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    Enon: A Novel
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    Enon: A Novel
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    Enon: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Enon: A Novel

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY
    The Wall Street Journal • American Library Association • Kirkus Reviews

    A stunning allegorical novel about one man's enduring love for his daughter

    Hailed as "a masterpiece" (NPR), Tinkers, Paul Harding's Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, is a modern classic. The Dallas Morning News observed that "like Faulkner, Harding never shies away from describing what seems impossible to put into words." Here, in Enon, Harding follows a year in the life of Charlie Crosby as he tries to come to terms with a shattering personal tragedy. Grandson of George Crosby (the protagonist of Tinkers), Charlie inhabits the same dynamic landscape of New England, its seasons mirroring his turbulent emotional odyssey. Along the way, Charlie's encounters are brought to life by his wit, his insights into history, and his yearning to understand the big questions. A stunning mosaic of human experience, Enon affirms Paul Harding as one of the most gifted and profound writers of his generation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 10, 2013
    ISBN9780385364065
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Enon

    3.5/5

    146 ratings57 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A wonderfully written novel that I will never read again.
    • 3/5
      Excellent writing, but slightly dull.
    • 5/5
      Enon by Paul Harding is set in the same New England town as his Pulitzer Prize winning Tinkers. In Enon Charlie Crosby's life slowly spirals downward and falls apart after his thirteen year old daughter, Kate, is accidentally struck and killed by a van. Five days after Kate's funeral, Charlie punches a wall and breaks his hand. After taking Charlie to the emergency room, his wife, Susan, goes to stay with her family in Minnesota - and never returns. Charlie soon becomes addicted to the painkillers he has obtained for his broken hand. He is chasing his pain killers with copious amounts of whiskey in order to deal with the emotional pain and grief.

      As we are privy to Charlie's thoughts, the descriptions of the world around him, the scenes he recalls, the reminiscences of past memories make the world in Charlie's mind the more tangible existence. Charlie is not just grieving. He is overwhelmed by grief. His grief has become the one reason for his existence. Even while he recalls memories from his childhood, and his life with Susan and Kate, all the memories are tinted with the anguish he feels over Kate's death. He is a man who is sacrificing himself to atone for his daughter's death. Kate was his hope for the future.

      While a man's life falling apart after the tragic death of a child is a sombre subject matter, Harding's writing is exquisitely wrought and wonderfully eloquent. We can see and hear and feel everything Charlie is describing. Even while we know that his approach to mourning is self-destructive, Harding has imbibed Charlie with such articulation in his grieving. As he walks the streets and fields of Enon at night, he shares his stories. As he runs out of legal painkillers and turns to illegally obtained drugs, his behavior becomes more erratic. He is crying for help and it seems no one is listening or trying to reach him, to bring him back, to help him mourn and grieve and, hopefully, heal in a safe way.

      Emotionally, Enon is not an easy novel to read. Some readers may have a hard time sympathizing with Charlie's overwhelming grief due to the dangerous choices he makes and how it overtakes his whole life. Others may tire of his self-reflection and stories. But I think that if you decide to commit to reading Enon, you will not regret it. It's not going to be light-hearted fluff, but it will open up to your scrutiny a man slowing being consumed by his grief.

      Very Highly Recommended


      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Random House via Netgalley for review purposes.


    • 4/5
      Enon by Paul Harding is a novel about personal loss experienced terribly in a safe environment. Charlie Crosby descended from a multi-generational family living in an area of New England that was an important stage for events in American history. The Crosbys have lived for hundreds of years in Enon, a rural town connected originally via Post Road to Boston. Charlie always had a sense of belonging and personal importance because of his heritage, appreciation of the land and wildlife, and willingness to spend his life laboring in the beautiful countryside of the Enon River. His strong but incomplete identity is destroyed by the unpredictable death of a family member, his own contribution to the long line of Crosbys.All stability in Charlie's life falls apart in his mind resulting in withdrawal from people and actions that were important to him, though he did not appreciate them before the death of his daughter. He withdraws emotionally from his wife, coworkers, and friends and tries in vain to create a lyrical to the land and legends of Enon. Wandering around the town in the late night/early morning like a ghost of America's past, Charlie experiences physical pain from a self-inflicted injury brought on by a token gesture. Self-medicating his wound with pain pills and whiskey, the scion of a proud family indulges in a sham of addiction (the physical dependence is real) trying to find meaning in his life by chasing memories of growing up in a stable tradition. Of course, Charlie knows he is play acting at grief and indulging in a half-baked addiction drawing down his treasure of connection with family and the natural richness of the Enon area.Harding has created an interesting portrait of a man who knows he is acting foolishly in the context of his personal history and the legacy of life in Enon. Will Charlie give up his romantic attachment to important life values that he always knew about but never made the effort to understand realistically? If so, will he find an essential separate peace in the land of his ancestors? I recommend that you read this good novel of a man too insightful to remain "not himself" for very long.
    • 3/5
      I found this book difficult. The subject matter is hard, but the lack of humanity was the hardest part. A man is in the small town he grows up in and his daughter is killed in a terrible accident. His wife, a teacher, leaves and gives up trying to contact him when he unplugs his cell phone. He falls apart with no one in the town intervening, even when he has become addicted to drugs. Harding's writing is poetic while I'm reading it, but I forget it, maybe because the characters don't seem real to me. I read Tinkers but I couldn't tell you 1 thing about it a year later.
    • 3/5
      With little action, but much insight into human nature, Enon follows Charlie, the primary character, as he reacts to a life-changing tragedy. Harding succeeded in making me feel totally immersed in the town of Enon and into Charlie's struggles, but at the same time, he showed me just how self-centered a reader I am. I had trouble relating to Charlie and his decisions. My lack of interest coupled with the dense prose made this a rather slow read. When I finally made it to the end, I found a beautiful and moving resolution and was happy to see some character development had occurred.
    • 2/5
      There is some beautiful nature writing in Enon, Paul Harding's follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers, but the story of Charlie Crosby's grief is marred by mawkishness and tinny dialogue. One wants to like the book; Charlie is a sympathetic character and Harding, who seems to be trying hard to write something serious here, a sympathetic author. But his efforts are not enough, everything feels artificial save the nature descriptions, while scenes between humans (and Charlie's memories of his dead daughter) seem more appropriate for a Lifetime movie than for literary fiction.
    • 3/5
      Although I think the novel is well-written, I abandoned the story about half-way through. The mood is somber - I can't say anything about the resolution of the story.
    • 4/5
      While the topic was potentially depressing, the book was well written and insightful. There was a raw realism to the writing and I felt like I understood and was empathetic with the character.
    • 3/5
      Having read the wonderful reviews of Harding's Tinkers (but the not the book itself), I was delighted to receive Enon as an early reviewer selection. My delight turned, however, to bewilderment about halfway through the novel. At it's beginning, the story is compelling, detailing the accidental death of a much loved only child. The prose is a pleasure, and the first person account convincing, but too quickly, it becomes weighed down with wordiness, and seemingly pointless, detailed descriptions of the history and toppography of the town of Enon.In fairness, Charlie, the father of the deceased Kate, deteriorates in a way that may accurately recpresent the descent into hopelessness and despair following the death of a loved one. His long, sometimes bizarre, ramblings may, in fact, give the reader insight into the depths of grief that seem to have no resolution and no end. For me, the book went on too long and said too little, although, it certainly has its merits. The language, dialogue and imagery made the beginning and end worth reading.
    • 4/5
      LT Early Reviewer's Edition,Although this was far from an easy read, it was one I definitely enjoyed. There were times when I wanted to smack the main character upside the head, and tell him to get it together. There were also many questions as to what was really going on around him. Is it possible that everyone knew his situation but no one said anything? The fact that these things continued to trouble me reminded me that the story had touched a nerve. There are some things that should be clarified, but worth the read.
    • 5/5
      Paul Harding's first novel, Tinkers, appeared to have captured lightning. It was a small book published by a small press. It was the story of an old man dying in his living room, thinking of his family who came before and who followed him. It also was a brilliant, eloquent, poetic, unflinching look at love, family and flawed human beings who deserve admiration and forgiveness. It won the Putlizer in one of those instances where the winner honored the award.Harding's second novel mines similar territory and, similarly, captures lightning. Charlie Crosby is the grandson of George Crosby from Tinkers. He has suffered the tragedy of Kate, his young daughter, dying when her bicycle is struck by a distracted mom chauffering her own children. Charlie knows he is sinking into oblivion but he is too filled with despair to change.The year following his daughter's death is a portrait of relentless grief. No matter where his mind may wander -- remembering times spent with his beloved grandfather or adored daughter -- Charlie always comes crashing back to the realization that Kate is gone. Not even the painkillers and booze keep that knowledge at bay for long.There is a quietness in Harding's beautiful prose that permeates this study of a New Englander who loves his hometown nearly as much as he loves his daughter. That quietness, that underlying awareness that knowledge and strength can come to those who persevere, help turn this portrait of sorrow into one of the fullness of life.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautiful tale of the process of grief.
    • 1/5
      The first word that came to mind when I finished this book was improbable. I found nothing I could relate to in this main character. Sometimes it seemed like the author got a thesaurus and started picking out words. Maybe I just don't get this author, didnt care for Tinker either. I had to force myself to keep reading in several places.
    • 3/5
      Paul Harding continues the story of the Crosby family in the small, New England town of Enon by picking up with Tinker's George Crosby's grandson Charlie. The book follows Charlie through a year in his life after a devastating tragedy. It explores the raw reality of prescription drug abuse and the descent into madness it can cause. If you enjoy Paul Harding's word, frenetic style, you will enjoy this book. I find it to be a bit flowery and hard to follow. The vast majority of the book is so hopeless I found it difficult to continue to the end.
    • 2/5
      In my opinion this novel suffers from Post-Pulitzer Syndrome. The author won the Pulitzer prize for his previous work, Tinkers, which was quite a good book. Clearly the publisher saw the $$ signs light up and knew what "Pulitzer Prize winning author" on the cover does for a book sales and they got this into print as soon as possible, despite the fact that about 50% of it is complete rubbish. Harding even included a couple of characters from Tinkers to help trade on the success of his first work. Any book editor worth his/her salt should have excised vast proportions of this manuscript but clearly Mr Harding had the credentials to push it though and the profit-driven executives at Random House just wanted any Harding book on the shelves.Unfortunately for me, the worst part of the book comes after the first 50 pages. If I had started with the rubbish part I would have invoked the Nancy Pearl rule and returned it to the library mostly unread. I was already committed, however, by the time the writing turned to mush and I felt I ought to keep reading to the bitter end. Sorry Paul, you're crossed off my list. I suggest you go back to playing the drums.
    • 4/5
      A gut- wrenching portrayal of bottomless, capsizing and overwhelming grief and self-loathing, suffered by Charlie Crosby upon the senseless death of his young daughter. On the surface a tale of a yearlong descent into drug addiction and petty crime. Threading throughout are mystical ruminations on ghosts, family, his ancestry, the history of Enon, and cherished memories of his childhood and his daughter. I liked that the narrative swept from topic to another in never ending streams of consciousness and hallucinatory reality. Deep grief is rarely well organized or rational, so this rang true to me. Multiple generations of Crosbys (familiar to readers of "Tinkers") have populated the mythical New England town of Enon. Charlie has spent his entire life there. That no one stepped in to help was less convincing. Wonderful characterizations, particularly of Charlie's grandfather and the widow in the large house. Mine was an audiobook narrated by the author. Perhaps a professional actor would have rescued this from the one note dirge of grief.
    • 4/5
      I'm familiar with experiencing personal, heart rending loss, but less familiar with allowing that to let oneself fall into a terrible downward spiral that is this novel's main line. This book was a hard read. Perhaps that speaks to the writer's skill and integrity. Harding is a master with word choice, with verbs that pick and poke and stick, with lengthy, exploratory sentences, with a page or two trailing into dense and detailed imagining. Still this was a hard book to read. The downward spiral seemed of infinite depth, much of it anchored in life of the mind, imagination, dream, hallucination, drugs, and addiction. At times I was anxious to get back to some facts, some open-eyed, in the daylight events, to have the story move forward. I even skimmed through some of the lengthy hallucinatory pages, and considered putting the book down long before finishing. But the book never lost touch with its center. I was happy that I stuck it out. But this book was a hard read.
    • 3/5
      Charlie Crosby lives in a ramshackle house in the small New England town of Enon, along with his wife, Susan, and his strong-willed 13 year old daughter, Kate, who he respects and adores immensely even though he shares none of her positive traits. He dropped out of college soon after Susan became pregnant while they were students, and his meager income as a house painter supplements the money she earns as a teacher. His relationship with Kate is far stronger than the one he shares with his wife, who tolerates his idiosyncrasies and failures for the sake of their daughter.Charlie's world comes crashing down on an August evening, when Kate is killed by a motorist while riding her bicycle. While Susan tries to cope with her grief and look ahead, Charlie is caught in a web of morbid anguish and self pity. Unable to deal with her emotional and physical invalid of a husband, Susan returns to her family in Minnesota, leaving Charlie alone with his ennui and angst.The novel jumps back and forth to events of Charlie's childhood and adult life, interspersed with his memories of Kate. His life slowly unravels, as he stops working and succumbs to a deep psychological torpor while he isolates himself from his neighbors and wallows in self pity.Enon was a disjointed patchwork of a book, with unrelated fragments set next to one another like the pieces of a puzzle that have just been dumped onto a table. The snapshots were occasionally interesting in themselves, but the lack of a unified plot and Charlie's unlikable, navel-gazing character made this a tedious and largely unenjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      Paul Harding is an incredible writer. He can make a setting alive in ways other writers cannot. I loved Tinkers and was so excited to receive this book as an Early Reviewer. The writing is once again beautiful. But the story - a year in the life of Charlie whose only daughter Kate is killed while riding her bicycle - is just a trough of misery. Charlie is in the depths of grief and for good reason. The only bond between him and his wife Susan apparently is Kate and with her death, Susan moves out of town and basically out of the book. Charlie is on his own to navigate despair and profound grief. I felt for him but I needed more in terms of a story. I feel sure that this is an accurate portrayal of life after losing a child. But I needed something else. I go back to Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay who wrote beautifully about grieving the death of a child. There was more to Blue Water than just a person reeling in misery. I will await Harding's next book and hope for something more like Tinkers.
    • 5/5
      This is a stunning book about grief and the madness that sometimes ensues after a major loss. The story follows the downward spiral of Charlie after the devastating loss of his young daughter. And that loss encompasses more than just the daughter he knew and loved, but the life the daughter may have led had she lived. At times, the sheer emotional weight of the subject may overwhelm some readers, but that too helps to understand the depths of this man's grief.
    • 3/5
      13 year old Kate is killed while bicycling home from the beach. The reader follows the downward spiral of her father's life after this event.I guess I was hoping that this would be an uplifting story of a father's love for a child lost too early in life. But, I only found a whiny character and a depressing story.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Harding has written a story that is primarily about one character. The author's talent comes through as to how one reacts to "Charlie" the novel's protagonist. Charlie is a wounded man. While some readers may find Charlie to be a character to be pitied, others may find him pathetic. Whatever emotion Charlie evokes, it Is due to the way the author creates him. Paul Harding is very strong on character development, his talent lies in creating someone we will "know" when the last page is turned. I liked this book about on the same level I enjoyed Tinkers. Enon is a different type of read......not an "oh wow" novel but a quieter experience that leaves one to contemplate what it means to survive a major tragedy.
    • 3/5
      ENON is a tragic story that speaks to its reader on a visceral level. The first-person narrative weaves in and out of straightforward prose and drug-induced hallucinatory imagery. The author uses this and other thematic elements to symbolize the depth of the protagonist's (Charlie Crosby's) emotional pain and his increasing inability to deal with his grief.Crosby's eventual healing is closely connected to the small hometown he loves so much - Enon. This is where Paul Harding's skill as an author shines. Harding understands the unseen inner workings of small town life - the compassion, humanity and bond that exists between people who have shared generations of their lives together. He illustrates this relationship eloquently.I was not entirely affected by Harding's dreamscape phraseology. Stylistically, it lacked what it was trying to achieve - poetry. Some of the descriptions felt too long and drawn out, and somewhat forced. I found myself racing through these sections - restless. Likewise, despite the magnitude of the subject matter, I felt the story was ordinary. I waited for that moment when the author levels you with a significantly profound and revelatory thought. Unfortunately, it never happened. Despite this, I found the author's insights and sense of humanity compelling. His treatment of the subject matter was sensitive and intuitive. Where Enon is not a magnificent read, it is certainly a good one.
    • 3/5
      Most of my books have ratings of 4 or 5...I usually don't finish those that haven't hooked me in some way. I made myself get through Enon because I felt obligated to be able to write a review but it proved to be a hard, really hard, slog. The first person protagonist, Charlie, has lost his daughter Kate to an horrendous accident at the start of the novel and for the next year of his life he wallows in grief, addiction and delusion and he drags the reader along with him. Harding's prose is adequate and, even at times, beautiful but didn't ring true to me....Charlie's internal monologue with his endless metaphors and illusions bored me beyond tears. I found it hard to comprehend someone so self-involved that he was unable to find any compassion or offer any comfort to his wife who, one assumes, must be going through the same hell. She, understandably, leaves him shortly after Kate dies and Charlie is left to fall into a downward spiral of his own making. His musings on the daughter are borderline creepy...she was his obsession and seemed to be his only reason to live. It's an understatement to say that I didn't enjoy my time spent with Enon.
    • 4/5
      This book tracks the deterioration and collapse of the life of Charlie Crosby after his 13 year old daughter is killed in an accident. The title of the work is taken from the name of the town in which Crosby lives, and has lived throughout his life. His deep roots in the town do little to provide him with a support system and this man, tragically bereaved, slips away seemingly unobserved by friends or neighbors. As Charlie works through his pain, and the chaos he makes of his own life in the course of his frantic grieving, he seems almost invisible. The author has created a memorable character and the economy of his writing style makes it possible for the reader to simply experience the work, with little awareness of the technical aspects of the writing--in my opinion, the very best sort of writing. As an aside, Mr. Harding's opening paragraph is one of the best I've read in years. I won't quote it here but it is short, breathtakingly affecting, and draws the reader right into the story at full speed.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of Enon from The LibraryThing through the Early Reviewers program and let me start off by saying that I could not put this book down. The writing is exquisite. Paul Harding takes the reader on a roller coaster of feelings, from sadness at witnessing the tragic loss of the main character's only child, through sympathy at Charlie's attempts to lash out and cope with the crushing blow, to finally, almost embarrassment at how low he sank in the midst of his grief. In the beginning of the novel, the glimpses we see into Charlie's life prior to the tragedy revolved around the immeasurable love for his only child, 13 year-old Kate. It seemed like almost every sentence had some kind of a reference to the girl, which had a heartwarming effect. Even his marriage seemed to be held together only by the fact that there was a child involved. Therefore, it's all the more heart wrenching, when the one thing he truly cared about is so brutally taken away. Charlie spirals into a year long despair, abundant in drugs and alcohol, during which he nearly drives himself to the brink of insanity. The only negative thing I have to say about the entire book, is that while some descriptions of Charlie's nightmares and hallucinations are overly drawn out, the part that I considered to be the climax of the story, where he attempts a suicide and afterwards finally pulls himself together, is wrapped up in a span of a few pages. Other than that little side note, I thought the book was great, and I would like to thank LibraryThing once again for giving me the opportunity to read and review it.
    • 4/5
      With his debut novel Tinkers, Paul Harding won a Pulitzer Prize. For the follow-up, Enon, expectations are set. Written in the first person, the author follows a year in the life of Charles Washington Crosby ('Charlie') in which he tries to come to terms with a double personal tragedy: his daughter Kate dies after a car hits her and his wife Susan simply leaves right after the cremation. Charlie cannot handle it at all, and is further off-balance when he breaks his hand as well. Broken hearts beat on, and so does Charlie. But not without a serious drugs addiction, psychological derailment, hallucinations, countless visits to the graveyard, memories of the past and present of New England's Enon en raw conversations with neighbors the few times in this story he sees daylight. Grandson of George Crosby (the protagonist of Tinkers), eventually tries to commit suicide in a couple of ways, and then finds peace. Clever, beautiful long sentences when thinking and contemplating, contrasting slang in the conversations with others. Enon keeps you engaged to the end.
    • 3/5
      I am grateful to librarything for their Early Reviewer program!I love getting ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) of books. I feel as though I'm on the inside and am getting a sneak preview of what has not yet been released. Paul Harding wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning book, TINKERS, which I liked very much. Told through the wandering memory of an old man near the end of his life, it was short and quite lovely. Liking TINKERS so well made me eager to read Harding's second book, especially when I found out that the main character in ENON (Charlie), is related to the main character in TINKERS (George). I like it when authors connect their books like that. So, onto ENON. The title was a little off-putting. What is Enon? A person? A place? Does the word have some other meaning that will be explained in the book?? I could get past that, though. Into the story. Charlie narrates, Charlie, a middle-aged man with a 13 year old daughter who dies. On the first page. Um... Charlie struggles with his daughter's death, and the narrative meanders from the present to the past to the further past as Charlie, so deep in his grief, struggles with his life now that his only child is dead. The meandering narration didn't work as well as it did in TINKERS. I found myself getting annoyed at the wandering..."He already told this same story five pages ago, and he's telling it again? And I'm only 20 pages in..." I wanted to like this book. It might have been that I wasn't attracted to the sad story. It might have been the wandering narration. I read TINKERS not too long after my own mother died, so perhaps it felt more pertinent to me. Or maybe it was the combination of the sad story and the meandering narration. Or it could have been that this just wasn't the right time for this book for me. I'll be interested to see how well others liked ENON. Thanks again, librarything, for the ARC!
    • 4/5
      There is no doubt that Paul Harding writes in descriptive, lyrical prose that evokes vivid images in the mind. As many others have noted, this book did not have a typical plot but rather focused on the devastating effects of Charlie Crosby's grief in the year following his daughter's accidental death. I found the writing profound and wonderful, but agree that at times it was overwhemlming and difficult to wade through all the descriptive adjectives and long sentences. Every memory or experience is deeply linked to location and the town of Enon features prominently in this novel. I appreciated this book as a work of skilled writing and construction, but at times my attention waned and it felt more like a chore to work through certain parts. One part that struck a chord with me was when Charlie attempts to work through his loss as some sort of macabre math problem, trying to factor some slight chance of hope into the equation. Overall, I enjoyed this book, however, readers should be aware that it is certainly no light, quick read. You must be willing to just live in the prose instead of seeking a linear plot structure with definitive resolution. It is worth the read, in my opinion.