A Carol Dickens Christmas: A Novel

by Thomas Fox Averill

It's Christmas, and Carol Dickens's life is in major transition. Her son Finn, a talented trumpet player, is about to leave for college. Her ex-husband, a real-estate wheeler-dealer, wants to sell their properties in Kansas and move to Arizona. Her wheelchair-bound friend, Laurence, has fallen in love with her. To top it all off, Scraps, the family dog, is dying. As her world spins out of control, Carol seeks refuge in her research on the use of the semicolon--and in her ritual of cooking the perfect series of Victorian holiday meals inspired by A Christmas Carol.

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Review

"This book is a gift, a stirring mix of Dickens; Hispanic American culture; food, drink, and generosity, brought together with a perfectly measured plot and spiced with Averill's savory prose. Recommended cold-weather reading, but will bring back the flavor of the holidays at any time of the year."--John Reimringer, author of Vestments

"The Christmas spirit was in short supply this year, until I read Tom Averill's plum pudding of a book. It's a heady, rich, contemporary take on transitions, traditions and the true meaning of Christmas. (Recipes included!)"--Linda Brand, director of the Kansas City Rep's A Christmas Carol for nine seasons

"A memorable Christmas story on its own terms, A Carol Dickens Christmas also subtly reworks Charles Dickens's classic with a multicultural cast. Thomas Fox Averill contributes an important addition to 'Victorian afterlife' fiction and offers special treats to 'foodies' too."--Linda K. Hughes, Addie Levy Professor of Literature, Texas Christian University

About the Author

Thomas Fox Averill's rode and Secrets of the Tsil Café: A Novel with Recipes are also available from the University of New Mexico Press. He teaches at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

Genres: Christmas

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 11, 2014

About the author

An O. Henry Award story writer, Thomas Fox Averill is Writer-in-Residence at Washburn University of Topeka, KS. His novel, rode, published by the University of New Mexico Press, was named Outstanding Western Novel of 2011 as part of the Western Heritage Awards. His recent work, "Garden Plots," consists of poems, meditations, and short-short stories about gardens, gardeners, garden design, plants, and the human relationship to nature. They can be found on his website. His most recent novel is A Carol Dickens Christmas, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2014.

Previous novels are Secrets of the Tsil Café, and The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson. His story collections are Ordinary Genius (University of Nebraska Press) and Seeing Mona Naked (Watermark Books).

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom's latest novel is wonderful for its humanity, its wordplay, its evocation of the meaning of holiday and tradition, and its keen ability to tell a story (a lost art, I am afraid, as I read a lot of contemporary fiction). As (full disclosure) the novelist's brother, I recognized elements of friends and family in the richness of the characters. Carol Dickens is not my mother, and yet my mother loved putting the turkey in the oven overnight and making the holidays an affirmation and ritualization of the family in part to create a stability that her early years had denied her. This novel is rich in allusion and metaphor with its catchy title, its love of wordplay, its comments on punctuation, and the extended seasonal metaphors. The novel is also sensually rich, and I pity the reader whose tastebuds are not moved by the recipes, the descriptions of preparation, and the scenes of eating. Although one is tempted to compare this novel to Secrets of the Tsil Café (2001), the richness and maturation of Tom's style is what makes this work feel even more integrated and cohesive. And Tom's sense of wordplay (a family trait) has never been as fully on display.
Of course I love the novel for many reasons, but the sense of redemption and joy in goodness even in spite of challenges moves me to love the novel as much as I love the author.

[Sharon Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable read! Carol Dickens loves Christmas nearly as much as she loves her son, Finn, who is all but grown up and intent on beginning his own life. Carol wants one last Christmas with Finn at home, celebrating the twelve days of Christmas. And she wants Scraps, Finn's beloved dog, to live through the holidays. Is that too much to ask?

I must admit that I am not a Christmas person. The most I manage in the way of celebration is trimming a small (artificial) tree and surrounding it with some hastily wrapped packages. I try, as well, to give to those in need, but this year I didn't do as much as I planned on that score. However, my holiday was enriched through the reading of this charming and beautifully crafted novel. I read this novel over the holiday, just before sleep, savoring the pages the way Carol and her family savor their various Christmas feasts.

[Vikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Connoisseur of Christmas stories. Thomas Fox Averill's A Carol Dickens Christmas is a definite five star story! It was a true delight. The story takes place in our hometown of Topeka. It is the story of a divorced Carol Dickens and how she and her soon-to-leave-home son struggle with Christmas past, present and future. The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is woven into this story beautifully. My mouth watered as Carol prepared wonderful feast of the Twelve Days of Christmas. There are even recipes included. It was so fun to have Topeka landmarks included in this story. It brought back to life the late Teresa Cuevas and her mariachi band. A Carol Dickens Christmas is just a wonderful book and certainly elevated my Christmas season this year. I am going to include roasted chestnuts (recipe in book) in our holiday festivities this year.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the person who owns my dad's childhood home, a fun, quick read.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Christmas, but find most Christmas books treacly in their Hallmark card plots and sentiment. A Carol Dickens Christmas is a delightful exception— a fine novel on its own with connections to Charles Dickens's famous work and to Christmas that make it a fun holiday read. Even more than the Dickens references, I enjoyed Averill's subtle modern retelling of the Christmas story involving a baby's birth in less than ideal circumstances. Recommended Christmas reading, but really, this book can be savored any time of the year.

[Peter Durnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been holding this book for a couple of years and finally read it through. Its value is increased my the love of Christmas and Dickens and all things Averill. Increased more because I introduced Tom and Pete Woodward and they layered on top of my loves their passion for Kansas. This is a clever, funny, moving book punctuated by recipes and shot through with puns and references to Dickens' classic. I love Christmas touchstones (Elf, the Grinch, Vince Gauraldi) and I add this and its recipe for Smoking Bishop to the list. Cheers, Tom.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up without realizing it is set in my hometown. It is a pleasant holiday read and includes Dickensonian recipes so the reader can prepare their own foods to accompany the reading of A Christmas Carol.

[Robin Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light entertainment for the holidays with an ample cast of characters to keep track of while reading!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, let me say that any character who is researching semicolons, I already like. So I’m a little biased toward Carol Dickens right from the start. But Carol is a person worth spending some pages with: her story is sweet and sad, thoughtful and true.

Carol, a divorced mother of a high school senior, is having to face major changes in her life. Her trumpet-playing son Finn, graduating early and leaving for college in January, is skipping classes, sneaking around and lying to her -- all for the noblest of reasons, but she doesn’t know that. Her ex-husband is selling up his real estate holdings and departing Topeka for the warmer climate of Arizona. Her old dog, Scraps, is dying. Her close friend Laurence has made it clear to her that he wants to be more than just friends. Her son’s friend Gabriela is about to have a baby and on top of worries about her father’s reaction, she’s worried that her family might lose their house. And it’s Christmas, and it’s snowing.

Carol tries to hang on to all of her Christmas traditions -- a tree, reading “A Christmas Carol,” and cooking several days’ worth of intricate, authentic Victorian meals -- as a constant, something stable in midst of all these changes. She has mixed success, as the people in her life aren’t really cooperating with her plans. But she eventually finds that adding new traditions isn’t a slight to the old ones; rather, it expands and enriches her life.

As he did in a previous book, “Secrets of the Tsil Cafe,” Thomas Fox Averill intersperses the story with generous amounts of food, and recipes for Carol’s holiday creations are provided, if you want to try the spiced wine drink negus, a dish called “cold boil” or Cornish hens with oyster dressing. (Even if you don’t, it helps add to the atmosphere.) He adds a healthy serving of music for good measure. Readers can almost hear the mariachi music and feel Finn’s joy at hearing and then being part of something so new and captivating.

Averill also captures Topeka well -- both the neighborhood with Carol’s old Victorian home and the Hispanic neighborhoods that have been an integral part of the city for decades. Because it’s Topeka, the connections between characters are believable in a way coincidences wouldn’t be in a big city.

“A Carol Dickens Christmas” is a book that’s more than the sum of its parts: it’s a tale of seemingly ordinary people and their more or less ordinary lives that speaks to deeper truths of what it means to be human, what it means to change, what it means to love.

[Susan Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are those people who have an affinity for Christmas themed books… and this is clearly the best of the lot. The writing itself sets it apart. It's not just a re-do but has a unique plot-line that grabs and characters worth caring about. It's a holiday story that those of us with imperfect children and families, with ordinary lives, can relish instead of the media-marketed perfection that we're supposed to aspire to. Carol Dickens is someone I could hang out with in the kitchen…
In some ways, especially if your friends enjoy books, this is the perfect holiday gift … and so much more personal and meaningful to bring to friends' as a 'hostess gift' than another invisible bottle of wine.

[Claudia Mundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to read Thomas Fox Averill. Bought his book in September when I was at his reading and saved for Chrsitmas. So much family drama at end of the year that I forgot it until this week! I'm rather glad because it was a perfect read to relax and enjoy quietly in January. Characters are all such likeable people even with their flaws. This group of people were all facing changes, new beginnings, and yes, there was a birth of a baby involved. This charming Christmas story lacked the sudsy sap of many Christmas books out by existing authors at the holidays. Am now ready for another Averill book soon!

[Unsolved ☕︎ Mystery · Rating 3 out of 5]

A CHARLES DICKENS in JULY!
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Well, I learned about Charles Dickens and yummy Victorian food. This book has tons of delicious recipes, everything ranging from main meals to sweets.

Like Carol (The main character in this story), I really like the idea of reading A Christmas Carol every year. =)
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Would I read this author again? Yes, I would!
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would!

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of the Kansas Notable books. Loving the Dickens tale I had to give this a try. I liked it, but seemed to have missed some of the wonderfulness others found in the tale. It is what they say it is as the basics. A woman trying to hold on to tradition while things change around her, her son leaving early for college, a friend wanting more and old Christmas traditions not finding the love they once did. A general good read in life lessons of moving on and finding joy in both the old, the new and things yet to be.

[Karen Overturf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Averill leaves no stone unturned in his research for this fabulous book. I truly enjoyed his use of wordplay to masterfully tell the story behind traditions, and if you've not had a chance to read Tom Averill's work, I highly recommend this as a place to start. I headed back to his last one, and I won't stop there. I'm going to read all his work!

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a Kansas notable book winner. This is a modern day Christmas story. Carol Dickens is going through changes in her life and she is having a hard time with them. However when Christmas comes around she throws herself into cooking and it helps her realize she needs to have hope and kindness.

[Shirley Yuhasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a B & N Dec. Book Club selection. A Topeka writer-in-residence at Washburn University. Discussion cancelled, because of illness, me included. A good read. Sorry we couldn't discuss it, Pam & I did some.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book.

[Podaire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story. Loved the use of literature to tell a story. Interesting thoughts on the way the construction of sentences may have changed over the years. I appreciated that discussion.