Another of the Christmas books I got from Amazon for my Kindle in the run up
to Christmas. This one was another short one, the better to get through as many
as possible before Christmas Day.
Holiday Tales Christmas in the Adirondacks is just two short tales set during
Christmas time and featuring the characters Trapper John Norton and Wild Bill.
Norton lives alone in the woods, hunting and things, when Bill stops by to
visit. In both stories they come together and then try to do something for other
people who live nearby.
The stories were quite heavy on the religious message, but that was probably
because of the time when they were written (1897) and the time when they were
set. In some of these older stories the messages can kind of detract from the
story itself; these messages fitted into the stories well and didn't come across
as heavy-handed as they might have done.
It was a nice quick read. I started it on the 23rd and finished it on
Christmas Day, because of the time of year I didn't have much time to actually
sit down and read. Although it took a couple of days I was basically done with
it in about three sittings. Of the two stories the first was my favourite and I
think that one was the quicker read.
I liked the way that it was written, particularly the way that the Trapper
spoke. I guess I liked the characterisation and I could imagine exactly the sort
of character he was purely from the way that his dialogue was written. He came
across as a 'salt of the earth' type of character, not well-educated or
intellectual, but with good morals and values.
Maybe not a story I'll revisit in a hurry, but a nice little tale for the season.
I was raised Catholic and used to love stories with a heavy religious message. Now in my older years I'm more of an agnostic. I still read stories with an obvious religious message, but don't tend to like them if the message is overbearing. Given the setting in these stories, I might enjoy them. My family is from upstate New York. It would probably give me rather a sense of nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting Crazy Town in Looney Land.
I was raised in a totally atheist household so now as an adult I like to read them and see what sort of messages I missed out on. Ironically I got much the same sort of lessons but from a moral perspective instead of with Biblical references.
DeleteAs I remember, this book had messages about looking after your neighbours and things, so although there was a religious message there it wasn't too heavy and I could relate to it.
Thanks for the visit back. :-)