The Enchantment of Lily Dahl

This didn't grab me quite in the way that The blazing world did: maybe I simply found it easier to connect with the document-based structure of that book than the very visual, film-like style of this one. But Lily Dahl is definitely a very impressive novel, and one that you can't sum up in a few sentences.

When we call something a "coming-of-age novel", it usually just means that it's an adolescent love-story, but — at one level — this really is a book about a young woman going through a transformative experience that leaves her a different sort of person at the end from what she was at the beginning. But it's also a philosophical investigation into what we mean by artistic creation, and how the process of representation affects the show more artist and the subject. And it's a sort of detective story, and a nostalgic/ironic look back at 1960s American small-town life and its uneasy relationship with the world of ideas. And how gender and sexuality and violence and Shakespeare and Marilyn Monroe fit into all that. I've got a feeling that we're not in Lake Wobegon anymore... show less

The Enchantment of Lily Dahl by Siri Hustvedt is much like its main character: quaint, charming, mysterious and, well, enchanting. It was my first book by Hustvedt but certainly won’t be my last. Her writing has left a mark on me as a reader.

Lily was a 19-year waitress/wanna-be actress in small-town Minnesota. Attractive and graceful, she was a favorite among many men, including her neighbor-turned-lover Ed and Martin, a childhood friend who was obsessed with Lily. Lily was cast to play Hermia in the local theater’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Martin was also in the play, which placed them in many scenes together. As the story unraveled, we learned that Martin’s interest in Lily was beyond a childhood crush – show more and he was obsessed with the dead. Certainly, the combination of the two was a creepy one.

Part love story, part mystery, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl was aloof, mysterious and intense. With every page, I was sucked into the lives of Lily and her acquaintances. While the main character was gripping, the entire story, including the subplots, was engaging. The ending was startling and unsettling but somehow appropriate for this story about obsession and small-town life. I look forward to reading more books by this talented author. show less

Hustvedt creates such a spooky feeling and such mysterious characters that I was ripping through this book, even if Lily didn't have an 18-year-old's voice. I was thinking: a movie version could go either David Lynch or The Ring.

Then, thud: what an utterly prosaic explanation for all these goings on. Nor do I think it adequately explained the mysterious matters. What about the thrall cast by Ed's paintings? So this is a very rural area ... and yet there are several spottings of a character carrying a body around way out in the countryside at night? What about the wandering cowboy? Was that supposed to be Martin?

Can't think of anyone I could recommend this to. "Dahl" means "valley" in Norwegian, btw.

I picked up this novel because I heard that Hustvedt had based the town she calls Webster on Northfield, MN. Indeed, the details of Division Street, the Ideal cafe, the Stuart hotel, the community theater at the Arts Guild, the names and personality-types are all plucked straight from the reality of my experience in Northfield. That said, I found the story itself to be the weakest part of the novel. I anticipated much of the plot and the "twists" were no surprise. it wasn't until the end of the book that the characters seemed approachably human and by then there wasn't enough story left to engage with them. I've given it three stars because I enjoyed the way the backdrop of Northfield was worked into the book but in all other ways it show more left me feeling it was just "ok." show less

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.

I loved her novel " Summer without Men" and I also read " What I loved" with pleasure but I did not seem to get into this story so I stopped reading at page 71...

La joven Lily Dahl vive en Webster, Minnesota, en una habitación sobre la cafetería de la calle principal donde trabaja como camarera y sueña con convertirse en actriz; allí sirve desayunos a los perturbados y sucios granjeros Frank y Dick, de cuyo padre se rumorea que enterró viva a su esposa Helen, así como a otro pariente de la difunta, el excéntrico solitario Martin Petersen, antiguo compañero de juegos de la infancia de Lily. Así que cuando empiezan a ocurrir sucesos realmente inquietantes en el pueblo los sospechosos no escasean, incluido Ed Shapiro, el atractivo pintor forastero que trabaja en sus misteriosos lienzos durante la noche y roba el corazón de Lily.
La protagonista de esta asombrosa novela, al borde de la show more adultez, se adentra en esa etapa entre aventuras eróticas, amistades profundas pero inesperadas y actos de locura inexplicables mientras se convierte en una intrépida detective. Pero la historia de Lily es también la historia de un pequeño pueblo, donde las personas están unidas por un poderoso sentido de pertenencia, tanto geográfica como espiritualmente, y donde los chismes y los secretos son tan esenciales para el vínculo entre sus habitantes como las fronteras que lo delimitan. show less