BIBLIOFILE
Under the Skin
by Michel Faber
(Harcourt, 110 pages, $23)

Michel Faber's Under the Skin was shortlisted for Britain's prestigious Whitbread Award in 1999 for Best First Novel, but until it recently made Contentville's Best of 2000 list, it has received little attention in this country. This is a pity, as it is one of the most innovative, fresh, compelling novels to hit print in the last few years.

The book's narrator is the repellent and mysterious Isserley, a cold, stunted, misshapen lass--breasts too large, glasses too thick, a crooked spine--who possesses odd dietary restrictions, which become clearer as the story progresses. Isserley combs the highways and byways (mostly byways) of the Scottish highlands looking for disenfranchised, beefy male specimens. For even though she's freakish in appearance, Isserley exudes a bizarre erotic appeal that helps her snag victims and return them to "The Farm" for processing--and let's just leave it at that, because too many details will give the story away.

There are science-fiction elements--more along the lines of Steve Erickson than Isaac Asimov--and you may be reminded of that classic of dietary horror Soylent Green or some of the better episodes of The Twilight Zone. But Under the Skin is not primarily a work of science fiction. This bleak vision moves at a page-turner pace and is an instructive, though never didactic, tale of the sometimes unavoidable objectification of one species by another. With superb control and light irony, Faber artfully explores topics ranging from agribusiness to industrial outcasts to our own inherently predatory nature. Steven Fidel

OFF KECK ROAD
by Mona Simpson
(Knopf, 167 pages, $28.50)

Mona Simpson's third novel (after Anywhere but Here and A Regular Guy) provides a very readable chick-lit ride through Green Bay, Wisc., during the last half of the 20th century. The story begins, appropriately enough, during the 1956 holiday season. Bea Maxwell is home on break from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. When she begins climbing the walls of her parents' well-appointed home, she calls a classmate acquaintance, June Umberhum, who lives in a new subdivision across town. From there the novel follows the young women down through the years. Neither can stand the thought of settling in boring old Green Bay, yet they both return after a few years out in the real world.

Bea and June are stuck in that interminable era before the Women's Movement when options were fewer and familial duty reigned supreme. They also suffer from that Midwestern malady, provincial thinking--though they are much more open-minded than their neighbors. As Green Bay expands, both literally and figuratively, these women work hard to carve out satisfying lives. Simpson moves through their worlds effortlessly, including brief intersections with inconsequential characters who add a little sharpness to Wisconsin's cheesy flavor.

Off Keck Road is about quiet lives that are interesting simply because they are so mundane. Simpson proves that all people are important, even if they do nothing exciting or dramatic. This well-written, dignified novel seems almost pointless, which is exactly the point. The perfect gift for moms everywhere. Susan Wickstrom

REVOLUTIONARY VOICES
Edited by Amy Sonnie
(Alyson, 188 pages, $11.95)

This is the book the OCA doesn't want in your school library. Editor Amy Sonnie has collected writings and drawings by 50 young artists who defy mainstream ideas about sex, gender and sexuality to create a passionate anthology that will infuriate some and delight others, but never bore.

Creating her own brand of affirmative action, Sonnie deliberately sought to include those viewpoints she sees as ignored and devalued: "young women, transgender and bisexual youth, youth of color and mixed-blood youth, differently abled youth, and youth from low-income backgrounds." The result could have been superficial tokenism or bloodless political correctness; instead it offers moving insights into what it's like to be young, gifted and queer in our times.

Despite the inevitable themes of alienation, isolation and resistance, the overall impression is hopeful. Each voice is fresh and distinct, and what the visual art and photographs lack in image quality they make up for in vitality, humor and intimacy.

Curious about how it feels to be the subject of an exorcism? Read the pieces by Antigona and the Portland writer "sts." Wondering what the Boy Scouts have to do with two men kissing? Check out Daryl Vocat's etchings.

Politically radical and scathing in its assessments of the world, these writers don't pull punches when it comes to the queer mainstream. Rainbow flags and gay sitcoms won't end racism or give queer youth a voice, says Margot Kelly Rodriguez. "The mainstream movement calls us the 'future.' What the movement doesn't realize is that we are the
present...we have something to say right now." Helen Silvis