The Enchanted: A Novel Author: Rene Denfeld | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DB3D5MI | Format: PDF
The Enchanted: A Novel Description
A wondrous and redemptive debut novel, set in a stark world where evil and magic coincide, The Enchanted combines the empathy and lyricism of Alice Sebold with the dark, imaginative power of Stephen King.
"This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it, but I do." The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs with the devastating violence of prison life.
Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners’ pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honesty and corruption—ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.
Beautiful and transcendent, The Enchanted reminds us of how our humanity connects us all, and how beauty and love exist even amidst the most nightmarish reality.
- File Size: 294 KB
- Print Length: 261 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062285505
- Publisher: Harper (March 4, 2014)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DB3D5MI
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,509 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #20
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Psychological - #46
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Psychological - #57
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > American
- #20
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Psychological - #46
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Suspense > Psychological - #57
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > American
"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?
The Enchanted: A Novel Preview
Link
Please Wait...