Overview/Blub:
In this re-telling of A Christmas Carol as a fictionalized memoir, Justin R. must make a life-or-death decision: he can give up his stony heart to learn about forgiveness and work the ways of recovery to gain a fleshy heart or he can wreck his life against the obstacles of stress, his ex-wife, and guilt over his past failures.
Lovers of Dickens will enjoy picking out surprising correspondences and Easter Eggs (a “Boz” haunts the pages). Unlike many authors inspired by A Christmas Carol, however, Cummins avoids a point-by-point recreation, instead finding fresh approaches to familiar beats and favoring meds over ghosts, all while still embracing Dickens’s themes and eye for social problems, as Justin contemplates the desperation of addiction, adults’ ambivalence for Christmas (“But we knew the truth. It was for kids”), the lives of other patients (one man is “an empty pit of metabolism”), and more.
Ex-Mas Song is hefty in length, and Cummins can’t resist chatty characters and some repetitive prose. But it moves swiftly as Justin, in brisk and unfussy prose, plays Christmas trivia games with other patients, contemplates his childhood in a therapy session or considers the faith of King David, and eventually finds his way to committing to a life worth living. The “song”’s final verse inevitably involves a cemetery, but Cummins upends expectations as the story makes its way toward the traditional transformative ending.
Takeaway: Heartening Christmas epic of finding faith and hope when life doesn’t feel worth living.
Comparable Titles: Annie Rains’s Through the Snow Globe, Richard Paul Evans’s A Christmas Memory.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B-
Book Life is an important review. There are the independent arm for Publisher's Weekly which may be the biggest review publication to get attention from.
To be honest, I was hoping for an Editor's Pick with an extra
lightning bolt. To say that this project is heartfelt and
hits close to home is an understatement.
In retrospect, it was a good review, but I don't agree with getting a "B" for the cover. I did this one on Canva. I was trying to emulate the first hardback edition of Dickens' A Christmas Carol which had much simpler imagery: a gold wreath that encloses the title of the book.
I started with an old hard book cover image: this was an actual one that did not have a title. The worn hardback stands for Justin R.'s old heart: stony and worn and frayed.
The gold wreath stands for Justin R.'s fleshy heart and his redemption and being forgiven. It could also be considered a circumsized heart.
I am talking about mid-level spiritual things here. Let those with ears, hear and gain understanding.
I wrote the first draft in 2011 and shelved it. I thought it was too personal. But after covid I saw first-hand the effects upon our children: more depression, more fear, more confusion, and less hope.
So, I thought a story like Ex-Mas Song might strike a chord. I had three senior girl students read it and my editor, who is the school librarian. They thought it powerful and moving. I hope God can make use of this book to further his Kingdom work.