Matchless: A Christmas Story
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Review
"The little match girl's story is now getting its due thanks to novelist Gregory Maguire of 'Wicked' fame.... Matchless glows with aching beauty."--Huntsville Times
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
"The little match girl's story is now getting its due thanks to novelist Gregory Maguire of 'Wicked' fame.... Matchless glows with aching beauty."--Huntsville Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Kindle Edition
I love Gregory Maguire books, and jumped when I saw that this was available on Kindle. Unfortunately, there was no mention of it being a short story on the Amazon page and I feel that £6+ is way too much to pay for a book that took me 20 minutes to read.
And sadly, I didn't feel that this was one of Maguire's best. Very disappointed.
And sadly, I didn't feel that this was one of Maguire's best. Very disappointed.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gregory Maguire is the king of giving new twists to old stories. So it comes as no surprise that he chose to subtlely rework one of Hans Christian Anderson's more depressing tales, namely the story of the doomed Little Match Girl. "Matchless: A Christmas Story" is a bittersweet but hopeful little tale that intertwines the story of the Match Girl with a more fortunate, imaginative young boy.
Frederik Pederson wanders the local docks in search of fish that the seagulls drop, so he can feed himself and his widowed mother. Mrs. Pederson has a slightly more exalted job repairing torn hems for the "lead toed" Queen. When he isn't scrabbling to find enough enough food to survive on, Frederik also tends to his "secret" -- a tiny town made of bowls, spools, boxes and netting -- and searches for more discarded items to add to the secret town.
But there are those more unfortunate than Frederik, including a penniless child trying to sell matches on Christmas Eve, who loses her shoe in the street. Tragically, she dies having visions of a warm, luxurious Christmas and her dead mother. One of her shoes found its way into Frederik's hands, and it leads him to a life-changing encounter with the girl's family -- and the realization that those that are gone are never quite lost.
I'll be honest here: I like happy endings, and so the depressing end of "The Little Match Girl" has always bothered me (spiritual themes or not). "Matchless: A Christmas Story" contains the same story in its second part -- poverty, chills and a little girl freezing out in the snow while nobody bothers to help -- but Maguire fleshes it out with a framework story that is a lot more uplifting. Big message: forgiveness, family love, and how the dead look after the living.
Thankfully despite the Christmas theme: Maguire also avoids being soppy or excessively sentimental, and his simple prose is surprisingly vivid considering what a short book this is ("the salt tang of the sea and the sweet rawness of the smokehouse"). He intertwines the Match Girl's story with the longer, more involved story of Frederik, and moves past past Anderson's original story to include the Match Girl's family and Frederik's mother, whose lives are changed by the girl's loss.
The big flaw? Well, this is a short book. A short story, really; it was originally meant to be a story read out loud, and in some ways the narrative fits that. It's short. Very short.
But despite its brevity, Maguire does a solid job fleshing out the characters. The Match Girl herself is more of a plot point than an actual character, but Frederik is a likable kid who does his best to help his widowed mother. And we catch glimpses of dreams and imagination beyond his current way of life, as he cobbles together little bits of debris to make a secret city in his bedroom loft.
"Matchles: A Christmas Story" gives a more positive and uplifting twist to the classic Christmas story, and leaves you with the warm'n'fuzzies (without making you ill with sugar).
Frederik Pederson wanders the local docks in search of fish that the seagulls drop, so he can feed himself and his widowed mother. Mrs. Pederson has a slightly more exalted job repairing torn hems for the "lead toed" Queen. When he isn't scrabbling to find enough enough food to survive on, Frederik also tends to his "secret" -- a tiny town made of bowls, spools, boxes and netting -- and searches for more discarded items to add to the secret town.
But there are those more unfortunate than Frederik, including a penniless child trying to sell matches on Christmas Eve, who loses her shoe in the street. Tragically, she dies having visions of a warm, luxurious Christmas and her dead mother. One of her shoes found its way into Frederik's hands, and it leads him to a life-changing encounter with the girl's family -- and the realization that those that are gone are never quite lost.
I'll be honest here: I like happy endings, and so the depressing end of "The Little Match Girl" has always bothered me (spiritual themes or not). "Matchless: A Christmas Story" contains the same story in its second part -- poverty, chills and a little girl freezing out in the snow while nobody bothers to help -- but Maguire fleshes it out with a framework story that is a lot more uplifting. Big message: forgiveness, family love, and how the dead look after the living.
Thankfully despite the Christmas theme: Maguire also avoids being soppy or excessively sentimental, and his simple prose is surprisingly vivid considering what a short book this is ("the salt tang of the sea and the sweet rawness of the smokehouse"). He intertwines the Match Girl's story with the longer, more involved story of Frederik, and moves past past Anderson's original story to include the Match Girl's family and Frederik's mother, whose lives are changed by the girl's loss.
The big flaw? Well, this is a short book. A short story, really; it was originally meant to be a story read out loud, and in some ways the narrative fits that. It's short. Very short.
But despite its brevity, Maguire does a solid job fleshing out the characters. The Match Girl herself is more of a plot point than an actual character, but Frederik is a likable kid who does his best to help his widowed mother. And we catch glimpses of dreams and imagination beyond his current way of life, as he cobbles together little bits of debris to make a secret city in his bedroom loft.
"Matchles: A Christmas Story" gives a more positive and uplifting twist to the classic Christmas story, and leaves you with the warm'n'fuzzies (without making you ill with sugar).
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