Safe Return Doubtful

American Literature – Novella – published 1999

Fourteen year old Laura Engstrom wakes in the early hours of the morning and drowsily wanders her neighbourhood. A struggling middle aged writer, Haverstraw, keeps his midnight tryst with an older woman who is his unlikely intellectual companion. Lonely Janet Manning fantasises about her previous lover’s reappearance. A gang of teenage girls break into houses and commit acts of petty vandalism, and in one case are welcomed in by a lonely old lady.

This enchanting novella is set in a rural Connecticut town in which natural laws are suspended. There are all sorts of strange goings-on; an aroused ‘goddess of the moon goddess’ ravages a teenage boy, dolls come to life, including a department store mannequin who’s adored by a lonely drunk.
There’s plenty to enjoy here in my first taste of Millhauser’s writing. As much as the descriptions of the individual characters he draws stand alone, it is the way he draws them together that make the book work.

A fairy tale for adults.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5