A Christmas Carol 2

A Christmas Carol 2

by Robert J. Elisberg

ISBN: 978-0615727578
$6.26 (paperback)

$2.99 (kindle)

About the book:

A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge is a continuation of the beloved Christmas tale, that quickly goes flying off in its own comic direction. It begins five years after dear old Ebenezer Scrooge has passed away and left his thriving firm to his former clerk, Bob Cratchit. However, Bob’s overly-generous benevolence with lending and charity-giving has driven the company into the ground, on the verge of bankruptcy. And so the ghost of Scrooge returns one Christmas Eve to teach Cratchit the true meaning of money. Making the swirling journey through Christmases past, present, and yet-to-be all the more of a chaotic ride for Cratchit are the dozens of characters from other Dickens novels woven throughout the story, together for the first time. God bless them, most everyone.

My thoughts:

A Christmas Carol 2 is the sequel to the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I liked hearing the story of Crachit and what happened to him and also the firm after the death of Scrooge. Crachit loves having the power to help others but unfortunately he hasn't kept an eye on the health of his own firm and has let it's financial health get stuck at the bottom of the barrel - it's really not all his fault and you'll learn about that and about how people take Crachit for a ride because he has a soft heart and is a very giving fellow.

There are quite a few differences between the two books and the 2nd book seems to be a combination of all of Dickens' favorite characters and often is jumbled and I found it somewhat hard to follow.... BUT Elisberg has tried to help the reader stay caught up by including entire sections of notes at the bottom of the page (often using up 1/2 of the page just for the notes) and personally I would of liked to have seen those notes added to the end of the book like an appendix instead of posting them as footnotes. 

I think if Elisberg took the time and became a "co-author" (is that possible when the original author has passed on?) this could become a very interesting story. I'd like to see more depth in the characters and the scenes and the story itself. I thought it was neat how Dickens included characters from other books he'd written like Oliver Twist and many others.... but there is no richness to the characters or scenes like there are in many of his other books. This book could use some revamping and the footnotes should be definitely moved to the book to make the story flow better and so it's easier to read.

If you were thinking about possibly giving this as a Christmas gift - I would suggest you read it first and see if you had the same reaction I did. If not, older readers (grandma/grandpa) should enjoy it. I don't think I would read it with kids - it's just to confusing.

Author:  

Robert J. Elisberg has been a commentator and contributor to such publications as the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, C/NET and E! Online, and he served on the editorial board for the Writers Guild of America. He has contributed political writing to the anthology, Clued in on Politics, 3rd edition (CQ Press).

Among his other writing, Elisberg wrote the comic novella, A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge,” which reached #2 on Amazon’s Hot List for Humor/Parody. His most recent novel is the swashbuckling adventure, The Wild Roses. He co-wrote a book on world travel. Currently, he writes a tech column for the Writers Guild of America, west. He also co-wrote the song, “Just One of the Girls” for the Showtime movie Wharf Rat, and wrote the book for the stage musical Rapunzel!.

Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University and received his MFA from UCLA, where he was twice awarded the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. Not long afterwards, Elisberg sold his screenplay, Harry Warren of the Mounties. He was on staff of the international animated series, Flute Master, and co-wrote three of the Skateboy films based on it. He also co-wrote the independent film, Yard Sale. Most recently, he wrote an adventure screenplay for Callahan Filmworks.

Disclaimer: I was offered a copy of the book to read and review on GivingNSharing. I was not required to have a positive review and no $$$ exchanged hands. Thanks for reading!