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Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML:The winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Connie Willis capture the timeless essence of generosity and goodwill in this magical collection if Christmas stories. These eight tales-two of which have never before been published-boldly reimagine the stories of Christmas while celebrating the power of love and compassion. This enchanting treasury includes: "Miracle," in which a young woman's carefully devised plans to find romance go awry when her guardian angel shows her the true meaning of love "In Coppelius's Toyshop," where a jaded narcissist finds himself trapped in a crowded toy store at Christmastime "Epiphany," in which three modern-day wisemen embark on a quest unlike any they've ever experienced "Inn," where a choir singer gives shelter to a homeless man and his pregnant wife-only to learn later that there's much more to the couple than meets the eye And more.… (more)
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The Book Description: Connie Willis loves Christmas. "I even like the parts most people hate--shopping in crowded malls and reading Christmas newsletters and seeing relatives and standing in baggage check-in lines at the airport. Okay, I lied. Nobody likes standing in baggage
The stories range from "The Pony," about a psychotherapist who doesn't believe that Christmas gifts can answer our deepest longings, and "Inn," in which a choir member rehearsing for the Christmas pageant becomes part of the original Christmas story, to "Newsletter," where an invasion of parasitic creatures causes unusually good behavior in their hosts, and "Epiphany," a story of three unlikely Magi following signs through a North American winter toward the returned Jesus Christ. "Miracle" is a comic romance echoing Willis's favorite Yuletide movie, Miracle on 34th Street, and "Catspaw" is a homage to the traditional Christmas murder mystery with a sly, science-fictional twist. The collection also includes "In Coppelius' Toyshop," in which a bad guy is trapped in Toyland, and "Adaptation," a Dickensian story about what it means to keep Christmas in your heart.
My Review: How very handy! Another sales blurb that one-lines the stories, freeing me to offer my opinion of the collection.
Which is negative. Damn it all.
Yuletide is a favorite season of mine. I like cold weather, and fires in fireplaces, and decorating with all sorts of shiny, tacky thises and thatses all lit up by teensy white lights festooning the entirety of my living space. I like street lamps hung with snowflake-shaped flags, and wreaths on truck grilles, and peppermint ice cream. Especially peppermint ice cream.
Stories about Christmas aren't my usual atheist fodder, but I've heard so many good things about this collection...and I'm never willing to let a set opinion ossify without challenging it...so "try some more Willis" whispered the Personification of Evil, in a bid to render my holidays hideous. It worked. The humor here is forced, the wit is witless, and the shiny, tacky bright baubles that stories often are have been cracked by being dropped on the hard floor of ~meh~.
Connie Willis and I don't fit. I love her ideas, and I like some of her sentences, and I would deeply appreciate it if she stopped screwing things up by writing them half as well as they deserve. (This knock also goes for Neil Gaiman.) In fact, I would like some sort of legislative action to compel this sort of writer to generate ideas and then give them to others to execute.
As that is impracticable, I resign myself to the one course available to me that doesn't infringe on anyone's civil liberties: I'll avoid further contact with the irritant, in this case Willis's ~meh~ execution of wonderful ideas.
Connie Willis, one of my favorite authors, loves Christmas and doesn't much care for Hans Christian Andersen:
"Nobody, before Andersen came along, had thought of writing such depressing Christmas stories. Even Dickens, who had killed a fair number of children in his
Willis goes on to say in her Introduction to Miracle and Other Christmas Stories that she prefers Miracle on 34th Street to It's a Wonderful Life when watching holiday films (so do I), and she joyfully rolls with abandon through lists of her favorite Christmas stories. What she sets out to do in this book is provide all sorts of well-written, fun holiday short stories, and she succeeds brilliantly.
For those of you who are more familiar with Willis's science fiction novels, be warned that these stories aren't exclusively in that genre. There's something for everyone. For example, "Inn" is a church choir story with a time-travel twist; "Miracle" is a delightful duel between Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life; and "Cat's Paw" is a British country house Christmas mystery.
My two favorites are "Adaptation" about a divorced bookstore employee trying to spend Christmas Eve with his daughter, and "In Coppelius's Toyshop" in which a world-class jerk gets his just desserts. And if that isn't enough, Willis includes lists of her twelve favorite Christmas stories and movies at the very end.
Normally I don't seek out holiday-themed reads. If they fall into my hands, all's well and good. I'm very glad this particular Christmas book fell into my hands this year. I love Christmas but have found myself lacking the true spirit. (I don't want to sound like Hans Christian Andersen, so I won't go into the reasons why I feel this way.) Miracle and Other Christmas Stories went a very long way in bringing some much-needed cheer into my rather bleak frame of mind. Connie Willis continues to be one of my Go-To Authors.
I was so very pleased to have this book. The stories were a great length, letting me fall completely into them, yet able to finish without
• Miracle. 1991
I'm guessing this one was Willis' favorite, as it's first, longest, and the title story, but I thought it was
• Inn. 1993
Very non-subtle, but effective story. I cried. A church is busy getting ready for their Christmas Pageant, simultaneously, however, they are all too ready to leave needy homeless people out in the cold in the name of safety. One woman takes pity on the young couple outside - who are, of course, actually Mary & Joseph, lost on their way to Bethlehem.
• In Coppelius's Toyshop. 1996
A horror story. A real jerk of a guy gets stuck in a toy shop (that strongly resembles FAO Schwartz) forever!
• The Pony. 1985
Excellent, very short story. Ominous presents! Ha!
• Adaptation. 1994
A recently divorced man is having a hard time with his ex-wife, who is seeking to separate him from his little girl at Christmas time. The management at the bookstore where he works aren't easy to deal with either, and demanding author-signings are the icing on the cake. But the spirits from Dickens' Christmas Carol may help him get through the season...
• Cat's Paw. 1999
An homage to the classic Holmsian murder-mystery-at-the-manor tale, only with some twists. This manor is inhabited by a woman who's a premier researcher into primate intelligence... Starts out seeming fairly typical... but it gets pretty good!
• Newsletter. 1997
This one's a take-off on the whole Invasion of the Body Snatchers theme. This season, people are actually seeming to get NICER around Christmas time. But they also seem to all be wearing hats... or wigs. What are they hiding? Very funny.
• Epiphany. 1999
A liberal reverend, a black atheist and a retired English teacher all find themselves traveling down a snowy road, following a mysterious compulsion to head West, in this story of the Second Coming, paralleling the original tale of the Three Wise Men. Why should the Second Coming be full of wrath, blood and disaster? Why shouldn't it occur in the form of... a carnival?