in greater detail," reads one. The footnotes bolster the idea of the book as a case study, but despite its title, The Case of Lena S. is far more a portrait of young Mason's relationships with women in general than of Lena herself. Mason, though, is quite unformed, and it's only when the relatively unorthodox Lena comes onto the scene that Bergen's prose takes off: "[Mason] loved it when [Ms. Abendschade] talked about longing and regret and described the girl swinging her hair like a rope, and he wanted to ask her questions about Lena, about what Lena Schellendal might want from him and what he, Mason, should do about her." Ultimately, Lena S. is as much a mystery to Bergen as she is to his young hero, and as such she remains an enigma to the reader long after the final page of The Case of Lena S. --Shawn Conner Review "It is impossible not to compare David Bergen's new novel to the work of Richard Ford.....A magical piece of writing. . . . It is taut, affecting and lovely, one of those wonderful works that bears reading and rereading and that in its hard crystalline prose does everything right." -- Calgary Herald "A heart-breaking account of an adolescent adrift in a world with no boundaries.... This novel is the best yet from a writer who specializes in that rare novelistic skill these days, the depiction of character. In this case, Bergen's evocation of the innocent joined with the