I believe I have a winner to offer.
Enchanted Night by Steve Millhauser, arrived in the mail this week (a gift from the same person who sent me
Book Thief, hint to Martha).
It's a tiny little book, 130 pages; I read it in one day, almost in one sitting. Can't possibly describe it any better than the back-cover blurb, so here it is:
In his dazzling new work, Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Millhouser presents a stunningly original tale set in a Connecticut town over one incredible summer night. The improbable cast of characters includes a man who flees the attic where he's been writing his magnum opus every night for the past nine years, a band of teenage girls who break into homes and simply leave notes reading "We Are Your Daughters," and a young woman who meets a dreamlike lover on the tree swing in her backyard. A beautiful mannequin steps down from her department store window, and all the dolls left abandoned in the attic and "no longer believed in" magically come to life. Enchanted Night is a remarkable piece of fiction, a compact tale of loneliness and desire that is as hypnotic and rich as the language Millhauser uses to weave it.
I want to read everything he's ever written. And I want to ration myself. Magical realism in Connecticut. Easily one of my top two novels for the year.
Just started "The Forever War." The writing helps; I'm not a big non-fiction reader (unfortunately I'm a big non-fiction
buyer...)
