Novella Reviews --- A CHRISTMAS CAROL; DEPT. OF SPECULATION; THE STRANGE LIBRARY

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball, Hand colored etching by John Leech from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens via Wikimedia Commons

Chapman and Hall, December 19, 1843, by Christmas eve A Christmas Carol was sold out. The original edition was 166 pages long, which included a few illustrations by John Leech.

"Marley was dead, to begin with." Thus begins the most endearing Christmas story ever published, one which even if you haven't read the book, like me until now, you likely are very familiar with the story. Ebenezer Scrooge is the biggest grinch of all times, before "grinch" was even a word. (Just in case you are wondering, the word "grinch" was coined by non other that Dr. Seuss in 1960 for his book How the Grinch Stole Christmas.) Of course there is a whole cast of ghosts and other memorable characters, who help succeed in the end by moving Scrooge from grinch to philanthropist, grumpy to warm and cheery. If only everyone could have such a thorough conversion in our world full of hateful grumps!

A few years ago I watched the movie, "The Man Who Created Christmas". The subtitle says it is based on the inspiring true story. Here are a few details I remember from it: Dickens was in need of money at the time: His latest book didn't sell well; he was remodeling his house; and was expected to support his father who he had conflicting feelings about. He had to write the book fast: he did write it fast, in less than six weeks; the illustrator he employed didn't even have a copy of the text from which to work. And lastly he had to confront his own past demons: he worked a shoe-blacking job to make money as a child because his father sent the family into poverty; he was very resentful about that. All these details were poured into the story.

Like many of Dickens’ other works, A Christmas Carol was written as a work of social commentary. Dickens had a lifelong devotion to helping the underserved due to his own family’s experiences with debtors prison, which forced him to drop out of school as a boy and work at a factory. As Dickens’ biographer Michael Slater described, the author thought of A Christmas Carol as a way to, “help open the hearts of the prosperous and powerful towards the poor and powerless…." (Arts.gov)

His efforts worked. In fact, there is more charitable giving at Christmas time than any other time of the year. We can thank Charles Dicken and Ebenezer Scrooge for that.

I must admit that I quite liked A Christmas Carol, even more than I thought I would. Dickens was such a good writer! Everytime I read something by him I think that same thought. Make it a Christmas tradition starting this year -- Read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens with your whole family.

My rating 4.25 stars.

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Knopf, Jan. 2014. 179 pages.

Back in July 2020 (remember those COVID pandemic days?) I spent a lot of time alone. My husband was working from home upstairs in our house and my domain was downstairs and the back porch. I was always trying to think of ways to entertain myself. On the day in question I climbed into our hot tub, got on a floatie and listened to the audiobook Weather by Jenny Offill, which I played from a portable speaker. As I floated above the hot water I was charmed by the quirky, clipped story of a librarian with a both a funny/odd and troubled family. It was great for the escapist reading I craved. I listened and floated long after I should have gotten out of the tub, totally absorbed.

Dept. of Speculation, published six years before the aforementioned Weather, is very similar in format and style. It is almost as if both books are really made up of just vignettes or thoughts which are clumped together into a story. In this story "the wife" and "the husband" are trying to make a life for themselves, often with not enough money and/or space. When "the husband" strays the reader is left wondering how this marriage will survive. And soon that thought is replaced by wondering if "the wife" will be able to hang onto her sanity. They do and she does, but it is all quite tenuous for a while.

When I was searching around for some insights into the book I found two reviews that were vastly different from each other. The reviewer for the NYT said much of the writing was "precious" and I understood that word to be negative. While the reviewer for NPR really liked the book and concluded the review with this summary,

Offill has successfully met the challenge she seems to have given herself: write only what needs to be written, and nothing more. No excess, no flab. And do it in a series of bulletins, fortune-cookie commentary, mordant observations, lyrical phrasing. And through these often disparate and disconnected means, tell the story of the fragile nature of anyone's domestic life.

Dept. of Speculation was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2014 by the NYT (after that "precious" review?). The paper's critics said of the novel, "Part elegy and park primal scream, it's a profound and unexpectedly buoyant performance."

My thought? Be prepared for something very different. My rating: 3.5 stars.

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

First published in Japanese in 2005. Translated into English in Dec. 2014 by Knopf. 96 pages.

The Strange Library is a nightmarish fairy tale about a lonely boy who gets trapped in a labyrinth under the library and is imprisoned until he can memorize three books about the Ottoman Empire's taxation system. At that time the ghoulish librarian will cut off his head and slurp up his brains. He escapes with the help of a man wearing sheep's clothing and a beautiful girl who can't speak and who is not quite solid. When he returns home his life isn't quite what it was before and now the boy even doubts that this nightmare really happened. 

As I was closing this odd little novella with its illustrations by Chip Kidd I wondered to myself about its audience. Clearly this wasn't a tale for children, so why package it like it was? Then I turned the last page and found the final paragraph in a much smaller, undecorated font. It states that the lonely boy's mother has died and now he is all alone. Oh, I thought, this book is an analogy for grief. Suddenly all the details in the story took on a new meaning and hue: The ghoulish librarian; The labyrinth; The transparent woman; References that point to disease; Living in a nightmare and feeling all alone.

Now I want to break into tears for the poor boy and for his loss.

My rating: 4 stars

-Anne