Customer Reviews

The Uses of Enchantment: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this book based on a favorable review but came away disappointed but the unlikable characters, clever yet unbelievable dialogue and ambiguous ending.

The plot: Mary Veal returns home to attend the funeral of her mother and reconnect with her estranged family. The book flashbacks to two significant events in her life: the first, when she hops into a stranger's car and embarks on a journey of arranged abduction/seduction with her captor. The second is her time in therapy with Dr. Hammer. Mary claims amnesia about the incident but the doctor doesn't believe her and sees his patient as a way to advance his career and reputation.

The book is a difficult read, primarily because not one of the characters is likeable in any way. While the three male characters (Mary's father, captor, and therapist) are weak men damaged by past events, the author reserves most of her scorn for the women in her book. There are stereotypical frosty women (Mary's mother and sisters, Miss Pym), manipulators (Roz Biedelman, Bettina Spencer) and drunks (Aunt Helen). But the most unlikable character is Mary herself - who not only fails to take responsibility for what she has done but, like the child she remains, doesn't understand why everyone is so hostile towards her.

The book jacket teases that the events of Mary's youth will be gradually revealed - which is simply not true. The question of whether the "abduction" was real or imagined is never a mystery (The author lets you know pretty early on how Mary came to disappear). Rather, by the time you reach the confusing ending there are a host of unanswered questions: What was her relationship with her family before the incident? Why did Mary choose to go with the stranger? What happened during the time of her captivity? Did Mary's mother ever forgive her? and How was Mary changed by the mistakes she made as a youth?

In addition, the absence of quotation marks around dialogue is an unnecessary distraction.

Overall, I can not recommend this book.

I see this book made the Times list of Notable Books for 2006. I wish I understood why. I get annoyed with books that make me feel like an inadequate or uncomprehending reader, which is what this book did. Too clever by half. I had a sense that the author had a blast constructing this tale--but I was exhausted by the time I finished it. And why, in a book that is so dialogue-driven, must we sacrifice quotation marks? Such a simple device--and it would have helped immeasurably. I'm sure that if I went back and reread the book, many more pieces would fall into place. But I shouldn't have to do that--and I have other things I'm dying to read. I recommend this book only if you have large, uninterrupted blocks of reading time so that you can ponder all the references, both within and without the text. I just didn't enjoy having to work so hard (and I'm not sure whether or not she was abducted either!)

Although I'd had a bad experience with one of Julavits' previous novels (THE MINERAL PALACE), the subject matter of her latest effort, THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT, caught my attention and I decided to have another go. This time around, I must say that Julavits has grown as a writer and I found this novel much more interesting, if not completely satisfying.

What really happened to Mary Veal, a Boston high school girl descended from a Salem witch and purportedly kidnapped by a sexual predator? The reader never knows for sure and the convention of the unreliable narrator (in this case, narrators) is perfect for a novel that ventures into the fascinating and politically incorrect territory of inexperienced feminine aggression, potentially make-believe sexual abuse, maternal lies and feminist psychotherapy. Julavits is at her best skewering feminist pieties in the satirically drawn character of Dr. Roz Biedelman. Also intriguing is Julvits' layering of Mary's tale with possible psychological forerunners: the hysteric Dora as interpreted by Freud; Bettina Spencer, an earlier "victim" of a faked abduction from the same high school Mary attended; and, of course, Abigail Lake, Mary's falsely accused Salem ancestor.

The narrative evolves in three parts: "What Might Have Happened" when Mary was abducted from her school in 1986; the ghosts from the past Mary must confront when she returns to Boston for her mother's funeral in 1999; and the notes taken by her psychiatrist, Dr. Hammer, whose name makes obvious reference to the 15th-century witch-hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches).

The most satisfying element of THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT is Julavits' play on historical and current ideas of female sexuality. But this is also where it begins to fall down. Much more could have been imagined and explored. Least satisfying is her characterization of Mary. I finished the book without any real sense of who Mary was as a girl and who she is now. The description of Mary's tense relationship with her sisters -- and the relationship of the three girls with their mother -- is incomplete. None of Julavits' characters leap off the page as, well, characters. The exception, Roz Biedelman, is closer to caricature.

Although I was initially drawn into this story, I found the narrative fizzled towards the end and I was left asking, is that it? And --Julavits' unspoken but apparent conclusion -- is it really all our mothers' fault?

This book started out pretty well, I was,at first, really interested in it and it hooked me in. However, I quickly became annoyed at the pages and pages of psychological rhetoric. Between Mary and her therapist, between Mary and the "mystery abductor" who may or may not have been real. Between Mary's Mother or Aunt or whoever it really was who visited Mary's therapist. Overall the book was so confusing and none of the characters were likable at all. Not her sisters, not her father, not her Aunt, not her Mother and certainly not Mary. I still have absolutely no idea if she was abducted or not. I would not recommend this book. This is the first time I have ever written one of these reviews but I felt compelled because I feel I was tricked into buying this book by the fantastic editorial reviews. I'm sorry but how can you say in a review that the truth is "slowly revealed to us" please tell me where in the book we are told with any certainly what really happened? How frustrating that is to a reader.

First, I must say, the description of the plot on the flyleaf is somewhat inaccurate, it relates less to the actual book than I prefer. I wanted very much to love this book, but I was truly left wanting. The main character, Mary, was so unlikeable in her constant judging and assumptions about others, and then her refusal to simply speak up for herself when it was called for. It was hard to find anyone to like in this book actually. It also felt incomplete. The ending came before you really got any of the answers for the questions the book was trying to raise.

The Uses of Enchantment is a recycled title, borrowed from psychologist Bruno Bettleheim's work, subtitled The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. In this book, he argued that children learn about unconscious psychological conflicts, such as Oedipal issues, by hearing these age old stories, which are nothing like the Disneyfied ones on the screen today. If that is the case, then it follows that Mary, the central character of Julavits' novel, must have missed out on a fairy tale or two. Other reviewers have aptly described this plot. While many readers may be turned off by the twisting nature of Mary's narrative, those interested in psychology, philosophy, and the sometimes devastating impact of society's interests and mores (witch hunts, educational theory, psychobabble, narcissism, to name very few), are likely to find themselves drawn in to the labyrinth of Mary's mind.

Much more than a simple mystery or "coming of age" novel, Enchantment raises important questions about truth, deception, adolescence, sexuality, ambition, and reality at every turn. Written from three revolving points of view - now, then, and what might have happened - the central event (Mary's abduction) is examined and re-examined from different angles every chapter. The important characters circumvent ordinary communication. Some play elaborate word games, and some withhold the use of words. The author herself is adept at word play and allusion. Each of the characters is unlikeable because their narcissism is so blatantly revealed, without the masks people usually wear and come to expect. They aren't being "nice" here. There are flashes of wit and humor, and there are also passages fit to turn the stomach. In my experience, the questions unanswered at the novel's conclusion are not aggravating as much as perplexing, just as the motives, actions, and thought processes that make up every life are uncertain.

Was Freud correct? Are the feminists? The therapists? There are some jolting surprises in the last quarter of the story. This is not an easy book to read, but if these subjects are of interest, it is well worth the time and effort. It all depends on what you want and expect when you open its pages.

The good: Julavits writes well. You keep turning the pages despite yourself. Maybe because you are thinking it will somehow get better.

The bad: The story itself. It leaves you scratching your head and wondering what the author is trying to say. I guess that could be good except that the story was so unbelievable and silly. And the characters were so unlikeable...especially Mary. I just wanted to smack her. In addition, since when do we not use the proper punctuation throughout a novel? Why can't we use quotes when someone is talking?

The ugly: I feel like I wasted a lot of time reading this book. Did the critics read the same book I did?

In summary: Not recommended. The description of the book is much more interesting than the book itself.

The story grabs your interest in the beginning and offers intriguing possibilities, but it proceeds to go in circles. Or was it downhill in circles? That's what it felt like. I can admire the writing, and cultural references, and the intertwining of therapy and recovered memory, and the importance of telling one's story, but ultimately this book was incredibly frustrating because I just wanted to find out what happened. Perhaps the author was cleverly working to get me into just such a spot; if so that's a waste of her talent, my time, and the paper this book is printed on. Comparisons to a house of mirrors are apt -- but that trick is (only mildly) entertaining for about 30 seconds. It gets old reeeaaallly fast, as did this story. I skimmed the last pages and felt irritated that I'd wasted as much time on it as I had. Her writing is undoubtedly very good, however, and it really shone when she was grounded in reality (the interplay among the sisters, for example), instead of the out-on-a-limb stuff.

The first few pages were terrific. There were also perhaps ten or fifteen pages in the middle of the book that proved quite dazzling. Unfortunately, the remainder was simply a slog. The psychobabble of the therapist's office was especially unendurable. The characters, too, were almost uniformly dull and cloying creatures. I suspect that on the whole it would have worked much better as a short story, where those moments of dazzle might have had greater effect. As it was, they only served to remind me how uninteresting the remainder was. I read this book directly after Jennifer Egan's "Look At Me"--a truly marvelous novel. So perhaps it simply suffered by comparison. I suspect not, however. I suspect that this is simply, by any measure, a bad book that was unfortunately over-hyped.

Wow! I just finished this book after dropping almost everything to tear through the last third or so. (No easy feat when you've got a 13-month-old toddler to look after.) I was so impressed by it that I was surprised to see all the negative reviews here. But then again, I have to admit that this isn't an easy read. (If you're looking for the narrator to hand you all the answers to all the thought-provoking questions the novel raises, for example, this is the wrong book for you.) What it will do is make you think about how we create our own narratives, how we live inside the stories we tell about ourselves and, ultimately, about what a slippery thing the truth is. The superficial plot isn't so complicated: a teenage girl named Mary may or may not have been abducted in 1985, and this event (or non-event) has special relevance for Mary and those closest to her when her mother dies 14 years later. You'll keep reading (or at least I did) to find out what will be revealed about that event alone. But there's so much more going on here. Julavits has done her homework -- the point of view from the analyst seems spot-on -- and she's really good at dissecting her character's possible motivations (even when those seem to be obscured from the characters themselves) without ever making the narrative seem didactive or overly explain-y. The scenes where Mary and her therapist banter are especially fascinating -- if you've ever been the victim of someone trying to mess with your mind (or if you've ever played mindgames with someone else, and who hasn't?) you'll be impressed with how smart this is. My only complaint about this book is that the most important scene -- the climax of what might or might not have been an abduction -- seems to be missing. But then again, that's probably part of the point. The story is no longer Mary's, it's become what those around her have made of it (her therapist, her mother, her therapist's rival.) I highly recommend this book.