Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge"

by Charlie Lovett

by Karen S. Wiesner

"Merry Christmas" ringing out in the sweltering heat of a June summer? What else would be on the lips of a transformed man after the events of "A Christmas Carol" (which was the focus of my December 22, 2023 column "The Practice of Benevolence {A Reflection on Dicken's A Christmas Carol}" https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-practice-of-benevolence-reflection.html). "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett--author of such highly recommended literary mystery titles as The Bookman's Tale and First Impressions--was published in 2015, which came 172 years after Dickens' timeless tale.

In this, Scrooge's testimony of a transformed life, twenty years have passed since he was visited by the ghosts that changed everything in a single night. His radical shift, as the joy and benevolence of Christmas become an integral part of his daily life, have spilled over to those around him, altering them as well, but not always for the better. Scrooge gives of himself and his wealth sacrificially--leaving little or nothing for his own meager requirements--to all in need. Nothing discourages his cheer. However, the hard lessons he's learned haven't necessarily carried over to those he loves.

His nephew Fred (Freddie) has a wife and family, along with an uncompromising governmental position working for the assistant to the undersecretary. Unfortunately, he's grasped that, "with bills to pay…books to balance…a year older and not a farthing richer", he can afford no more than a few days of Christmas each year.

In Scrooge's own business, Bob Cratchit has been made a partner, only he's allowed his extreme work ethic to dominate his life to the exclusion of his once beloved family and their many grandchildren.

Meanwhile, the bankers (affectionately called Pleasant and Portly by Scrooge) have become more concerned with Scrooge's current balance of outstanding debt rather than "making some slight concession for the poor" not simply once a year at the holidays. Scrooge writes cheques his account can't cover in order to help the destitute running rampant in their city.

That evening, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley. His heavy chains of penance have been lessened by Scrooge's redemption--but only by five links. Marley holds no hope that he can ever decrease it more. Scrooge is determined to help his old friend eliminate the weighty burden and send him to a well-deserved rest. To do that, he calls upon the familiar spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to teach valuable lessons about living Christmas charity all year round to Freddie, Bob, and the bankers.

Although I was originally put off by the idea of the characters I knew and loved in the original story taking on the less than appealing traits Scrooge once displayed (essentially becoming hypocrites, as the only time of year that seemed to bring out goodwill in all of them was at Christmas), I did find the evolving facets of their personality realistic:

·       In "A Christmas Carol", Scrooge's nephew was very young, newly married, without a family and position as the breadwinner and a member of society to weigh him down. With greater responsibility come greater burdens.

·       Cratchit was moved overnight from apprentice to partner, and he'd known Scrooge long enough not to be fully trusting that that situation couldn't change in a duplicitous heartbeat.

·       And bankers…well, bankers are known for loving wealth, not spreading it around as if it's easy to come by.

I was also won over by how Lovett took familiar quotes from the original "paraphrasing, parodying, and plagiarizing passages" (as he says). Because of the clever repurposing Lovett did with those beloved sections, I began to notice that this story was structured and laid out almost scene by scene just as the original story had been. In that way, "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" stayed true to its processor.

Additionally, Lovett incorporated Dickens--also a great social reformer in his time, as his debatably most famous character Scrooge became--into this story with references of Dickens as a famous author in Scrooge's time. Finally, allusions were made to Dickens' other works, where he described the less fortunate in Victorian London in such works as Bleak House, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, and others.

If you love re-reading the enduring morals taught in "A Christmas Carol" during the holidays as I do, you'll adore "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" any time of year as an apt reminder that not only can we bless others less fortunate than ourselves with our kindness and benevolence, but that we inevitably receive the same in exchange by opening our hands and our hearts. In this way, we also further the game-changing principle of "paying it forward" one precious life at a time.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/