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melli80's review
4.0
I listened to this as an audio book and I thought that it was a very cute and loving story
kargoforth's review against another edition
4.0
This is a beautiful story, symbolic in meaning. The author writes of a little town suffering from economic disaster and Ebenezer the rich man, who has brought on the hardships. The businessmen of the town decide to forego Christmas.
Mary Chavah has given up on Christmas, also. Through a twist of fate, she is blessed with a young boy on Christmas Eve. Leading up to this, there is a sense of expectancy of something about to be born, or born anew, of life. This is not only within Mary Chavah's being but also among the townsfolk.
The author writes prolifically and contemplatively in various passages, so that some of her words have deep insight to the very meaning of life. And life is what is bestowed upon this little town. Mary's last name is Chavah (Hebrew meaning "life" or "living being," which the book does not mention, but it is another metaphorical play on words.
The entire Christmas story is symbolized in some manner, yet the narrative stands alone on its own.
This book is recommended to any lovers of the Christmas season.
Nite: The book is also entitled "Crhistmas."
Mary Chavah has given up on Christmas, also. Through a twist of fate, she is blessed with a young boy on Christmas Eve. Leading up to this, there is a sense of expectancy of something about to be born, or born anew, of life. This is not only within Mary Chavah's being but also among the townsfolk.
The author writes prolifically and contemplatively in various passages, so that some of her words have deep insight to the very meaning of life. And life is what is bestowed upon this little town. Mary's last name is Chavah (Hebrew meaning "life" or "living being," which the book does not mention, but it is another metaphorical play on words.
The entire Christmas story is symbolized in some manner, yet the narrative stands alone on its own.
This book is recommended to any lovers of the Christmas season.
Nite: The book is also entitled "Crhistmas."
glyptodonsneeze's review
3.0
Old Trail Town is not that bad really. The children are playful and well-fed and the whole place has a kind of Yankee sensibility taken too far, like a weak version of The Lottery. Zona Gale's Christmas, A Story, which I audiobooked before Christmas, starts with Old Trail Town holding a town meeting to determine the fate of Christmas. You see, Old Man Ebenezer has shut down his factory, the main jobs provider in the town, because he can manufacture wheelbarrows more cheaply in his other, city, factory. The town's merchants, both of them, supplied last Christmas on credit and the town's bills are past due. So Old Trail Town has a choice: Christmas or no Christmas. Some ladies of the town bring up objections: "My children haven't popped corn all winter so it will seem special on Christmas night?" "What if we only do handmade gifts?" "What about Jesus?" The clergy approve of cancelling Christmas, and Christmas is voted cancelled. See how terrible Old Trail Town is?
Mary Chavah, old maid of Old Trail Town, doesn't keep Christmas anyway. She's persnickety, and set in her ways. Jenny, Bruce's wife, Bruce being Ebenezer's nephew, comes by Mary Chavah's house with secret exciting news: Jenny is expecting. Bruce and Jenny live in the city now, and Jenny is home to lie in. She's already made economical presents out of only $2 worth of material and thinks the whole Christmas ban is preposterous.
There's a lot of back and forth and around in Old Trail Town. It's an introspective place when people aren't going to extremes in town meetings. Even Old Ebenezer looks up at the sky and wonders what life would be like if his son had lived. Christmas, A Story is unlike anything I've ever read, weaving between fifteen protagonists down to Theophilus Thistledown, the turkey who will not be killed for Christmas. It jumps between spots of plot and long soliloquies about the nature of man and generosity. One passage, where Old Ebenezer walks down the street and sees only places of commerce and not a community, is right out of The Great Good Place, which we discussed last summer. Being called Christmas, A Story, I knew that there must be Christmas after all. The way it happens is this: Mary Chavah gets a letter from Out West saying that her sister is dead and her newly orphaned nephew is being put on a train to come live with Mary. Mary questions and equivocates, and says, "What could I do with a child?" In the locked-up chambers of heart, though, she likes the idea, and she goes into town to buy a pitcher and basin with dogs on it. Mrs. Busybody says, "You'd better not be buying a Christmas present, Mary Chava," and Mary says, "My sister's boy is coming to stay with me" and asks Mrs. Busybody to stay at the house and tend the fire and heat the soup while Mary goes to pick up the boy from the train station on the evening of December 24th. Mrs. Busybody tells every person in Old Trail Town, and the whole town choreographs a festive potluck, some edict-breaking outliers happen to bring a tree, and the people of Old Trail Town circumvent their own Christmas ban.
Christmas, A Story is unique to our modern sensibilities if nothing else. I ended up liking it, but I'm not over the moon on it by any means.
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/terrible-town.html
Mary Chavah, old maid of Old Trail Town, doesn't keep Christmas anyway. She's persnickety, and set in her ways. Jenny, Bruce's wife, Bruce being Ebenezer's nephew, comes by Mary Chavah's house with secret exciting news: Jenny is expecting. Bruce and Jenny live in the city now, and Jenny is home to lie in. She's already made economical presents out of only $2 worth of material and thinks the whole Christmas ban is preposterous.
There's a lot of back and forth and around in Old Trail Town. It's an introspective place when people aren't going to extremes in town meetings. Even Old Ebenezer looks up at the sky and wonders what life would be like if his son had lived. Christmas, A Story is unlike anything I've ever read, weaving between fifteen protagonists down to Theophilus Thistledown, the turkey who will not be killed for Christmas. It jumps between spots of plot and long soliloquies about the nature of man and generosity. One passage, where Old Ebenezer walks down the street and sees only places of commerce and not a community, is right out of The Great Good Place, which we discussed last summer. Being called Christmas, A Story, I knew that there must be Christmas after all. The way it happens is this: Mary Chavah gets a letter from Out West saying that her sister is dead and her newly orphaned nephew is being put on a train to come live with Mary. Mary questions and equivocates, and says, "What could I do with a child?" In the locked-up chambers of heart, though, she likes the idea, and she goes into town to buy a pitcher and basin with dogs on it. Mrs. Busybody says, "You'd better not be buying a Christmas present, Mary Chava," and Mary says, "My sister's boy is coming to stay with me" and asks Mrs. Busybody to stay at the house and tend the fire and heat the soup while Mary goes to pick up the boy from the train station on the evening of December 24th. Mrs. Busybody tells every person in Old Trail Town, and the whole town choreographs a festive potluck, some edict-breaking outliers happen to bring a tree, and the people of Old Trail Town circumvent their own Christmas ban.
Christmas, A Story is unique to our modern sensibilities if nothing else. I ended up liking it, but I'm not over the moon on it by any means.
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/terrible-town.html
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