[Yale-readings] THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT

[Nancy Kuhl]

Thursday, Nov. 9th at 6:30pm

Heidi Julavits, a founding editor of The Believer magazine comes to the New 
Haven Free Public Library to discuss her new novel THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT.



Heidi Julavits
Writers Live!
November 9th at 6:30pm
New Haven Free Public Library
133 Elm Street lower level
john @ 946-7001 or john.jessen at nhfpl.org for more details


A few weeks later an unharmed Mary reappears as suddenly and mysteriously 
as she disappeared, claiming to have little memory of what happened to her. 
Her mother, concerned that Mary has somehow been sullied by the experience, 
sends her to therapy with a psychologist named Dr. Hammer. Mary turns out 
to be a cagey and difficult patient and Dr. Hammer begins to suspect Mary 
concocted her tale of abduction when he discovers its parallels with a 
seventeenth-century narrative of a girl, who was abducted by Indians and 
later caused her rescuer to be hanged as a witch. Hammer, eager to further 
his professional reputation, decides to write a book about Mary's faked 
abduction, a project her mother sanctions because she'd rather her daughter 
be a liar than a rape victim.

Fifteen years later, Mary has returned to Boston for her mother's 
funeral.Her abduction-real or imagined-has tainted many lives, including 
her own. When Mary finds a suggestive letter sent to her mother, she 
suspects her mother planned a reconciliation before her death. Thus begins 
a quest that requires Mary to revisit the people and places in her past.

THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT weaves a spell in which the power of a young 
woman's sexuality, and her desire to wield it, has a devastating effect on 
all involved. The riveting cat-and-mouse power games between doctor and 
patient, and between abductor and abductee, are gradually, dreamily 
revealed, along with the truth about what actually happened in 1985.

Heidi Julavits is in full command of her considerable gifts, and has 
crafted a dazzling narrative sure to garner her further acclaim as one of 
the best novelists working today.


from the early reviews:
"On November 7, 1985 , Mary Veal, 16, a not especially distinguished 
upper-middle-class girl, disappears from New England 's Semmering Academy . 
A month later she reappears at Semmering, claiming amnesia, but hinting at 
abduction and ravishment. The events in Believer editor Julavits's third, 
beautifully executed novel take place on three levels: one, dedicated to 
"what might have happened," is the story of the supposedly blank interval; 
another is dedicated to the inevitable therapeutic aftermath, as Mary's 
therapist, Dr. Hammer, tries to discover whether Mary is lying, either 
about the abduction or the amnesia; and the present of the novel, which 
revolves around the funeral of Mary's mother, Paula, in 1999. There, Mary 
feels not only the hostility of her sisters, Regina (an unsuccessful poet) 
and Gaby (a disheveled lesbian) but Paula's posthumous hostility. Or is 
that an illusion? This structure delicately balances between gothic and 
comic, allowing Julavits to play variations on Mary's life and on the '80s 
moral panic of repressed memory syndromes and wild fears of child abuse. 
While Julavits (The Effect of Living Backwards) sometimes lets an 
overheated style distract from her central story, as its various layers 
coalesce, the mystery of what did happen to Mary Veal will enthrall the 
reader to the very last page.'
- Publishers Weekly

"In her third novel, Julavits proves to be something of a sorceress 
herself, weaving a commanding, sophisticated narrative that is both vivid 
and dreamlike. We are immediately riveted by Mary, a caustic, pained 
teenager who may or may not have been abducted when leaving school and 
later becomes the subject of two books with diametrically opposed 
viewpoints, whose authors each have an ax to grind. (Julavits zestfully 
skewers psychotherapy and writers of pop psychology.) The dialog crackles 
with wit and energy. "I'd like to point out that you've gone zero to bitch 
in less than 3 minutes," Mary imagines saying to a psychotherapist whom she 
confronts as an adult, and she tells her hapless abductor, "Just because 
you have amnesia doesn't mean you're an all-purpose idiot." But the story 
has many moments of real pathos as well, exploring family loss and state of 
the art dysfunction. It skillfully probes Mary's inner world, pointing out 
that imagined reality demands equal time and that life's real battles play 
out in our hearts and minds. Highly recommended." -Library Journal

"Julavits (The Effects of Living Backwards, 2003, etc.), a founding editor 
of The Believer, perfectly captures the siren call of adolescent women, and 
the aftermath of those who are lured in. Potent and intoxicating: a 
dangerously seductive book."
-Kirkus Reviews

The Yale-Readings Listserv is sponsored by the Yale Collection of American 
Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To post 
announcements about poetry and fiction readings, send the full text of the 
announcement, including contact information, to 
<http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/yale-readings>nancy.kuhl at 
yale.edu. Messages sent directly to the Yale-Readings list may not be posted.

For more information about Poetry at the Beinecke Library, visit: 
https://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/yale-readings/attachments/20061107/42be47be/attachment.html