The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch
To overcome the issue, we now give you the innovation to obtain guide The Last Enchantments: A Novel, By Charles Finch not in a thick printed documents. Yeah, checking out The Last Enchantments: A Novel, By Charles Finch by on the internet or getting the soft-file only to check out could be one of the ways to do. You might not feel that reviewing a book The Last Enchantments: A Novel, By Charles Finch will certainly work for you. But, in some terms, May individuals successful are those who have reading routine, included this type of this The Last Enchantments: A Novel, By Charles Finch
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch
Ebook PDF The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch
The Last Enchantments is a powerfully moving and lyrically written novel. A young American embarks on a year at Oxford and has an impassioned affair that will change his life foreverAfter graduating from Yale, William Baker, scion of an old line patrician family, goes to work in presidential politics. But when the campaign into which he's poured his heart ends in disappointment, he decides to leave New York behind, along with the devoted, ambitious, and well-connected woman he's been in love with for the last four years.
Will expects nothing more than a year off before resuming the comfortable life he's always known, but he's soon caught up in a whirlwind of unexpected friendships and romantic entanglements that threaten his safe plans. As he explores the heady social world of Oxford, he becomes fast friends with Tom, his snobbish but affable flat mate; Anil, an Indian economist with a deep love for gangster rap; Anneliese, a German historian obsessed with photography; and Timmo, whose chief ambition is to become a reality television star. What he's least prepared for is Sophie, a witty, beautiful and enigmatic woman who makes him question everything he knows about himself.
Charles Finch's The Last Enchantments is a sweeping novel about love and loss that redefines what it means to grow up as an American in the twenty-first century.
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch- Amazon Sales Rank: #667461 in Books
- Brand: Finch, Charles
- Published on: 2015-03-10
- Released on: 2015-03-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .85" w x 5.52" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 336 pages
From Booklist Lauded young mystery writer Finch captures the American perspective on aristocratic Oxford in this coming-of-age novel. William Baker leaves the political world of New York City behind, along with a well-connected girlfriend, Alison, to spend a year studying English literature at Fleet, a fictional Oxford college. He boards in a small cottage on campus with other graduate students, who introduce him to life as an English uni student. Tom Raleigh, William’s pedigreed Tory housemate, indoctrinates him into centuries-old traditions at Oxford, such as formal dinners and ritualized drinking games. Then he meets Sophie, a smart and proper Englishwoman, and begins to drift away from his well-heeled college sweetheart, Alison, and toward the romantic, literary life of Oxford. As in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, Oxford sets a regal and stunning backdrop to The Last Enchantments, giving it a timeless and rich ambience that is, well, enchanting. --Heather Paulson
Review
“This lovely novel invites the very kind of enchanted immersion that its protagonist experiences at Oxford. . . . Beautifully done.” ―Ann Packer, James Michener Award-winner and bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier
“Compelling. . . . William Baker's voice, vividly established in the opening line, is the most striking of this novel's many virtues.” ―Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena
“Finch achieves that rarest of tributes to Oxford University, fond but still clear-sighted. . . . The heart of The Last Enchantments is his Bright Young Things--too young for their own good, let loose upon the medieval city of sherry-sodden intellectuality and rain-soaked romantic debacle, bright about everything except love and life. A witty, touching coming-of-age tale in a town that never ages.” ―Wilton Barnhardt, author of Lookaway, Lookaway
“Irresistible . . . The novel bursts with intelligence and wit as Charles Finch brilliantly examines our most secret longings and desires. . . . The Last Enchantments casts an enduring spell. ” ―Amber Dermont, author of The Starboard Sea
“A witty, wonderful book about that tender age between college and true adulthood. Charles Finch's sensitive, lyrical and heartfelt writing charms to the very last page.” ―Cristina Alger, author of The Darlings
“Intense, fast-paced, psychologically intriguing, and wonderfully written, Will finds not only Sophie, the complicated, captivating woman who takes his heart and an unsettling group of friends, but over the course of a disturbing and entertaining year, he finds himself in surprising ways.” ―Susan Richards Shreve, author of You Are the Love of my Life
About the Author CHARLES FINCH is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. His novels include A Death in the Small Hours, An Old Betrayal and The Laws of Murder. He lives in Chicago.
Where to Download The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful. a lovely read, but that main character.... By Angela Reis I got the audio version of this book from First Reads and listened to the whole thing in one weekend of house chores and grading. Maybe you're supposed to spread it out more...The language in this book is beautiful, and the author clearly loves Oxford and the time he spent there -- I get the impression that there's a lot of himself in this. And he's a good writer. There are excerpt-able sentences here and there, and statements about the nature of life worth thinking about. The whole thing feels very thoughtful and nostalgic. If you read it for the snippets of philosophy and literary-level thinking, it's really very enjoyable.But I just can't get past the fact that I really don't like the main character, Will. His best friend Tom is rather unlikeable, too, but Tom actually undergoes change in the course of the book. He is affected deeply by tragedy and then, in recovery and grief, sets out to change, improve himself. Will, on the other hand, can't seem to be bothered to care about anything other than himself and his obsession with Sophie, and doesn't change or grow over the course of the novel. I found myself getting impatient with him. In this, he contrasts with just about all the characters around him.Grad school is simply an escape for Will. He didn't bother to mention what he was even studying until he was halfway through the book (yep, I'm a nerd and I consider this omission strange). He doesn't go far beyond the "drinking and hanging out and hooking up are fun" level of the Oxford experience. He's using Oxford as an excuse not to grow up, I suppose. Beautiful language. Little substance in Will.Early in the book, describing how he cheated on his girlfriend a mere 2 days after arriving at Oxford, Will asks the reader directly, "have I lost your sympathy"? Why yes, he had. And he never changed or self-reflected enough to get it back. He could have earned my sympathy again by caring about anything or anyone in a convincing way, but he never did. Still, there are other characters in the novel that I actually liked, and they saved the story for me. Maybe that's part of the point. Those around Will tend to be more, well, adult. Even the ones who don't need their degrees and are basically there for fun. (That's very foreign to me, but maybe it's more common than I think...)I should also mention that all the accents made the audiobook reading quite entertaining. I did enjoy it.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Pretty posh people with problems By E.M. Bristol Will Baker, the twentysomething protagonist of Charles FInch's "The Last Enchantments," has just arrived to study literature at Oxford, after working on the presidential election campaign for John Kerry with his girlfriend Alison. He is still upset at Kerry's loss and loathes George W. Bush for his victory and privileges, even as he recognizes that he, too, has a similarly privileged upbringing. Upon arrival, Will, who is about as bland as his name, meets a group of fellow students, with whom he will spend the next year, drinking, hanging out and hooking up with.About a hundred pages in, Will stops the narrative to tell us that none of this matters. There's about to be a Tragedy. This happens, and a character deals with it poorly but then manages to recover. This is it. Nothing of major note, nothing that transforms these people happens. They drink. They study. They have sex. They have discussions about whether or not to go skeet shooting or buy an expensive communal espresso machine. A mystery arises - someone is having sex on one of the common area tables and not cleaning up after himself - or herself. Such drama! Then this is solved, and they settle back into their usual routines. Will doesn't seem to grapple with any kind of existential angst. He is sometimes confused, but on the whole, a stable, if dull, guy. He wants to hook up and manages this with ease. As the year draws to an end, he needs to get a job, and gets offered not one, but three. Nothing life changing happens - which is maybe where the "enchantment" part comes in. But reading about a group of people in a state of prolonged irresponsibility does not make for an interesting read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Looking Forward to the Next Charles Lenox Book! By NLBHorton I read international suspense primarily, occasionally dipping my toe in historical fiction when I enjoy an author's work. I like Mr. Finch's Charles Lenox series--pre-order the books, in fact, and have rated some five stars--so was delighted to find The Last Enchantments.WHAT I LIKED: Mr. Finch does a good job of describing the demographic my son experienced during his year at St. Andrews in Scotland. Finch's descriptions of Oxford catch the essence of the place. As expected from his work on the Lenox series, he can turn a phrase with the best of them.WHAT I DISLIKED: Mr. Finch's excellent description of reckless youth bored me to tears. (In fairness, I should note that reckless youth bore me to tears.) I read fiction for enjoyment and to watch the characters develop, not be reminded of unbridled entitlement on a generational scale. Profanity offends me unless it is used with discretion and for a purpose. Gratuitous sex has its place, but that place is not in the books I read. I have always enjoyed Finch's vocabulary, which he uses with surgical precision in the Lenox series. However, his word usage in The Last Enchantments seemed incongruous and pompous in the contemporary setting. His verbal strength in the Lenox series is a weakness in The Last Enchantments.DISCLAIMER: I know that publishers and agents encourage authors to branch out after writing several books in a series. I hope that Mr. Finch's foray into puerile literature is a result of just such a strategic career move. However, I believe that for readers of his Lenox series, the move was a gross misstep.I do look forward to Home By Nightfall, the Lenox book I believe is releasing later this year.
See all 85 customer reviews... The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles FinchThe Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch PDF
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch iBooks
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch ePub
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch rtf
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch AZW
The Last Enchantments: A Novel, by Charles Finch Kindle
