in a reality in which blacks are working against all odds to raise their lot. The elevator here takes on a thought-provoking significance - who will carry the day and ultimately decide how to construct the perfect elevator? What will be the elevator which carries the downtrodden above their current station?

Whitehead takes a unique look at relations between and within races and asks us to consider from a black's perspective, the means by which race issues may be resolved. I found this to be a profound, reverberating work, stunningly conceived, and brilliantly executed.

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