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Jan 31, 2009

Lena rated it:

At the start of Heidi Julavits' intriguing novel, 16-year old Mary Veal disappears from her private school one afternoon in 1985. Three weeks later, she reappears claiming to have little memory of what happened to her. In the months that follow, numerous psychiatrists attempt to discern whether Mary is a victim of abduction and rape or a liar who engineered her own disappearance for mysterious, sixteen-year old reasons.

Julavits novel switches back and forth between a narrative enti More...

7 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jason rated it:

(The much longer full review of this book can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Okay, I admit it; that the subject of today's review was not scheduled to be read for another three or four books now in my queue list (i.e. the pile of library books and advanced reading copies at the foot of my bed), but was purposely moved up because of recently filing a very bad review here of Nell Freudenberger's The Dissident. And that's because, as a w More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Matthew rated it:

This book made me feel somewhat uncomfortable and frankly there were times when I just wanted to put it down and never look at it again. It offers up a number of questions and then throws out several answers to them, all of which are seemingly rejected by Julavits through her characters. I kept expecting a breakthrough that never came, an answer that was ultimately never provided... and I don't mean an answer as in a "whodunit," I mean an answer like, what does she suggest that her c More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

I'm going to say what quite a few other reviewers of this book on goodreads have said, and that's that I wanted to like this book more. It's not that I didn't like it...Julavits is a master of snarky, quick dialogue; this is a complex novel told from various perspectives that circle an incident in a teenage girl's life, and from a writerly standpoint I can only imagine she must have struggled to piece it together. I respect this book, is what I'm trying to say.

But. I felt a little to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2007

Holly rated it:

The Uses of Enchantment tells the story of a middle-class suburban teenager, Mary Veal, who mysteriously disappears. When she turns up after a couple of months, she is taken under the wing of a therapist who determines that she faked her own abduction, and writes a book about this "syndrome" in adolescent girls. The story is told from different perspectives--that of the therapist, the present-day teenager (now in her 30s), and chapters entitled "What Might Have Happened," whi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 05, 2011

Ashley rated it:

This is an unusual puzzle of a novel. It's narrated in alternate sections, two of which are in the past, one in the novel's present. The writing is beautiful, but incredibly subtle and requires attention. It's the story of a woman dealing with the estrangement of her family, resulting from her possible abduction when she was a teenager. I found it to be equal parts fascinating and infuriating. Okay, maybe a smidge more infuriating. Freud references and family dysfunction are rampant in thi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Cindy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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May 03, 2011

Sarah rated it:

There are a lot of things I despised about this book, and a few things I liked. As a literary endeavor it's solid. It kept my brain entertained and kept me questioning, it felt confusing at points and smart and dreamy at others. It functions somewhat as a giant questioning of whether or not therapy is, as an exercise, a pile of bullshit. Which is an entertaining question for anyone who has ever bothered to visit a therapist for any length of time. But: the fixation on what *might* have happened, More...

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May 13, 2009

Rhlibrary added it

Victim or Vixen? Liar or whore? These are questions posed in this psychological exploration of a young sixteen-year old girl learning to wield her sexuality, with devastating results to all involved. One day in 1985, young teenager Mary Veal disappears from field-hockey practice at her all-girls New England prep school. She reappears a few weeks later with little memory of what has happened to her, claiming she’s been abducted. Sent to a psychologist, Mary is a difficult patient, and her doctor More...

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Mar 21, 2009

Joshua rated it:

I picked this book up in audio format from the local library and listened to it on my way to and from work. Overall, the book is excellent with very vivid and detailed characters. While the story is quite compelling, many of the characters feel similar. The character of Dr. Hammer also seems overly analytical beyond a fault to the point it deters somewhat from the story. The other irritation with the story is that it is broken down into three pieces: "The What Might have been", Cu More...

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

There is varied critical reaction to Heidi Julavits's third novel, which addresses memory, psychological subversion, hysteria, and mother-daughter relationships, but reviewers liked it better than her previous work, The Effect of Living Backwards (**1/2 Sept/Oct 2003). The novel takes its title from Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 study exploring the effects of fairy tales on children and its inspiration from Freud's Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria and the Salem witch trials. Enchantment's fans

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Nov 04, 2011

Nikki rated it:

Wow, what a huge disappointment. I gave this book one star for the original ideas and promise that the book seemed about to offer.
The writing was stilted, amateur and pretentious. The frequent dull, long winded descriptions of the most innane minutiae, which added nothing to the story served merely as page fillers. It seemed that the author was too absorbed in trying to convince everyone what a great writer she is rather than the truly talented authors who transport their readers into the s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 01, 2009

Kristen rated it:

Interesting. Layered. Puzzling (on purpose). I'll be thinking about this book for days. I love its indictment of therapy (Is it helpful? Are there any answers? What is truth, and how is it twisted by schools of thought?) and meditations on desire.

I think, in the end, the entire book is about everyone around Mary Veal misunderstanding her - in the book's parlance, "missing the point". In the end, I think the only one who really gets her, or could have gotten her, had sh More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

This was an adult version of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. The prologue begins with 16 year old Mary disappearing and not being seen again for over a month. She has no idea where she was, who took her, or what happened during that time. Each chapter is written from a different perspective. There's the "what could have happened" segment that details Mary's abduction, 30 year old Mary's current story, and notes from the therapist who treated Mary after the alleged kid More...

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Dec 29, 2008

Ben rated it:

This book began with a great deal of promise, but as I got to knew the characters, I liked it less and less.

Heidi Julavits demonstrates how one can avoid using quotation marks to indicate dialogue without confusing the reader, a lesson Ali Smith could stand to learn. The Uses of Enchantment is far superior to The Accidental in use of language and style to create a particular atmosphere and introduce the character. I enjoy how Julavits varies the chapters among "what might have More...

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Aug 31, 2011

Helen rated it:

This book was weird, confusing and frustrating. It was very hard to figure out what was true and what wasn’t (I think that was the point, nonetheless, I didn’t like it). The family was extremely dysfunctional. There were huge gaps missing in the story so even after finishing it, I still had questions. It wasn’t a very satisfying read.
But, some parts I did enjoy: Mary’s conversations as a child with Dr. Hammer which were quick, witty and sometimes just plain ridiculous in a funny way; More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Kaitlin rated it:

I'm not a huge fan of this book. The writer was obviously trying to accomplish some literary goal and had some message to convey but that's not why I read. I enjoy well developed characters and cohesive plots. I read for the story. This story is incomplete. Regardless of what the writer was trying to accomplish the story should come first and be strong enough to support whatever cool tricks the writer tries to accomplish. The characters, though well developed were completely impossible to relate More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Marian rated it:

This is a psychological drama about a daughter and mother. The daughter disappears at 15 for a few weeks and then is sent to therapy where it is decided that she lied about being kidnapped. There are 3 different narratives in this book. The girl at 16 is surprisingly well versed in the psychological reasons for the game she is playing. She doesn't seem to match the older version of herself at 30 but at the end it comes together. This book was good enough that I did not give up on it although I More...

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Jul 31, 2010

Jenny rated it:

This book was great until the last 50 pages.

It was a great idea - compelling and ironic and historical yet also relevant to today - but the author seemed to have reached this point where she couldn't figure out how to end the novel, so she ended it dubiously. I like to think I can figure out what happened but there are some loose ends (i.e. the cigarette case) that will remain a mystery to me.

Don't read this if you like a good ending but do try it if you like a little my More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Richard rated it:

This book was mentioned in Donald Maass' "The Fire in Fiction", a book on writing fiction. I picked up this novel as part of a project I have started, using the examples in Donald Maass' book as a reading list. In fact, at a BookBuyers store in Monterey, I found "The Uses of Enchantment" on a shelf with Heidi Julavits' other novels, "The Effect of Living Backwards" and "The Mineral Palace". I couldn't resist taking home the entire trio.

I rea More...

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Apr 02, 2009

Michael rated it:

A fantasy, alternately sharp and misty, of the games one plays (and doesn't play) with the few powers one has. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The book unfolds in three alternating sections. The thirtyish protagonist, Mary, visits her hometown for her mother's funeral, in the company of her family members (all of whom are comic characters, slight and vicious). The teenage Mary embarks on an... escapade with an older male stranger. And the teenage Mary attends weekly sessions with an analyst. More...

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Oct 31, 2011

Anna rated it:

There is a lot going on in this book. The story centers on Mary, a girl who was reportedly abducted for one month in 1985, returning to her family with no memory of the time she was gone. The book hints to the events that might have occurred during that time (mainly the interesting relationship between Mary and the man we are led to believe was behind her disappearance), as well as the therapy sessions Mary was forced to endure in her mother’s attempts to determine whether she was actually abduc More...

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Apr 19, 2008

Dionne rated it:

I wasn't sure if I would really enjoy reading a book about a teenage girl who possibly was kidnapped and molested and possibly made the whole thing up -- gee, why not? I did, though because Mary is pretty clever, and saucy and her family totally reeks of dysfunction. Both of her uppity snot sisters could easily suck all of the oxygen out of a room by uttering one selfish, shitty thought going through their heads. Her therapists are completely self-interested and her mother is a complete mystery More...

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Mar 06, 2008

christa rated it:

a high school field hockey player is either abducted or an abductor, when she disappears for a few weeks ala an older student from the school who faked her own abduction years earlier. the novel follows through storylines: what may or may not have happened in the time she was gone, present day when she returns home after the death of her mother, the notes of the doctor who develops a psychological theory based upon a loose version of the story the girl isn't so much telling, as inferring.
More...

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Jan 14, 2008

Terry rated it:

Ermmm...I really wanted to like this book. I really wanted to be seduced (word carefully chosen for this particular book) by the ideas of witches and adolescent girls who identify with the persecution of witches and all the sexual undercurrents that goes along with being an adolescent girl, especially in a repressive family and repressive (allegedly) part of the country (though I'm hard-pressed to believe New England is sooooOOOOoo much more repressive than, say, you know, most of the rest of th More...

1 comment like

Feb 01, 2008

Beth rated it:

The book's premise intrigued me. A girl may or may not have faked her own abduction, and if she faked her own abduction, she may have been inspired by another girl, who attended the same school earlier.

The book has three timelines--the "present day" of 1999, the 1986 post-return to her family, and "what may have happened". Each chapter focuses on one timeline, and these timelines alternate, each informing your experience of the other, sometimes a little too neatly More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 01, 2010

Annie rated it:

http://superfastreader.com/the-uses-of-e...

Synopsis:
When Mary was 16, she may or may not have been abducted and raped by an older man, whose life was ruined by her accusations.

Review:
The Uses of Enchantment, as the title promises, is a seductive book. It unfolds through three interlocking story strands. In the present, Mary and her sisters deal with the fallout of their mother’s death and the shadow that Mary’s story cast over the family, In the past, Mary’s co More...

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Mar 25, 2008

viola rated it:

in the end i think this book was more of an excuse for heidi to show off how quirky of a conversationalist she could be than anything else. all of the characters speak using the same sort of voice. everyone dodges questions and tries too hard to remain cryptic about useless information.

the whole unresolved narrative bit is also overplayed. i know that i'm not supposed to piece together what happened, and i'm completely fine with that, but don't remind me everything three pages that More...

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Jul 13, 2011

GiGi rated it:

I was disappointed in this book. I agree with other reviews that the premise was intriguing but the follow-through was lacking. I was constantly confused by the chapter titles, the switching from past to present, and different storylines within the present...and I'm still confused as to whether or not she made it all up, which is why I kept reading--to find out. I also became confused as to whether or not "K" was the same guy as her doctor. Confusing book.

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Jan 18, 2012

Anna rated it:

I can't say I *liked* Mary Veal but I found her compelling as a teen and felt compassion for her washed-out thirty-something self. It's a sad, disturbing story (with moments of comedic brilliance) about a young girl exploring her sexuality in all the wrong ways, wrecking havoc on her own life and the lives of those she touches. A story of invisible people who want to be seen, and to be seen to be remarkable, but who go about it in a destructive manner.

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