Overlooked fiction from recent years

Pleasant Hell (2004), by John Dolan.

Dolan’s first novel is an authentically bitter Berkeley memoir that will appeal to anyone with a taste for loser literature. While the depiction of unrequited love is real enough to sting, the narrative is redeemed by comic flair and skillful turns of prose poetry.

Here’s an excerpt that I like:

“Winter in Pleasant Hill is what summer is for cold climates: the nice time. The dead brown hills go green for a couple of months, and with the live oaks darkening in every green crotch of the hills, it becomes easier to superimpose the Tolkien world on every vacant lot. The air has a live green smell, and the pavement smells of rain. Puddles spangle the playground, so that the basketball courts’ painted lines link mirror-fragments of cloud.”