The Enchanted - Rene Denfeld

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, fed on a diet of near-poisonous slops and have no recourse to any kind of humane treatment or a sympathetic ear, much less any kind of justice. Worse are those ghouls that prey on incarceration and human misery for profit. When a prisoner dies or is put to death ...well, that's one of the grimmest descriptions you'll find in The Enchanted, and that's saying something...

There's also a death penalty investigator at the centre of The Enchanted. The 'lady' (that's the only way she is known) is looking into the background of York, a murderer on death row whose unspeakable crimes are just too horrific to relate, who admits his guilt and actually wants to be executed. He doesn't want an appeal put in on his behalf, the lady investigator has a duty to uphold, just like the priest who visits and is helpless to reach these men. Why do they do it? Why would you even want to get deeper into their appalling lives? Well, both the lady and the priest have their own troubled backgrounds, but at the heart of it is an important recognition and a basic human need that has been all but forgotten and denied to these prisoners. They care because no one else will care.

Writing from her own experience as a death penalty investigator is insightful enough, but The Enchanted is a work of fiction and Rene Denfeld attempts to show a number of perspectives, including that of one of the most disturbed prisoners on death row, Arden, who has a very unusual perspective on the prison and the world outside. Amazed by the lady's courage, Arden recognises the hope she inspires and even wishes her happiness. "Is that what you call love? Is that what you call hope?" he wonders. And if the meaning of what people like the lady and the priest do can reach even Arden, there's hope that the same sentiments will come out of this dark story and also touch the reader.