(Note: A Snow Garden will be published
on the 5th November. I got a free advanced proof copy from work.)

The book features
seven stories (‘A Faraway Smell of Lemon’, ‘The Marriage Manual’, ‘Christmas
Day at the Airport’, ‘The Boxing Day Ball’, ‘A Snow Garden’, ‘I’ll Be Home for
Christmas’, and ‘Trees’). They span in time from the week before Christmas
until New Years’ Eve (with one brief jump back to the 1960s). We visit a wide
range of memorable characters across the festive season – a middle-aged women
reeling from a break up – a twelve-year-old boy who wants a dress for Christmas
– a father trying to patch things up with his sons after a divorce – a new pop
star not quite coping with his fame – an old man with regrets – and even a brief
appearance of Harold and Maureen from Harold
Fry. Each story is subtly linked to the other stories in the collection;
characters crop up as passer-by’s in other stories, or a song or a Christmas
card will tie them together. I loved this aspect of the book. It’s like Love
Actually in book form – but a bit deeper and even better.
My favourite stories were
definitely ‘A Faraway Smell of Lemon’ and
‘Christmas Day at the Airport’. ‘A Faraway Smell of Lemon’ is a fabulous
opening to the book. It captures an encounter between a woman whose partner has
just left her and a shop assistant she meets by chance, and is a beautiful and
poignant observation on life, love and family. ‘Christmas Day at the Airport’
is a strange, surreal and yet astoundingly beautiful retelling of the nativity.
The relationship between Madga and her wife Johanna is perhaps the most tender,
well-realised relationship in the book. The whole story is clever and strange.
There are moments that ought to be silly, but somehow through Joyce’s skilled
writing are not only funny but intensely and beautifully moving.
Joyce’s writing is,
as always, strong and poignant. Even when it sometimes fails to be subtle, it
still retains a confidence and originality of phrase. Yet her true strength is,
I think, characters. Every person who appears in Joyce’s stories, whether minor
or major characters, feel entirely real. I found this in Harold Fry and I found it in A
Snow Garden too. Her writing is perfectly suited to this kind of
interconnected short story collection. Her side characters always feel like
they have their own story, and here we get to see some of these stories close
up.
Joyce has this
incredible way of making the unbelievable believable. These stories feature
several unlikely occurrences, sometimes even bordering on magic realism, and
yet somehow I believed every moment of it. If you had given me the bare
outlines of the ‘The Marriage Manual’ and
‘Christmas Day at the Airport’, I’d probably have suspected that they wouldn’t
work. And yet both of them completely do. The fact is that Joyce’s characters
are so complex, so real, so thoroughly human, that she manages to make you
believe every single unlikely situation they end up in.
Over all this is
beautiful, moving and lovingly written book. It is enjoyable, engaging and
cleverly composed. It weaves together seven stories of family, love and winter,
and is a thoroughly brilliant Christmas read.
Favourite
story: ‘Christmas
Day at the Airport’
Least
favourite story: While
I enjoyed ‘The Boxing Day Ball’, it didn’t feel as though it fitted in with the
collection as well as the other stories did.
Let’s
finish on a quote:
‘We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe
that we are not at the centre of other people’s. But I love the fact that you
can brush past a person with your own story so big in your mind and at the same
time be a simple passer-by in someone else’s. A walk-on part.’
(This is in the foreword, and I think aptly sums up the book.)
Next week: Used To Be, by Elizabeth Baines
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