Coming Home for Christmas / Carla Kelly. 2011

Christmas-themed books are a popular staple this time of year. The frequently-used themes of home and family are popular images we like to associate with the holidays. Often, though, circumstances force people to be away from loved ones at this time of year, and the three novellas in this collection explore that idea. Although the title includes the words "coming home," only the 3rd story involves a journey home; the first two stories take place far from the leads' homes.

Carla Kelly has put together a wonderful collection of stories here that involve three members of the same family, each from a different generation. Thomas Wilkie is a British Naval surgeon stranded in San Diego in 1812. The second story is about his widowed daughter, Lilian, who is one of Florence Nightengale's nurses in the Crimea in 1855. And the final story is of Lillian's son, Wilkie Wharton, an American army doctor assigned to Fort Laramie in 1877. In each story, Christmas is approaching. In the cases of Thomas and Lilian, they know they will be forced to spend the holiday away from home and both are very homesick. Wilkie is on his way home, but finds himself dealing with unexpected circumstances.

There was, for me, a lot to appreciate about this book. In particular, how effectively Kelly is able to give glimpses at how different and/or difficult life was during each era. These stories are not sugary sweet or overly warm. Between them there is disaster, death, callous behavior, the aftermath of war, and ignorant prejudice. Just as real life is often messy or hard for us today, so it is for the protagonists of her stories. Yet there is a wonderful message of hope in them--love makes it so much easier to bear life's burdens. That's a beautiful message any time of the year.

I have to say how much I loved the structure of the book. The focus is on the 3 members of the Wilkie family. So there is only one POV in each story. I usually enjoy the head hopping that happens in romance novels, and oddly enough I didn't even notice there was none here until I was reading the 3rd story. I made a point of browsing back to make sure I hadn't missed anything and I don't think I did. The family thread that runs through the stories is both engaging and clever as a literary device. Kelly uses a letter from father to child as the prologue to each story, and another letter from Wilkie to his parents as an epilogue at the end of the book. The middle two letters are both epilogue (to the stories that came before) and prologue to the next. At the risk of repeating myself, I was really impressed with the unusual structure and how neatly Kelly tied it all together.

So if you're still looking for some Christmas reading with the big day only a week away, I highly recommend this one.


Comments

  1. ChristineJanuary 25, 2012 at 1:07 PM

    I love when an anthology or collection of short stories are related like they are in this one. And different eras but within the same family? Very cool. I am adding this one to my list for December.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PhylJanuary 25, 2012 at 3:23 PM

    Good. I hope you like it. I thought it was a creative way to connect a series of novellas.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I think I have ADD

Image
I'm one of those people who constantly moves from project to project. I do finish things, but midway through one project I'll stop and pull out fabric to start another one. Or something will come up that makes me start in on something else--a challenge, a class, a need to make a gift, or a new fabric purchase. All of those things change my focus. I don't want to admit how many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) I have here, but if I were totally honest, it's probably at least a dozen. Here are 3 I started this summer. And I'm not including the one I started the other night because I couldn't get a decent picture of it. This first one is from a class I took in June with 2 friends. I still have 4 more flowers to add to it. This is funky and fun, but it's large and appliqueing down the flowers is awkward at times. A while back I posted a picture of some flower blocks that I'm doing as part of an exchange with the same 2 friends. I had another set of blocks to finis...
Read more

TBR Day. Conor's Way / Laura Lee Guhrke. 1996

Image
Back in the early 2000's, when I began lurking at the old AAR  boards, I heard talk of this book. And according to Amazon, I apparently broke down and purchased a copy for myself via Marketplace in 2004 for a "mere" $4.75. Today a used print copy goes for about $25. I don't know why I waited so long to read it. I'd keep seeing references to how good it is, especially from KristieJ who has been nagging our TBR hostess to read it forever. I think I was saving it for a day when I knew I needed to read a really good book. But when I saw that this month's theme was "Recommended Read" it was clear that this was the book I had to read. I was really, really stupid to wait 8 years to read this. Frankly, I should just end this review with that statement. I am writing this Tuesday evening. Earlier today I saw on Twitter that at least 2 other TBR participants are reviewing this for today as well. And they'll probably do a better job at it than me. B...
Read more

57, 3, 15

Image
57 years. 3 months. 15 days. That's how old my sister was when she died on December 30, 2015. Char spent four and a half years in a tug of war with cancer. For a while there she seemed to be in total control. But that insidious disease came back and this time would not let up. Here's the kicker. She had uterine cancer, just like me. Only hers was Stage 4 when they found it. Mine barely qualified as Stage 1. Life is often unfair, but that seemed the cruelest irony of all. As I wept that she was dying, she wept because I was not. It's taken me a long time to process this and to be willing to talk openly about it. Some of you reading this have been very open with your own struggles with health, grief, death, and dying. I've wanted to be, but I think I needed for the worst of it to be over first. Every time I tried to write about it, I'd sit paralyzed at the keyboard. I just wasn't ready I guess. Char decided to suspend further treatment last August. It wa...
Read more