The Registry of Death by Matt Coyle and Peter Lamb (Kitchen Sink Press) tells a bleak and gruesome tale in graphic novel form of a man whose job is "eliminator"--he kills illegals. Given no explanation as to why his victims must die he continues to do his job until one assignment changes his life. Then he finds himself hunted by his former colleagues. Much of the action takes place in a slaughterhouse. The b&w drawings are finely rendered. Published late 1996. A very short introductory story by Poppy Z.Brite was inspired by the work itself.

The Kiss: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison (Random House) is a tough, painful book to read despite its short length and beauty of language. This is Harrison's tortured account of the obsessive incestuous relationship between her 20 year-old self and the father she barely knew (she met him two times before the titular "kiss" took place). In her great novel Exposure she transmuted her pain into art by using some of the material obliquely. Here, she sends it out into the world raw, revealing her self and scouring it with self-mortification, creating an ultimately moving memoir.

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