The Enchantment of Lily Dahl

by Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt's mesmerising second novel, 'startlingly good, tautly written and very sexy' Marie Claire.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, American, Novels, The United States Of America, Literary Fiction, 20th Century

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Hustvedt was born in Northfield, Minnesota. Her father Lloyd Hustvedt was a professor of Scandinavian literature, and her mother Ester Vegan emigrated from Norway at the age of thirty. She holds a B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University; her thesis on Charles Dickens was entitled Figures of Dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend.

Hustvedt has mainly made her name as a novelist, but she has also produced a book of poetry, and has had short stories and essays on various subjects published in (among others) The Art of the Essay, 1999, The Best American Short Stories 1990 and 1991, The Paris Review, Yale Review, and Modern Painters.

Like her husband Paul Auster, Hustvedt employs a use of repetitive themes or symbols throughout her work. Most notably the use of certain types of voyeurism, often linking objects of the dead to characters who are relative strangers to the deceased characters (most notable in various facits in her novels The Blindfold and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl) and the exploration of identity. She has also written essays on art history and theory (see "Essay collections") and painting and painters often appear in her fiction, most notably, perhaps, in her novel, What I Loved.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, writer Paul Auster, and their daughter, singer and actress Sophie Auster.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a weird book. There's no other way to describe it: it's extremely strange. It's one of Siri Hustvedt's earlier novels, originally published in 1996, seven years before her masterpiece What I Loved. What surprised me the most about The Enchantment of Lily Dahl is how different in tone it is to What I Loved and Hustvedt's subsequent novels. It doesn't quite feel like it was written by someone else - there's a discernible similarity in style, particularly evident in the constant pervading sense of unease - but the characters and scenarios presented in this book are just so unlike anything I've come across in Hustvedt's later work. It keeps criss-crossing between the real and the surreal, until neither the reader nor the characters are sure what's truly happened, and the titular protagonist begins to question her own memory and even her sense of self.

Lily Dahl is a 19-year-old aspiring actress who spends her days working in the Ideal Café and her evenings rehearsing for a local amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has a close friendship with her elderly neighbour, Mabel, and a burgeoning obsession with Ed, an artist from New York who lives (and paints) in a hotel across the street. The first major event of the book occurs when Lily decides to spontaneously strip in front of her window to attract Ed's attention, and shortly afterwards, she embarks on an intense (but uncommunicative) affair with him. I expected the remainder of the book to be all about this relationship and Lily's sexual awakening, but actually, the story is actually more concerned with the peculiar confines of small-town American life. Lily observes the oddball inhabitants of her strangely claustrophobic hometown, Webster, on a daily basis, and inevitably becomes drawn into their lives. Somewhere along the way, an indistinct mystery surfaces, dredging up Lily's childhood memories along with the potentially sinister truth behind a local urban legend.

At points I was just confused - for example, I couldn't understand why Lily would even speak to the bizarre Martin, let alone agree to go anywhere alone with him. I didn't dislike Lily, but to say that this whole story was all about her, she seemed a very shallow character and I never felt I'd really got to the bottom of what motivated many of her actions. The ending was a major disappointment - I simply could not believe Ed would really come back for Lily, turn out to be madly in love with her (after failing to demonstrate this previously), ask her to move to New York with him, etc. Why shoehorn a fairytale, chick-lit-esque romantic resolution into such peculiar, experimental fiction? I think the whole story would have been much stronger without this element, and even though the final conclusion was somewhat ambiguous, I would have preferred to see Lily's fate left completely open.

I'm glad I read this, because I'm very interested in Hustvedt's oeuvre as a whole, but I can't say that it was, in itself, particularly satisfying: it's a middling early book from a great writer, not a great book in its own right. I loved the recurrent hints of strangeness - the best and most exciting parts came when Lily questioned the reality of what she had seen, and the reader was encouraged to think her perspective might not be entirely reliable - but didn't feel that they were properly followed through. The Enchantment of Lily Dahl is an interesting curiosity, but probably best suited to existing fans of the author rather than newcomers to her work.

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

SEXY and EERIE.

For a grown up man like me, what a way to celebrate Halloween. This book has that eerie feeling that one gets by reading Emilie Bronte's Wuthering Heights and at the same time watching an R-18 movie with frontal nudity. Lily Dahl, this novel's main protagonist, is a 19-y/o county girl who is a waitress in a highway side cafe in a small sleepy town in America, Webster, Minnesota. She is dreaming for a better life as an actress by going to New York. So, aside from working as a waitress, she plays bit roles in the town's local production. Example of this roles is that of Hermia in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In that town are all those mysterious characters. Lily Dahl is like Alice but not in the wonderland but in a creepy and secretive town. Hustvedt made a wonderful job of intricately interweaving the lives of her characters using, as backdrop, a laidback town whose history was laden with many secrets spanning at least two past generations. Then after establishing the interwoven lives, she slowly revealed those secrets while maintaining the foreboding danger to Lily's life with only the sextuagerian lady, Mabel as her supposedly protector. The friendship between Lily and Mabel in this book is very unlikely because of their age difference: 16 and 76 but the way their characters are portrayed made it all plausible. An example of this is when they sleep in one bed. Their bodies touch like two small girls and they wake up in the morning not minding what position - bodies and limbs touching or interlocking - they find themselves in. I'm not saying that I want to be in bed with a friend who is a young man and that our bodies can touch without malice to prove that our friendship is true and platonic. All I'm saying is that this is how imaginative Hustvedt is by choosing an odd friendship for her novel. Odd in a way that it is very likely to happen in real life but the way it was portrayed in the book made it seemed like it is a regular fare that is not too unlikely to happen.

This is my second book written by Paul Auster's (one of my favorite authors) wife, Siri Hustvedt. Early this year, I read What I Loved and it was one of the suprisingly good novels I've read this year. It's nice to be surprised by reading and liking a book that you did think to be good. So, when I picked up this book, her second novel, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, my expectation was high and I was glad that she did not disappoint me. This is totally different from What I Loved so I think Hustvedt is one of those authors who do not rewrite themselves. I am still her fan.

Given those characters and setting and Hustvedt being a female writer, one would easily guess that her stories would dwell heavily on emotions and feelings. However, Hustvedt puts more brain rather than heart in her works. Not sure if husband Paul Auster has something to do with her style of writing but considering the mystery-thriller ingredient in Hustvedt's works, I will not be surprised if my guess is correct. As you know, Auster's works are strong on mystery-thriller flavor.

Keep on writing, Siri Hustvedt. You have one avid fan here in the Philippines. Well, I am one of the moderators of Filipinos group here at Goodreads with 1,700 members and I am still to hear any of them raving about you yet so I think I need to spread a word to read your works.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book two in my publication order (re-)read of all Hustvedt’s fiction and non-fiction. In the case of this book, this was a first-time read. It is Hustvedt’s second novel.

I find myself slightly at odds with many of the reviews here on GR and in the press where the book seems to have been received somewhat unenthusiastically. I do agree with those reviews that it is not as strong as her debut novel (The Blindfold) but I think I enjoyed it a lot more than many of the reviews I have scanned through since I finished it last night.

The basic story line revolves around the titular Lily Dahl and an episode from her life in Webster, a small town in America. She gets to know her neighbour, Mabel, who teaches her how to act for a play (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). She watches her neighbour, Edward Shapiro, in a hotel room across the street from her own apartment and the story takes a different direction when, one evening, she does something that surprises her but surprises Shapiro even more. And we meet several characters who come regularly to the cafe where Lily works the morning shift. One of them is Martin who becomes a pivotal character in the weirdness that unfolds.

And this definitely is a very weird book.

I don’t really want to say very much about the events that happen. I think it’s far better to read the book and be taken by surprise by people’s actions and words.

I don’t know if this is true, but it feels to me like I have made comparisons to David Lynch movies for several books I have read recently. And this one falls into that category. This is a good thing, by the way, because I’m a big fan of those films. I think I feel that way about this book for several reasons. Firstly there’s the way everything seems so normal at the start but gradually the weirdness develops, quite slowly at first but eventually into a full on bizarre situation. Then there’s the overall atmosphere of the book. It has an unsettling feel to it. And the narrative has a habit of suddenly deviating from the main story to focus for a few words or lines on a minuscule detail (like a buzzing fly or a dirty mark on someone’s clothes or a person tapping a finger). I’ve seen quite a few movies where the camera does this and in both this book and those films it creates a strange, suspenseful mood. It’s very effective, I think.

Anyway, as many reviewers have said, this might not be the best place to start with Hustvedt’s work. But I definitely wouldn’t say to avoid this book. Accompanying Lily on her investigations to try to discover what lies behind the creepy/weird events in her town while she navigates a relationship with a married man and tries to learn her part in a play is actually a lot of fun to read. Perhaps the play she is taking part in is a clue - with the emphasis on the dream like nature of the narrative.

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy-to-read novel with a dreamy atmosphere, a frustrating main character and bizarre side characters. I was not impressed by any aspect of the book, though certain ideas contained a glimmer of intrigue and the overall atmosphere was pleasing.

The problem in my opinion was a lack of plot. If you're going to disregard plot or have an illogical one, as this book does, you should sustain the reader's interest with compelling characters and breathtaking prose. This book does neither. Instead it maintains an intimate association and psychological suggestion, opting for ambiguity where definition might have allowed me to care about Lily Dahl. Motivations are lacking, or at least puzzling. If one regards it with Lynchian dream-logic, one can enjoy the skewed actions and overblown, contrived scenario somewhat.

A young waitress is our M. C. She is in the process of discovering herself through a couple of tall dark and handsomes. One of them is a painter. He lives across the way and she gives him something to look at through his window. We get some crosstalk between ordinary Joes at the diner, the weird and random inclusion of a couple of gross, stinking, low-class men (antitheses to her boyfriends) the peculiar presence of a trashy woman, who makes a mess of everything, and an elderly neighbor who's writing a mysterious endless memoir. Then, the persistence of Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's play, which Mabel takes part in - There it is! A clue that dream-logic rules this scenario. There are some dreams within a dream, plenty of situations that don't line up when discussed by people from their personal perspective and interpretation. Perhaps that is the key to unlocking this book. The novel plays with clever concepts, but never achieves greatness, if you ask me.

I am trying my best to ignore the fact that she married Paul Auster. As long as she doesn't go full Auster in the next book, I'm on board to reader more of her acclaimed novels.

[Christie (The Ludic Reader) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite early reservations, I kept reading The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that I loved the novel in the end. It’s a strange book populated by a cast of characters so odd it seems impossible that they should all end up in the same story.

There’s Lily, the 19 year old waitress who worships Marilyn Monroe and dreams of becoming an actress. There’s Mabel, her elderly next-door-neighbour, who can’t sleep and spends her time writing the story of her life. There’s Dick and Frank, two elderly men who are so filthy they leave a black cloud wherever they go. There’s Hank, Lily’s beau-hunk of an ex-boyfriend. There’s Edward, the artist who lives in the building across the street. And then there’s Martin, an oddly menacing boy Lily has known her whole life. This wild assortment of characters live in a small town, Webster, Minnesota, where Lily works as a waitress at the Ideal Cafe.

The story Hustvedt is trying to tell seems to be one about secrets and memory, youth and old age, dreams lost and realized. The whole middle section of the book, though, reads as though Lily is crazy and it’s hard to say whether this is a triumph (and I am just too dense to see it) or a failing.

In between waiting tables and sleeping with the painter from the building across the road, Lily is rehearsing her part in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also seems to be, to some degree, coming apart at the seams - although I think this is supposed to be the character navigating the tricky road from innocence to experience.

For me, though, while her coming-of-age-journey was nicely written, I never felt connected to Lily or what was happening to her. Both the real and the imagined obstacles were off-kilter…as odd as Lily and the people she spent time with.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm)]

This wasn't as strange as I anticipated.

The blurb drew me in (honestly, how could it not?). The story follows a young woman named Lily who lives in a small town and works as a waitress at a cafe. Mysterious twin brothers who sell junk and ever bathe often visit the cafe, along with a man who develops a strange obsession with Lily, one that grows increasingly threatening.

That alone was enough to make me highly curious about this book. But then the blurb goes on with talk of townspeople being haunted by ghosts of their past and, even more thrilling, rumors of the body of an unknown girl who resembles Lily.

I grabbed a blanket, poured a cup of coffee, and settled in for a thrilling read. But alas . . .

The story plods along slowly, and the reveals are very understated. Things only truly get weird toward the end of the book, and even that left me a bit miffed and underwhelmed.

Hustvedt set out to accomplish a lot with this book, and that seems to have resulted in something muddy and unmemorable. There were strands of a strange tale buried somewhere in here, but they never came together in the way I had hoped.

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsettling tale set in small town America. Centred on 19-year old Lily Dahl, a waitress and aspiring actress, it is part rites of passage and part psychological thriller, populated with a memorable cast of eccentric misfits. Probably not the best starting point for anyone who has not read any Hustvedt, but still interesting, enjoyable and well written.

[Magdalith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nie wiem tak do końca, czym miała być ta książka, ale na pewno nie tego spodziewałam się po Hustvedt. Nie polecam, bo można się zrazić do autorki.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a fan of novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt ever since reading The Blindfold. While I did enjoy parts of The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, it wasn’t a book I would recommend.

Divided into three parts, this novel is a lot like a play. Our first act introduces us to an eclectic cast of characters in the small town of Webster, Minnesota. Our protagonist is a 19 year old cafe waitress and aspiring actor who has the role of Hermia in her town’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. The rest of the novel digs into the characterization of people in this small town, with sinister vibes developing until they come to a head 2/3 of the way through. The final act is short, and - trigger warning - there is suicide and gun violence toward the end.

The plot was a little too slow for me. There was an overall unsettling vibe that I didn’t like, though some may find it enjoyably eerie. The characters were unique and well developed, but I felt like I was slushing through the book and forcing myself to read. It wasn’t until the end that I could appreciate what Hustvedt put together and I think most readers would have DNF’d before the halfway point. There were some beautiful passages of writing, and I do admire Hustvedt’s way with words, but I just didn’t like this story.

[Andrew]

In Siri Hustvedt, I see a kindred spirit -- someone who was raised in the squeaky-clean, Lutheran reaches of the Upper Midwest and started writing her way into weirder and darker territory (the difference is that she's a genius). The Enchantment of Lily Dahl is her merger of earthy Midwesternness and weird darkness, and it's at times brilliant... like an updated Winesburg, Ohio. And the twist... you can kind of imagine that there's going to be a twist... less Shyamalan than Nicolas Roeg in Don't Look Now.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually need about 50 pages to get drawn in by siri but unfortunately this didn't happen with this book. Thematically there were many similarities to What I Loved but they were much more engagingly and intriguingly explored in What I Loved, particularly the themes of changelings, memory and identity. I found it a struggle to finish this book and therefore wouldn't recommend it.

[Jonathan Ashworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve pages into this book and you realize two things: first, Siri Hustvedt has so many hooks that if this were an album you’d be singing along by the third time you heard it. Second, there’s a spiritual connection between this book and Sherwood Anderson’s odd masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, in both its small-townness and the entwined themes of identity and sexuality.

A little further into the book and you may also be thinking of Edward Hopper’s paintings of American loneliness. There are times when the book veritably aches with loneliness and yet it doesn’t dwell there, merely uses them as launching off points for big questions.

Here’s an example:

"Do you ever feel nothing's real?"
Lily looked at him. "Well," she said slowly," sometimes I think ordinary things are kind of strange..."
Martin nodded vigorously. "It's, it's like there's a skin over everything, and if you could just get under it, you'd, you'd get to what's real, but you never can, so you've got to look for a way to cut through it. You see?"

It’s a lovely exchange, though serious readers will note it has one adverb too many. There aren’t so many of the big questions that the book becomes pondersome. Indeed, at times Lily is so brave her character verges on becoming incredible, which may be a more serious flaw than an extra adverb.

Still, she pulls us into a romance with a mysterious artist, meetups with the mentally-challenged Martin, and explorations of the theater and persona with her best friend, Mabel. The book pulses and crackles. It is vivid and engaging. There are some lovely images here: burnt shoes, a realistic doll, paintings. There are also some horrifying images, but you start to realize that will happen about two-thirds of the way in.

What strikes me most about Siri Hustvedt’s writing is her ability to generate sparks from sentences about ordinary things. This is about a small town in Minnesota and as we read we find it is us that are enchanted, alongside Lily. A lot of this magic is in the words. Here’s a snippet:

The room was warm, and the heat seemed to make Mabel’s perfume stronger. Its sweet smell mingled with the dust, and the sun shone through open curtains onto the coffee table.

Or

The room smelled of paint, smoke and other nameless but familiar things, and when she sat down in the canvas chair, Lily felt afraid of those smells.

A delightful read that makes you want to read more from this wonderful writer.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this. And I found some of the reviews really 'weird'... I kept looking for the unfathomable ground in the middle of the book where Lily cannot make head or tail of strange happenings. It reads quite a lot like a fairly typical murder mystery in this middle section. I think it's supposed to encapsulate all things stereotypical of small town communities: poverty, gossip, inbreeding, narrow horizons but Hustvedt breaks these images - the wise words from Filthy Frank, the tolerant views from Dolores, but these are the excellent minor characters. The centre of the book is the gorgeous, wonderful relationship between Lily and Mabel (50 years between them), and then carefully and very much on the periphery is Lily's love-interest, Ed from the big city. The love scenes feel absolutely genuine; Ed however golden boy though he seems is a typical male, and it takes Lily's large heart to forgive him.

Nice descriptions of rural Minnesota, felt real. It's a romance with a feminist edge.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thank you to Hugh for originally introducing me to Siri Hustvedt (via The Blazing World). This is the second novel of hers I've read and I continue to be captivated by the way she develops her characters and how naturally she brings art to life in her writing. The story took surprising turns, while spiking my glass of small-town banality with an overproofed shot of muted dread.

[Siegrist · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book drew me in my its seductive descriptions of Lily's attraction to Ed an artist painting in the street. I liked the descriptions of their erotic world very much - it was understated and honest. There was a surreal quality to the book, at one point in the narrative I wondered whether the strange events were occurring only in Lily's consciousness.
The enchantment of Lily occurs on a number of levels: she enchants others - her ex Hank and the disturbed Martin - and Ed and the creative life - in Lily's case acting - enchants her. In particular her performance of Hermia in a Midsummer Nights Dream, creates a sense of new confidence and possibilities for her, as an artist and as a woman with sexual agency. I liked the interpretation offered of Hermia in this book as a "tough broad". I've always thought of her as a whiny princess, used to having it her own way!

I also loved Lily's relationship with an old older woman Mabel. There's a moment towards the ending of the novel where they escape to bed, surrounded by books.

The book is an interpretation of the Alice in Wonderland quest, where the quest is sexual identity, a confident and in-control womanliness. (Maybe that's what Freud would make of all those holes anyway). I liked it!

[Yoana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weirdly fascinating. I suspect the point of it flew right over my head, so I'm off to read up on it, but it was still very enjoyable. I liked that the thematic threads, like doppelgängers, reality vs representation, family history, etc. permeate the narrative on every level but are ultimately left unsolved. For some reason it suits the tone of the book better than having them tie up at the end.

[Joan Winnek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A peculiar but engaging story, with a surprising climax.

[Michael Bohli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die Bücher von Siri Hustvedt kaufe ich eigentlich blind, ist sie für mich eine der besten, zeitgenössischen Schriftstellerinnen. Mit dem Roman "Die Verzauberung der Lily Dahl" hatte ich aber meine Mühe, wollte sich das Geschehen nie mit mir verbinden. Die leicht erotische und mit der Zeit ins unheimliche abdriftende Erzählung begleitet die junge Lily, welche nebst dem Alltagsleben in einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt auch mit der Liebe zu hadern hat. Eine Besetzung aus eigenwilligen Figuren umgeben sie, Wünsche, Gedanken und Fantasien scheinen in die Wirklichkeit hineinzufliessen.

Nur leider wollte sich davon nichts an mich klammern, die Geschichte dümpelte dahin und keine Wendung hatte für mich die gewollte Wirkung. Immerhin war das Setting stimmig - und interessanterweise hatte ich bei der Lektüre immer Lily James als Hauptperson vor Augen. Das lag wohl an ihrer Rolle im Film "Baby Driver".

[Christine Bonheure · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je merkt dat dit Hustvedts eerste boek is. Niet slecht, maar echt goed kan je dit ook niet noemen. Ik dacht het verhaal te zullen lezen van een meisje dat volwassen wordt, een aantrekkelijke, iets oudere en spannende man ontmoet, daar een relatie mee aanknoopt en zo wat meer leert over het leven en de wereld. Dat gebeurt ook wel, maar nog meer dan dat krijg je een beschrijving van een leven in een klein Amerikaans stadje waar iedereen iedereen kent, inclusief de slechte kanten en duistere geheimen. Je leest over wat Lily’s jeugdvriend, iemand die ze niet alle vijf op een rij heeft, allemaal uitsteekt. Handelingen die soms heel moeilijk te volgen zijn, en ik begrijp eigenlijk graag wat ik lees… Het verhaal heeft heel wat losse eindjes en soms te gezochte twists en overtuigt daarom niet helemaal.

[Ingalill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good indeed!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Siri Hustvedt is probably one of my favorite contemporary authors and her two most recent novels, What I Loved and The Sorrows of an American, are both minor masterpieces in my eyes.

Unfortunately, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl lacks the finesse apparent in Hustvedt's later works and the character of Lily Dahl isn't quite intriguing enough to make up for the meandering direction of the plot. In fact, she comes across as somewhat of a cipher, her personality shifting to suit the people around her and the situations in which she finds herself involved. In addition, the supporting characters are more caricature-like than I've come to expect from Hustvedt, drawn in broad, generalized strokes and quite unlike the subtly but richly-drawn characters in her later novels. The prose, too, lacks her later sophistication and the plot is thin at best. Hustvedt attempts to build a mystery, looming sinisterly over the seemingly innocent small-town setting, but the build-up is too slow, the final reveal too underwhelming to make the journey toward the resolution worthwhile. At under 300 pages, the sluggish pace of the book made it feel much longer than books I've read of twice the length.

The Enchantment of Lily Dahl reveals glimmers of the promise upon which Hustvedt would later deliver in spades: many of the characters are types she has continued to draw from, to much greater success, and there are a handful of truly dazzling moments in the prose. While it's interesting to compare the novel to those that would come after and mark Hustvedt's development over time, I would not recommend this book to readers who have just begun diving into her body of work. There's a whole lot more to admire in her more recent accomplishments.

[Bridgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting to me that other reviews have discussed the notion of 'mystery' in this novel, as if this is the central core. I agree that there are mysterious things happening, but they seem to me to simply be the sum total of life in a small town where idiosyncrasy can often reign.

This novel is well written and thoughtful, it creates a series of slightly, but well drawn characters who bring and overall sense of truth to the story. Hustvedt's skill always seems to me to be foremost in her understanding of human interactions and how these can be almost limitlessly unique.

I still prefer What I Loved, but this is really good too, at it's best, erotic, strange and poignant.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I have enjoyed more recent work by this author. This feels like an early novel, not a very unique voice, etc. I gave it 50 pages during a book speed-dating project and thought I'd keep going, but what happened next was a huge jump for the characters, things happening that didn't make sense yet. I just decided to move on.

[Laila · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good nuggets in there but as with her other novels, I find the story so creepy and the characters so wildly unlikable (except Mabel) that it wasn't worth the read. So over Siri Hustvedt.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and 1/2 stars.

[Bookish Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange and trippy dreamlike novel, I love the way Hustvedt writes and I love her intriguing, dark imagination.

[Anne Dahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vain kolme tähteä, vaikka olisin halunnut antaa viisi, ainakin, sillä rakastin ”Kaikki mitä rakastin”-teosta. Sen jälkeen olen lukenut - aika keskikertaisen ”Kesä ilman miehiä”-teoksen ja ajattelin, että tämä nappaisi taas täysillä.
Valitsin alunperin tämän lomalukemiseksi ja kirja on ollut mukana yhdellä jos toisella reissulla mutta jotenkin, en vain ole päässyt tähän kiinni. Kirjan juoni kiinnosti (ja se, että päähenkilöllä on kanssani sama sukunimi) ja odotin sitä Lumousta, joka kirjan nimessä luvattiin.
Okei, en siis päässyt imuun tai kiinni kirjan lumoukseen kuin vasta viimeisellä kolmanneksella ja se oli hyvä. Mutta alkupuolen latteus vei lukukokemusta alas ja kokonaisuus ei siis aiheuta kuperkeikkojen heittoa.
Ihan hyvä, ei loistava ja lumous-sanan voisi melkein vaihtaa johonkin enemmän kirjan tematiikkaa kannattelevaksi, vaikka Pakkomielteeksi.

[Maria Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodness! She writes about #Baliwan episodes in all of her novels, but she keeps the voice different and very much independent across all of her works. This gave me a rollercoaster of emotions, especially when the novel is nearing its end.

Mahal kita, Tita Siri. Hello from an avid fan! Hopefully I'll have the chance to meet you when I made a sidetrip to US as part of my #PeruperuChicken2019 adventure.

[Sevim Tezel Aydın · Rating 3 out of 5]

“This place runs on stories that aren’t true. My grandfather used to say, ‘One man’s fool notion is another man’s truth.’”

Siri Hustvedt is an author I have been curious about for a long time and whose books I want to read. The Enchantment of Lily Dahl has been the first one:) I found it weird but still enjoyable.

It tells the coming-of-age story of an aspiring actress who lives alone in a small town in Minnesota. She spends her days working in a restaurant and her evenings rehearsing for an amateur production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She meets an older painter, and an intense affair begins. Then Lily finds herself tested by people and circumstances…

The story goes between reality and appearances, and although it isn’t easy to understand, the atmosphere is intriguing. I like how Hustvedt focuses on the dynamics of a small town: gossip, secrets and hidden bonds. And as a bonus, there is a little murder mystery…

There may be better books to start Hustvedt's work. Nevertheless, I like her command of words; the plot could be better, but it is well-written.

[Tatula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una versión literaria que mezcla la ventana indiscreta de Hitchcock con Mujercitas.
¿Hasta donde llega la fijación de una mujer por un hombre, su futuro y el gran 'qué pasaria si fuese al reves?

Para lo yanqui que es me gusto