Heidi Julavits

The Uses of Enchantment Heidi Julavits

In late afternoon on November 7, 1985, sixteen-year-old Mary Veal was abducted after field hockey practice at her all-girls New England prep school. Or was she? 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 socially ambitious mother is concerned, and sends Mary to therapy with a psychologist named Dr. Hammer. Mary turns out to be a difficult patient and Dr. Hammer begins to suspect that she concocted her tale of abduction. Eager to further his professional reputation, Hammer writes a book about Marys faked abduction. Fifteen years later, Mary has returned to Boston for her mothers funeral. Her abductionreal or imaginedhas tainted many lives, including her own, and she begins a quest to revisit the people and places in her past. The Uses of Enchantment weaves a spell in which the reader sees how the extraordinary power of a young womans sexuality, and the desire to wield it, have 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.