ŷ������

It's just not my type of book. Period. It was a book club choice, so I tried to get over my Scroogeishness & just read the darn thing in the spirit of being a good book club member. At least I finished it. Part of my grumpiness is that I don't like Charles Dickens' books much (if at all) & the other part is that maudlin stories are not my style of book. My idea of Christmas fun is to watch Die Hard, so the traditional type of Christmas tale isn't at the top of my list of favorites.

There's a whole Bob-the-cat, now a letter opener thing that was bothersome. This is my own issue & not particularly pertinent to this actual book, but it is somewhat pertinent in that Silva does mention letter openers a few times (including Dickens using the letter opener to clean under his fingernails).

For background on my strange aside, look here: .

Yes, it's real. I saw it in person at the NY Public Library a few years back. The photo in the linked article makes it look better than it looked in real life (which was looking pretty mangy). A side note: I know paper sizes were different back then, but this letter opener is really large -- like the size of a dagger. Was that normal? The entire thing was so strange when I saw it. I adore cats. I adore that Charles Dickens loved cats too & had deaf Bob as a favorite. But, but.... I am haunted by Bob the cat's taxidermied arm as a letter opener handle.

Every mention of a letter opener or a cat in this book brought Bob the letter opener to mind. To be fair, this is not Silva's fault.

It's sappy. Predictable. Way too many mentions of "random" people who are characters (some major, some minor) who are names of characters in various Dickens books. It's fun a couple of times, but not after that. Way too much description in parts. (A complaint I have about Charles Dickens' writing too.)

Really, Charles Dickens as a character is a pretty unlikable cad throughout most of the book. Take the first four letters of his last name & that's what he was quite a bit. And he seemed awfully willing to run after not just one, but two, different women for inspiration for writing, while ignoring the fact that he was a self-serving, whiny husband with a lovely wife & many kids. He had been described from the beginning of the book to be so blessed with his wife & kids, just praise & more praise about the family. And, then, boom. He runs off to see another woman. She's aged from their younger days together & not so attractive anymore, so he's suddenly not interested. Stereotype much? Of course woman/muse number two is younger, gorgeous, etc. He has zero problems pursuing &, at times, almost stalking her. Again, stereotype much? I have little patience for men like that. Or maybe no patience. Blech. (I think a lot of people who are loving this book in reviews seem to be overlooking this donkey-like behavior of his. Along with his self-pity & wallowing.)

In relation to the comments in #4, yes, I fully realize this was a trope where he was supposed to be Scrooge-like, thus setting him up for his epiphany at the end. If you like predictable, I guess that's fine. I found it ho-hum.

There's not a lot of plot/action as it's really mostly Dickens walking around London (or chasing his muse) while in a writer's funk over feeling forced into writing a Christmas story on a short deadline. (I think most of us know that he actually succeeded in meeting that deadline, so any excitement that may have added to the plot is just not there. Not that a writer meeting a deadline is usually an edge-of-your-seat plot device....)

The "plot twist" was... I'm not even sure what to say. Probably predictable (I hadn't really thought about it prior to the reveal), but really just kind of silly in a way, just another way to reinforce the tropes.

A theme of the book was an argument against the commercialization of Christmas, the over-consumption, the greed. Guess what? The finale results in them having their annual extravaganza -- an always better than last year's (must always strive to outdo oneself every.single.year), more expensive, more decorated, more flashy, more food, completely over-the-top party like they always do. Guess they're not good at learning their own lessons? Or, it's ok if you're giving money to charity & telling people "Merry Christmas" while continuing to overly indulge in your commercialized Christmas?