The Enchanted: A Novel – Deckle Edge Author: Visit Amazon's Rene Denfeld Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0062285505 | Format: EPUB
The Enchanted: A Novel – Deckle Edge Description
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2014: Journalist Rene Denfeld channels her experience as a death penalty case investigator into a gut-wrenching, spellbinding debut novel. The Enchanted goes deep inside a decaying prison where we meet York, a death row inmate who is on the verge of execution, and "The Lady," an investigator who (against York's wishes) delves into his history in an attempt to have his sentence reduced. What she finds is far from pretty, revealing parallels to her own awful past. There are others, none without tragedy. But their morbid, often unrepentantly violent stories are balanced with moments of emotional escape--poetic beauty from outside the prison and strange explanations from within. These magical aspects, or "enchanted things," are the sensational imaginings of an unhinged, unnamed inmate--York's prison neighbor and our narrator. His is a unique perspective--one that is at once irrational and insightful, driving the plot and providing context and description beyond the walls of the prison and beyond the realms of reality. The result is captivating and perplexing. Given such dark subjects, "enjoying" The Enchanted may feel uncomfortable, but there’s no crime in embracing Denfeld's ability to evoke empathy for seemingly undeserving characters and inspire wonder within an unlikely place. --Robin A. Rothman
From Booklist
In her evocative first novel, Denfeld, a boxer and author of the hard-hitting nonfiction book, All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of America’s Street Families (2007), seeks to revolutionize our perception of convicts. One of three nameless narrators, a man on death row, states that prison is a place of enchantment. He convincingly describes the mythic beauty of his dank dungeon before introducing the other two mysterious speakers, the jail’s fallen priest and a woman hired to exonerate the condemned men. Referred to only as “the lady,” she serves as the plot’s catalyst. She is enlisted to spare an inmate named York, who was doomed to misery long before he became a criminal. Denfeld’s humanizing of the potential for horror that is within all of us and her insistence that the reader see the beauty in the darkest corners of life sizzles through her sharp prose, which both makes us flinch and invites us to imagine. Those familiar with the world of corrections will especially appreciate Denfeld’s nuanced portrait of prison life. --Amber Peckham
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- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Harper (March 4, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0062285505
- ISBN-13: 978-0062285508
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
"This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it, but I do."
Underneath the ancient stone prison lies a space called the dungeon. Men that go there are never to return until their bodies are carried out after their execution. A man named York is kept their until his final days, which will be soon he has decided. The Lady is assigned to York’s case to search for lost information that will hopefully save him from his demise. The prison is a dark and violent place yet from one prisoners eyes, the narrator, it is transformed into an enchanted place that only he is able to see.
The Enchanted was an incredibly unsettling story. It’s about the monsters of society, the horror of humanity and its incredibly visceral and at times a bit too gratuitous for my liking. I understood going into this that it involved a prison and its inmates so I knew it wasn’t going to be a peaceful tale, but I loved the idea of the magical realism aspects with the golden horses that charge through the prison. Except that aspect failed to deliver for me. To me, when you incorporate magical realism into a story it needs to be woven into the story as a whole rather than bits and pieces interspersed sporadically throughout. It just made those bits and pieces feel ill-fitting and out of place.
‘I knew that I would never again see the beautiful soft-tufted night birds outside the window, never again sit in the library with the slanting sun through the bars. And that was okay, because I brought those ideas with me, stored in my heart.’
The haunting prose with lines of immense depth was incredibly well-done and was the only redeeming factor of this story. It’s not Stephen King-esque in the least bit but is still memorable.
The Enchanted
by
Rene Denfield
What it's all about...
There is an unusual man on death row...in a horrible awful prison. There are crooked guards, brutality, and nightmarish back stories. Then there is the Lady, the ex priest and the Warden. There is a watcher...who imagines stampeding horses and little men and never speaks.
My thoughts after reading this book...
I ask myself this...how can a book that is so full of stark sadness and cruelty be so good? Normally I would have to stop reading a book like this...but...the words of this book drew me in and would not let me stop reading. The Lady trying to save York has a sad story. York has a sad story. There is an ex priest with a sad story. Plus most of the book takes place in prison. And to the silent man on death row...the prison is the Enchanted Place. He watches everything that he can...the corruption, the guards, the innocent white haired boy. He listens as the Lady talks to York. York is on death row and his life has been horrible. He does not want to be saved. The Lady does what she can to find out about York's life. His mother was abused by the men in her town...as was York. She hunts down the doctor who never helped York's mother. She sits with his elderly aunt. She listens and listens to what York endured. She thinks of her own life and what she endured. She talks to the priest...the former priest. She does what she has to do.
What I loved best...
I know that the watcher has done horrible things but as he tells this story...I was just so sad for him. He is the reader...the story teller...the one with the imagination. He does not speak. He has not spoken for years.
Again...how can a book that is this sad be so wondrous to read?
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