To The Last Page

Despair and Denial on Death Row Despite the impression the title might give, The Enchanted is potentially a very despairing novel based on a very dispiriting subject - the lives and the fate of criminals on death row in a US penitentiary. There is a glimmer of hope there however, and usually when you go to the darkest places that the smallest light shines brighter. Rene Denfeld paints the subject so black that it almost obscures everything else, so it's a testament to her writing (and her experience) that she nonetheless finds that small measure of hope that makes all the difference. Rene Denfeld is in real-life a death penalty investigator and has written several non-fiction books based on the subject, so there's no doubting her credentials. There's no doubt either that her account of prison life is accurate and without exaggeration, which is however not much comfort. Death, despair, rape, murder, corruption, drugs, the dregs of humanity are kept in abominable conditions,...

I was certain I wasn't going to like That Part Was True and not just because I have a prejudice against novels that have an appendix of recipes at the end. It's more however that the premise seems very old-fashioned - a 84 Charing Cross Road -like written correspondence between a lonely rich lady living in the English countryside and an American author that develops into something special. But then the characters are of that generation, both of them approaching 50, both reaching a point in their lives where it's time to look at where they are and re-evaluate if it's where they hoped to be. That's not really much of a recommendation either. What makes you keep reading however it that it is realistic, deals with real-life issues, and the author's handling of the subject keenly recognises this and never lets it slip into idealism or sentimentality. That's what keeps you reading even if you don't find you particularly relate to the characters or their circu...