Enchantment - Hardcover

DAPHNE MERKIN

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241121132 ISBN 13: 9780241121139

Publisher: HAMISH HAMILTON LTD, 1987

Synopsis

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About this title

From Publishers Weekly

This piercing evocation of family life chronicles a child's obsessive enchantment with her mothera "hopelessly entangling skein of anger and need and pain." If this memory of self-described, anal-retentive Hannah Lehmann, who grows up in material wealth but emotional deprivation, incorporates too much therapy-talk (right down to accounts of steaming feces) as well as a self-absorbed whine, it is also gifted with rare insight and a deft and witty style. Merkin, an HBJ senior editor and literary critic, weaves fragments of Hannah's past and present from the protagonist's claustrophobic and relentless vantage, vividly rehashing every last familial grudge and longing as she masterfully unfolds the tragedy of Hannah's paralyzing inability to exorcise an oppressive parental omnipresence, which is mostly of her own making. Her mother wishes that she wouldn't make "mountains out of molehills"; Hannah does so with such candor and lack of sentimentality that the reader is forced to bear witness with frustration to her self-pity; with fear to her capacity for self-destruction; with empathy to her painful transition from needy child to responsible adult. Elegant depictions of the ordinary, such as a favorite pair of washed-out cotton pajamas or the contents of an almost-bare refrigerator, and the accurate portrayal of Orthodox Jewish life are especially skillful. A portion of the novel was previously published in the New Yorker.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The name Lehmann commands attention on Wall Street, but the child Hannah thinks her father sells "chairs." It is her mother who dominates her life and is the focus of this first novel about the "inside lining" of a wealthy Jewish family. "Maybe memory gets it all wrong, I don't know" muses Hannah, as the author depicts her journey to self-knowledge through brief, randomly ordered memories. The intense first-person narrative, departed from only for brief stretches of extremely well-captured conversation, tempts one to call this autobiography. As such, it takes risks, but in the end the imaginary "I" is wholly believable. Enchantment is filled with minute detailstelevision trivia that captures the spirit of the 1950s, insights into budding sexuality that turn the reader's headthat add up to a vivid and intensely felt portrait. Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HAMISH HAMILTON LTD
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241121132
• ISBN 13: 9780241121139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304