Magazine Beach

French novelist Nimier (The Giraffe) toys with the perverse in this elliptical tale of a young woman's sexual and emotional awakening. After she stumbles across a hypnotism manual at age 10, Cora devotes herself to gaining mesmeric power over others; indeed, her cool, deadpan, hyperrational narrative voice proves hypnotically fascinating. At 16, Cora falls under the sway of Katz, the swaggering, self-styled King of Hypnosis. Katz seduces Cora, who later runs off with him to Paris. In one public demonstration, he pierces her face with needles; in another, he forces her to take part in a contest that will be won by the woman with the most beautiful breasts. Eventually, Cora winds up working for Lolita, a phone sex agency. Nimier's use of hypnosis as a metaphor for dominance, submission, control and the mind's untapped powers is provocative, and the contrast between Cora's detached voice and her erotic adventures is chilling. This ironic look at the moral behavior of the French middle class is not for all tastes, however, and may strike some as more clever than compelling. (June)