Immeasurable gratitude is due to early reader Amanda Gersh for her subtle suggestion that the then book should be burned at the proverbial stake and to later reader Jonathan Lethem for his help with less terminal problems. Henry Dunow is thanked for donating his incisive, beat-around-no-bush insights and for applying psychic compresses via telephone when someone became ridiculous. Bill Thomas is thanked for his unwavering smarts and early support—I’ve tried to deliver an end product deserving of his confidence in me.
The people at Doubleday (in particular Melissa Ann Danaczko and Alison Rich) have been sublimely nice, intelligent, flexible, and efficient. I greatly appreciate this.
I would like to thank Donna Bassin for in no way being a model for any character in this book. A hefty check is owed to Andrew Leland for picking up my Believer slack in perpetuity. Ben Marcus is thanked and thanked and thanked and thanked.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the therapists whose priceless inspiration was purchased at great hourly cost. This book is, in some roundabout, and I hope not entirely insulting, way, an appreciative nod to you.
ALSO BY HEIDI JULAVITS
The Effect of Living Backwards
The Mineral Palace
Hotel Andromeda (WITH JENNY GAGE)
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, NOVEMBER 2007
Copyright © 2006 by Heidi Julavits
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2006.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Julavits, Heidi.
The uses of enchantment : a novel / Heidi Julavits.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Teenage girls—Fiction. 2. Kidnapping—Fiction. 3. Psychologists—Fiction. 4. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3560.U522U84 2006
813'.6—dc22 2006045434
eISBN: 978-0-307-38940-4
www.anchorbooks.com
v1.0
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
What Might Have Happened NOVEMBER 7, 1985
West Salem NOVEMBER 8, 1999
Notes FEBRUARY 18, 1986
What Might Have Happened
West Salem NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes FEBRUARY 25, 1986
What Might Have Happened
West Salem NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes MARCH 4, 1986
What Might Have Happened
West Salem NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes MARCH 11, 1986
What Might Have Happened
Boston NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes MARCH 18, 1986
What Might Have Happened
Mary Chapter
Notes MARCH 25, 1986
What Might Have Happened
West Salem NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes APRIL 1, 1986
What Might Have Happened
Chadwick NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Notes APRIL 8, 1986
What Might Have Happened
Chadwick NOVEMBER 9, 1999
What Might Have Happened
West Salem NOVEMBER 10, 1999
Notes APRIL 15, 1986
Acknowledgments
Also by Heidi Julavits
Copyright
The Uses of Enchantment Page 34