Yatterings

Christmas is one of those times of the year - you either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground.

The season of good will provides a wonderful lens through which to look at the human isde of the time, often lost in the consumerist hurly burly. After all, what is Christmas without the table falling under the weight of turkey (or nut roast) and mountains of unused food possibly going to waste or is it all a frippery?

It is also, strangely, a time when grotesquery abounds. Ghosts sit in the corners of our eyes waiting for a chance to present themselves. Charles Dicken’s demonstrates this in his celebrated story and Liz Hand follows suit in this retold tale.

Toni Maroni, an aging punk, finds himself staying with his friend, Brendan, and his autistic son after he loses his job. On hearing that Chip Crockett, the host of the eponymous puppet show, dies, Toni begins obsessing about the show and the lost Christmas episode. Toni’s easy going attitude grates with the other characters, especially at Thanksgiving.

Hand has revisited the ghosts of Christmas in a peculiarly American way using popular culture as an omnipresent ghost. The quest for the Christmas special and its unlocking of Pete and Brendan’s world is a delight. We so clearly (or is it unclearly?) remember certain acts and events at the edge of our memories and Hand weaves this in so neatly with television and punk. It acts as a counterweight to Brendan’s own view of the world which has become increasingly bewildered in response to his son.

Like its precursor it gets to the heart of Christmas and updates the original book’s message. Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol is one of those books which retells its tale but is brave enough to find its own voice and take. With fabulous illustrations by Judith Clute which pinprick the text, this is a book to curl up with on the sofa whilst listening to the Ramones.

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