Thursday, November 02, 2006

2006 book 124

Heidi Julavits' The Uses of Enchantment
Here's another book that's garnered a lot of critical attention. It was ok, I guess. The story, about a girl who may have been abducted, is told in three alternating parts: 1999, after her mother's funeral; 1985, when she disappeared ("What might have happened"), and 1986, her therapist's notes. The therapy thing is a major part of the story as it unfolds; there's a whole what's-the-truth thing, and there's a lot about Freud's Dora, and the Salem witches even come into it a bit. The fact that her therapist writes a book about her reminded me of the Six Feet Under Charlotte Light and Dark plotline--this book still haunts the main character fourteen years later.

If my comments sound disjointed, I think that's b/c they're an accurate representation of the book. If I had to grade it, I think I'd go with a B-. Should I give books grades from now on?

3 comments:

Alicia K. said...

I wonder if grading books will garner more attention and inspire publishers to send me review copies! (That's obviously the goal of everything I do here.)

I think I'll try it out.

jenny said...

Hey - I just read this book today! I feel like I am a slower-reading version of you, as I just read this and am also in the middle of The Book Thief.

Anyway, I don't know about this one. I don't know what really happened, and that's not really my scene. I'm visiting my family, and my sister asked me to read this b/c she wanted to know if I could tell her what really happened.

I also found Mary of the present almost impossible to connect with Mary of the past. But I really liked the cover.

Alicia K. said...

I assumed what really happened was similar to "what might have happened", but i too was sort of annoyed that they didn't really make anything explicit. Also it was stupid.