- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz (20 Jan 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575072318
- ISBN-13: 978-0575072312
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,117,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Limits of Enchantment
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Review
"Some wonderful social comedy as well as a sense of potential betrayal. He is a writer fascinated by his factual material, and by characters who would not be the same without it." (Roz Kaveney The Independent )
"Intricate, involving.. Joyce has produced a wonderful portrait of England. This remarkable novel should scoop Joyce out of the dusty corners of bookshops and introduce his work to a much wider readership." (Josh Lacey The Guardian )
"Joyce unfolds a beguiling story of witchraft with the kind of confidence and skill that comes from depth of experience. A very fine, very subtle novel." (SFX )
"Joyce is one of our great novelists, one of the treasures of our time" (Rick Kleffel Trashotron )
"Joyce's ear for dialect and his loving recreation of an almost forgotten world enable him to transcend genre. A sly comedy of manners with magical flavourings." (Lorne Jackson The Sunday Mercury )
"Mystery and possibly magic aside, this is a quiet tale of a journey into womanhood and of bucolic England during a period of change." (Simon Baker TLS )
"As solid, balanced, and finely tuned as anything Joyce has written, and that is tantamount to saying it's about as finely tuned as any recent fiction we have." (Gary K Wolfe LOCUS )
"Joyce weaves a vibrant, skilfull portrait of both worlds, peopled with credible and fascinating characters so convincing you'd believe he'd lived through it. The book is gripping, and the writing from this one-man genre astonisingly accomplished. It will live with you long after you grudgingly turn that final page. Graham Joyce is a magnificent writer. A national treasure." (Rob Grant Dreamwatch )
"Intricate, involving.. Joyce has produced a wonderful portrait of England. This remarkable novel should scoop Joyce out of the dusty corners of bookshops and introduce his work to a much wider readership." (Josh Lacey The Guardian )
"Joyce unfolds a beguiling story of witchraft with the kind of confidence and skill that comes from depth of experience. A very fine, very subtle novel." (SFX )
"Joyce is one of our great novelists, one of the treasures of our time" (Rick Kleffel Trashotron )
"Joyce's ear for dialect and his loving recreation of an almost forgotten world enable him to transcend genre. A sly comedy of manners with magical flavourings." (Lorne Jackson The Sunday Mercury )
"Mystery and possibly magic aside, this is a quiet tale of a journey into womanhood and of bucolic England during a period of change." (Simon Baker TLS )
"As solid, balanced, and finely tuned as anything Joyce has written, and that is tantamount to saying it's about as finely tuned as any recent fiction we have." (Gary K Wolfe LOCUS )
"Joyce weaves a vibrant, skilfull portrait of both worlds, peopled with credible and fascinating characters so convincing you'd believe he'd lived through it. The book is gripping, and the writing from this one-man genre astonisingly accomplished. It will live with you long after you grudgingly turn that final page. Graham Joyce is a magnificent writer. A national treasure." (Rob Grant Dreamwatch )
Roz Kaveney, The Independent
"Some wonderful social comedy as well as a sense of potential betrayal. He is a writer fascinated by his factual material, and by characters who would not be the same without it."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical realism,
By Libran Librarian (Devizes, Wiltshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Limits of Enchantment (Paperback)
In Fern Cullen, the story's narrator, Graham Joyce has found a heartwarming and realistic voice. The story is about Fern and her adoptive "Mammy" who live on the outskirts of a village in the 1960's. They are slightly outside of society because they practise the old arts of hedgerow medicine. The pair have in many ways been left behind by time but they are largely left in peace by the villagers until one of Mammy's potions goes fatally wrong. Joyce's descriptions of Mammy's herbal concoctions and their uses are well researched and believable. Fern battles with her own doubts about the magic they perform. When Mammy is taken ill, Fern is thrust into the real world of 1960's Britain. In some ways she is very innocent in the ways of the world and yet this is in contrast to the ways of the sage which she has learned from Mammy.
As a reader you warm to the plight of Fern but Joyce does not let the character or his readers down with this fine book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Are you ready to Ask?,
By
This review is from: The Limits of Enchantment (Paperback)
Set in the mid 1960s, this book also harks back to English paganism and the age-old history of witchcraft. In the rural backwater where Fern lives with Mammy, who is not her birth-mother but with whom she has a great bond, the community is about to be invaded by a colony of hippies, who bring their dissolute life-style with them and divide the opinions of local gentry and villagers alike. There is trouble afoot from the moment Mammy is forced into hospital, leaving Fern vulnerable, not just to the hippies, but to the semi-hostile intent of almost everyone else. Mammy is an (unregistered) midwife and a known procurer of abortions for unlucky girls who have been `caught'. She is also a kind of pagan witch, who has knowledge of white magic. And Fern knows most of her secrets.
The mystical moments in this novel are handled with faultless assurance and delicacy and Fern, the narrator throughout, is honest about both her unwillingness to believe in her legacy, and the events that lead her into a kind of belief. Vulnerable and powerful, both, she has to find a way to compromise with the world around her, which she does - in the end. But there are dangers and antagonisms to be overcome first. Effortlessly straddling both ancient and modern belief systems, Joyce's book is a total delight. A hypnotic read from the first page to the last.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews) 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Limits of Enchantment,
By K. Freeman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Limits of Enchantment (Hardcover)
In 1960's Britain, apprentice herb-witch and midwife Fern must deal with her foster mother's illness, hostile landlords, and her own conflicting desires.
This is a sweet, quiet story, told in understated, sophisticated language. The plot -- young person comes of age and joins society by making the right friends -- is familiar, but it is well realized here. Magical elements are vivid but never overexplained, and the subtle characterization works well. To me there's a slight lack of tension and genuine danger, but I still enjoyed the book a lot. This might appeal to readers of Richard Grant's books about Pippa the witch, and readers of Jonathan Carroll and Gregory Maguire as well as, obviously, those who have enjoyed Joyce's other work. 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enchanting,
By Chez "eshem" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Limits of Enchantment (Hardcover)
At the outset, let me say this: anything written by Graham Joyce is well worth reading.
Having said that, this novel did not invoke the little thrills of supernatural delight that some of his other novels have produced in me - 'Requiem' being by far the best in my opinion. After reading the latter, I immediately procured every available novel written by this author, and in general, have not been disappointed. With the release of 'Facts of Life', the general ambience of high strangeness common to most of Joyce's works changed - perhaps to suit a wider audience. It obviously worked well, because 'Facts of Life' won the 2003 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and it seems to me that this novel, The Limits of Enchantment, is in the same genre. It is exactly that: enchanting and charming - but lacking the weird magic that so attracted me to Joyce's work in the first place. 18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joyce is Magic,
By AuthorStore Editors - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Limits of Enchantment (Hardcover)
Ever since reading The Tooth Fairy, we have looked forward to releases from Graham Joyce. In book after book, Mr. Joyce has found a way to connect us with a world just beyond our senses, a world that we suspect exists in our most primitive brains but perhaps have become too "civilized" to accept anymore.
In The Limits of Enchantment, Mr. Joyce tells a tale of modern midwifery (circa late 1960's). Fern is a daughter to Mammy, an elderly midwife whom we might consider a witch. There is a warlock too in an old man named John and many other characters dancing about the shadows who appear to possess or at least believe in hedgerow magic. This isn't a fantasy book though. It's a tale of tough living in small-town England. It's a social tale about class and power and the cycle of life as the reigns are passed down from one generation to the next. Fern is passing into true adulthood and she is unsure of herself, unsure of the way life seems to be pressing itself in on her. She wants to believe in the old ways but she's not sure. She wants to give in to love with a local man, but again she's unsure. This is a powerful book with a few twists and turns to keep the pages flying. Try to read it and not come away looking for ravens in the sky and eyes peeping from a hedge. Try to read it and not feel a true sense of humanity when the end comes. These emotions come whether you want them or not, just as life presses in on Fern no matter how much she'd rather run. |
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