{"id":7131,"date":"2025-12-23T08:49:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=7131"},"modified":"2025-12-23T08:50:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:50:00","slug":"book-review-a-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laserfarm.com\/?p=7131","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: A Christmas Carol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Christmas Carol,<\/em> by Charles Dickens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re celebrating Christmas Week and Dickens Tuesday with my favorite Dickens! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Christmas Carol<\/em> is a perfect short story. It might be the best short story. Hell, it might be the most perfect piece of word-based entertainment humans have ever created! Okay\u2026maybe I took it a little far. But I truly believe A Christmas Carol<\/em> is a fantastic work of fiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you are no doubt yawning and confused by my excitement. But that may be due to A Chrsitmas Carol<\/em> being EVERYWHERE, especially this time of year. So it\u2019s easy to overlook this novella and be blind to its brilliance because A Christmas Carol <\/em>has become like bacon \u2013 bacon is on everything so you don\u2019t even really appreciate it any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But imagine not knowing anything about bacon and then taking a bite for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better yet, imagine knowing nothing of this story. Picture yourself coming to this as a newbie, picking up the book for the first time. You don\u2019t know the characters. You don\u2019t know the pop culture references. You don\u2019t know Scrooge McDuck. You don\u2019t know Mr. Burns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming at this fresh, you\u2019d see that this story is wild! And scary! And weird! And thoughtful! The beginning is an amazing setup and the ending is a total payoff, a victory lap of joy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t read the sacred text, I STRONGLY encourage you to do so. Because it\u2019s in the public domain, it\u2019s easy to pull up the short story on your favorite digital device. Stuck in line at the store? Read this. Sitting on the couch with nothing to do? Read this. Acting miserly and mean for the past few years? Read this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also get a free audio version from just about every major streaming service or YouTube. The novella only takes a few hours to listen to, so you can knock out the whole thing in a short roadtrip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is the story a solid, feel-good romp, but the writing is perfect. Consider all the plot and backstory Dickens elegantly crams into the first chapter. He introduces the characters, the setting and the rules of the ghostly visitations all in a few pages. And those pages are dripping with atmosphere and humor and tension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most movie versions stick closely to the original story, because the story is a perfect length for dramatizations. Entire lines of dialogue will be familiar to you, even if you\u2019ve only seen a movie version in passing. Most movie versions tend to just shorten things up a bit \u2013 and I think nearly all of them omit a scene of Bob Cratchit looking at the body of his dead son during the Ghost of Christmas Future section. They don\u2019t make a Hallmark ornament for that scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s my favorite part? Marley\u2026everything Marley. His introduction is one of the spookiest scenes I\u2019ve ever read. I love the back-and-forth banter\/bickering between him and Scrooge, including this iconic line delivered by Scrooge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while I hate the idea of unnecessary prequels and sequels, I could get onboard with a whole book about Marley, from his turning into a ghost, to his adventures in the spectral realm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do I own a Jacob Marley action figure? Yes. He\u2019s looking at me now as I type this. He sends his regards. (And yes, the Ghost of Christmas Past is behind him in the photo.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I could go on and on about A Christmas Carol <\/em>\u2013 discussing how this was the turning point in Dickens\u2019 career where he went from popular novelist to literary genius. (After writing this, he would go on to write the big, iconic Dickens works such as David Copperfield<\/em>, Bleak House,<\/em> Great Expectations<\/em> and A Tale of Two Cities)<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I think you get the point. I love this story. And I think you should read it\u2026evey year\u2026aloud\u2026with a British accent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be a (pre-ghostly visitation) Scrooge! Help me raise money for Reading is Fundamental. Click here to donate!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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