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The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
 
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The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (Paperback)

by Siri Hustvedt (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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The Enchantment of Lily Dahl + The Blindfold + What I Loved
Price For All Three: £17.97

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  • This item: The Enchantment of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (19 Jun 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340682361
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340682364
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 65,599 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review
'Following the much-acclaimed The Blindfold comes Siri Hustvedt’s similarly dark and compelling second novel ... Webster's hot-house atmosphere and collection of oddballs and freaks are brilliantly evoked ... She orchestrates suspense masterfully and her writing has a quality of stillness, of effortless deliberation, which is peculiarly suited to the sense of foreboding.' (Kate Hubbard, Literary Review )

'Hustvedt’s writing is full of humour, surprise and powerful images. Lily is an engaging, strong heroine and demonstrates how Hustvedt’s writing has matured. Her second novel has an admirable completeness and depth that makes the publication of her third something to be looked forward to. Hustvedt's real triumph, though, is to take the ordinary and make it strange while showing how all strangeness is rooted in the ordinary.' (Kit Spring, Observer )

'It is told with the gripping pace of a straightforward mystery tale ... Hustvedt has a fully-realised cast of odd bods, eccentrics and down-home mid-Western folk ... She tells the story with panache. Her perfectly observed Minnesota world is slightly askew, slightly surreal ... Enchanting, too, is her sensual description of the mid-Western landscape' (Lucy O'Brien, Independent )

‘Memorable characters ... Lily Dahl shows us much about femininity and its representations, but Hustvedt’s characters are not reducible to her themes. As the plot accelerates, mysteries are left unsolved, and it is in this balance between resolution and irresolution that her novel finds its subtle, complex and engaging strength.’ (Susanna Rustin, Financial Times )

‘Hustvedt’s powerful theme of small-town mentality shows how intimacy and claustrophobia, secrets and skeletons, come out of the same closet ... [an] exploration of the narrow line between imagination and reality while still managing to be a rip-roaring adventure story ... It is also beautifully written’ (Alice Thompson, Scotsman )

'A brilliant story ... This is a startlingly good novel, tautly written and very sexy.' (Carolyn Hart, Marie Claire )

‘A compelling portrait of small-town America complete with a plethora of Lynch-like touches ... Excellent characterisation.’ (Susan Mackenzie. List )

'She writes like a dream' (Maria Alvarez, GQ )

Product Description
Lily Dahl is a heroine of the old school: tough, beautiful and brave. A nineteen-year-old waitress and aspiring actress living in Webster, Minnesota, she becomes enchanted by an exotic outsider - an artist from New York. Drawn into a world of erotic adventure, she finds herself the target of mysterious acts of madness as she strains against the confines of small town life.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
62% buy the item featured on this page:
The Enchantment of Lily Dahl 3.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.99
The Blindfold
16% buy
The Blindfold 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£5.99
The Sorrows of an American
12% buy
The Sorrows of an American 3.3 out of 5 stars (11)
£4.79
What I Loved
8% buy
What I Loved 3.6 out of 5 stars (25)
£5.99

 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Strange and magical..., 29 April 2003
By Jules M. "jules-4books" (Lancashire, England) - See all my reviews
This is an absolutely wonderful novel. It is as gripping as a thriller, but so beautifully written that the words flow from the page like silk. Siri Hustvedt builds an atmosphere of dreamlike strangeness in describing the small town of Webster and the misfits who inhabit the world of Lily Dahl. The novel is suffused with the mystery of things half-seen or overheard.

The author elicits tremendous sympathy for her characters, no matter how repugnant they may initially seem. The character of Martin, especially, is brilliantly drawn. Lily herself is outwardly strong and confident, yet inwardly fragile and uncertain. Her desire for the man across the street begins the story, and her voyeurism is echoed throughout the book.

The novel has a real darkness at its heart, with recurring themes of loneliness and obsession. Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is quoted several times, adding to the mystical atmosphere, but this is definitely a Grimm's fairytale!

I absolutely loved this book. It combines wonderful writing with a great plot and fascinating characters. I almost envy you if you haven't yet read it. I'm planning to read her other two novels as soon as possible.

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6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting the Reader, 14 Nov 2002
By Eric Anderson (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Like 'The Blindfold' a self consciously post-modern novel filled with empty signs and cultural observation. What I felt her central goal in this novel was to capture the human content of a typical American woman, star-eyed and given to thoughts of her image more than thoughts of her self. At first, it seems that the story might be sacrificed for these random but poignant observations, but by the end you are left with a fragmented image of a woman, cut up by the short-sightedness of society and the misogynistic nature of men. As with her prior novel, she always keeps a tight focus on her heroine, but has succeeded to a much better end a carefully plotted narrative. Like Atwood's 'The Edible Woman', the image of what the heroine sees herself to be is eaten by the woman herself, or buried in this case, in order to be redefined by the woman herself. The novel is beautifully written and an engaging read.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Dull, 28 Mar 2007
By Sebastian Murray (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
I couldn't get to the end of this book - and I seldom give up on books. The characters were all so wishy-washy and predictable I really couldn't care less. I thought it was lacking any originality - everything was so familiar and it just felt lazy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless beautiful mystery
I love it! It has a mystical element, but it can be explained, it doesn't flip and become unbelievable. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lou Ice

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best work
This book is not Siri Hustvedt's best works, and unlike her other books its really mostly based on the events of the story and not the way she tells it in other words the emphasis... Read more
Published on 11 Jul 2007 by Insatiable Hee

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