Review: Enchanted Night by Steven Millhauser
We’ve all been there. Quietly going about our business, reading the latest updates to our favourite blogs, and WHAM! We come across a review, that not only makes us want the book, it makes us need the book, and need it NOW!
Well that was the case with this one, after I read Chris’s review, a couple of weeks ago, and, well, an order was placed before the day was out… 
(thankfully I was not the only one to succumb!).
tWhat’s the book about? Well here isn’t a plot as such to this one, so much as it is a series of vignettes focussing on the residents of a small town and the events that surround them one summer’s night.
Lovers meeting for a late night tryst, a teenage boy struggles with peer pressure and the need to be himself, a group of teenage girls enter houses to do little more than leave a note declaring “WE ARE YOUR DAUGHTERS,” and an underachieving middle-aged guy, trying to convince himself he is an author visits the mother of an old school friend.
Mixed in with these very human events, is the mystical and the magical. The music of the night blends with that of a pied piper character, toys come to life, as does that of a shop’s mannequin. These events are so intrinsically woven in to the night you just don’t stop to question them.
The various styles Millhauser utilises in the book, short chapters, some barely a few lines long, some maybe a couple of pages, poetry and song, all combine to ensnare the reader as the night unfolds around them, and you don’t so much read the book, as you soak it up.
A beautiful book, and I can’t wait for summer just so I can stand outside and listen to the night.
Buy: Enchanted Night by Steven Millhauser from The Book Depository.
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Posted by Darren on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Filed under General, Reviews · Tagged with Read in 2010, Steven Millhauser, Vintage
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Hm…I’m having deja vu? Did you post this already, or am I just crazy? I thought I’d seen this! Ah well. I’m glad you liked it! I just wish I’d known some people who I could have recommended it to back when I read it a year ago.
(and if I already left a similar comment to this, my apologies. I’m having weird flashback moments…)
Amanda´s last blog ..Selected Poems, by Marina Tsvetaeva
Don’t think I published this in error before
It’s likely down to Chris and Carl both reviewing in the last few weeks!
I wonder if maybe I was just remembering your bad bloggers post, because I remember you linking to Carl.
Amanda´s last blog ..Selected Poems, by Marina Tsvetaeva
Ah! That’ll be the fella!
This does sound interesting. It seems like I’ve read quite a few books lately that uses these “vignettes” as the main storytelling strategy. Sometimes the author succeeds, and sometimes they don’t. I’d be interested to see how this one turns out. Thanks for the great review!
Becky at “One Literature Nut”´s last blog ..Review: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
My thoughts exactly
So glad you enjoyed it Darren!!
Chris´s last blog ..Transformations by Anne Sexton
This does sound like an interesting book! Just wanted to thank you for stopping by during the Read A Thon.
Colette A Buckeye Girl Reads´s last blog ..Review-Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Holy cow, this sounds like a must read. Hummmm maybe over the summer.
Beth F´s last blog ..Review: The Postmistress by Sarah Blake