Enchantments

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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKFrom Kathryn Harrison, one of America s most admired literary voices, comes a gorgeously written, enthralling novel set in the final days of Russia s Romanov Empire St Petersburg, 1917 After Rasputin s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen year old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family including the headstrong Prince Alyosha Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin s miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease that keeps the boy confined to his sickbed, lest a simple scrape or bump prove fatal Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other s company To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories some embellished and some entirely imagined about Nikolay and Alexandra s courtship, Rasputin s many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country on the brink of an irrevocable transformation In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand Mesmerizing, haunting, and told in Kathryn Harrison s signature crystalline prose, Enchantments is a love story about two people who come together as everything around them is falling apart. Free Read Enchantments [ By ] Kathryn Harrison [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Lots of pretty words, not much substance.Clearly, this book is much too literary for my tastes, and I should know by now to look for that at the top of book promo and run the other way This what if book begins with the death of Rasputin, and his two daughters are taken into the royal household with the hopes that eldest daughter Masha has her father s gift of healing Masha spends lots and lots of time with the young tsarevich, and to pass the time she tells him lots and lots of stories Stor Lots of pretty words, not much substance.Clearly, this book is much too literary for my tastes, and I should know by now to look for that at the top of book promo and run the other way This what if book begins with the death of Rasputin, and his two daughters are taken into the royal household with the hopes that eldest daughter Masha has her father s gift of healing Masha spends lots and lots of time with the young tsarevich, and to pass the time she tells him lots and lots of stories Stories about his parent s courtship Stories about her father and mother Stories about Russia On and on and on until I got ti...Rasputin Live I haven t read Harrison in years though I enjoyed her earlier works Reading Enchantments felt like a homecoming I m shocked to see other reviewers didn t like it as much as I did Harrison s writing is top notch There were two or three chapters I marked to go back and read again because her prose is so beautiful As usual Harrison s prose is highly sensual and often lush In this book Harrison uses some well known historic facts surrounding the killing of the Romanovs as a ste Rasputin Live I haven t read Harrison in years though I enjoyed her earlier works Reading Enchantments felt like a homecoming I m shocked to see other reviewers didn t like it as much as I did Harrison s writing is top notch There were two or three chapters I marked to go back and read again because her prose is so b...Read This Review More Like It On My Blog You may not know Matryona Grigorievna by her first two names, but you will recognize her last, infamous name Rasputina The daughter of either Russia s most famous eccentric and healer or her most prolific sham, depending on who is asked, Masha s unique and by turns sad, very strange and moving story of life after her father s abrupt and excessively violent murder is a sure to please strong female character powered novel Enchantments was exactly Read This Review More ...I read about 60 pages of this book and then gave up I love love love Romanov stories, but this one is terrible.The author writes in a meandering tone and shifts the setting of what s currently going on without warning At one point you re reading the narrator s thoughts, then she randomly goes back in time, and then we re back in the present There are no signifiers that this is happening, and it is really wearing.I agree with the other reviewers who said the author tries much too hard to be l I read about 60 pages of this book and then gave up I love love love Romanov stories, but this one is terrible.The author writes in a meandering tone and shifts the setting of what s currently going on without warning At one point you re reading the narrator s thoughts, then she randomly goes back in time, and then we re back in the present There are no signifiers that this is happening, and it is really wearing.I agree with the other reviewers who said the author tries much too hard to be literary, writing in flowy language that s supposed to impress us I can think of a multitude of other books that the author manages to write in a literary, descr...Good God in heaven, my eyeballs hurt There is a scene in which Nagorny troops off with the Tsarevich to get him deflowered by a local peasant girl There is a scene in which the bullet riddled bodies of the Grand Duchesses appear to Mashka that would be Maria Rasputin to US just to let her know that Alyosha the Sunbeam is thinking about her inside a Faberge egg in the afterlife If that sentence made sense to you, this is the book for you Otherwise, run like a deer It is enough to...3.5 Stars I was really looking forward to reading a novel of Rasputin s daughter, and I was evenpleased to discover that Alexei Nikolaevich, the doomed Romanov tsarevich, was such a central figure to the novel This is a novel about the last days of the Romanovs, but in this story, the four princesses take a back seat to their younger bro...The Romanovs have their own special cottage industry in historical fiction The romances, the revolution, the eggs, the hemophilia, the assignations, WWI, Anastasia and Rasputin have all combined to make the Romanovs the most fictionalized royals this side of the Tudors So you have to figure that a writer must have a powerful love for those families and or feel as though they have something new to bring to the already existing legends in order to pen another 80,000 words on them Is this why Ka The Romanovs have their own special cottage industry in historical fiction The romances, the revolution, the eggs, the hemophilia, the assignations, WWI, Anastasia and Rasputin have all combined to make the Romanovs the most fictionalized royals this side of the Tudors So you have to figure that a writer must have a powerful love for those...I desperately wanted to love this book The cover, the Romanov s, the tragedy of Russia during this time period it should all add up to be heart wrenchingly beautiful. but it was lacking a bit for me.There s no doubt that Kathryn Harrison is a writer who commands attention she had to have been otherwise I think I may have put the book down about halfway through Instead, I persevered, muddling my way through fragments of stories until I reached the end I think...I love learning new things Usually they come in the form of lessons Slamming your hand in the oven hurts Trees don t move, avoid running into them Leave the gun take the canoli but in that rare opportunity that I get to expand my brain under the assumption of pure entertainment I get giddy.When I was in High School, Disney released a movie called Anastasia I loved this movie Don t judge me and as a result became unabashedly obsessed with the Romanov dynasty I watched movies about t I love learning new things Usually they come in the form of lessons Slamming your hand in the oven hurts Trees don t move, avoid running into them Leave the gun take the canoli but in that rare opportunity that I get to expand my brain under the assumption of pure entertainment I get giddy.When I was in High School, Disney released a movie called Anastasia I loved this movie Don t judge me and as a result became unabashedly obsessed with the Romanov dynasty I watched movies about them, I scoured every National Geographic I could find, and pretty much made the local library my bitch I just couldn t get enough But ...While I was in college, I got to see the Nicholas and Alexandra Exhibition in Wilmington, DE that included, among other things, lots of jewels, a wealth of photos, and the blood stained and bullet riddled wall where the royal family was executed It was a sight I wasn t prepared for, and made for me the tragedy of the Romanovs uncomfortably real Since then, I ve been taken with fiction about that doomed family, in search of...

Enchantments
  • English
  • 06 December 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 314 pages
  • 1400063477
  • Kathryn Harrison
  • Enchantments