Books
· 21ST OF AUGUST, THE YEAR 2006ENCHANTED NIGHT, BY STEVEN MILLHAUSER
I just saw The Illusionist, which was based on a short story by Steven Millhauser, so I thought I’d check out one of his books. And it takes place in southern Connecticut. And I like to imagine he’s related to the Van Houtens.
Done
Meh. Some beautiful passages, others that were fun to read aloud, very rhythmic, but otherwise, well, sort of insubstantial. Even for a novella. He has a thing for naming trees, though, which I found fun. There was little other than description in this, but his depiction of southern Connecticut definitely brought back memories. Katydids, hickories, train tracks, powerlines, shoddy beaches, muggy nights. Not so many naked women and living mannequins as I remember it, though.
ONE COMMENT
My students really loved a story of his called “The Sisterhood of the Night”. (This was exciting because mostly they hated the stories I assigned them.) But I haven’t read much else by him. That’s neat that his story got turned into a movie — I didn’t know that.