Customer Reviews

Christmas at Grandfather's House: a heart-warming novel in stories

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I've never spent much time in small towns, but novelist Mark Leever made me feel as though I had. Specifically Wharton, where reading this book makes it hard to believe it is a work of fiction since I now feel a part of all the families there and their Christmases past and present.

In the first story, Fine Thread, you are visiting your grandfather's house and you remember exactly what it was like to be 10 years old there at Christmas....30 years earlier.

Mary Ellen, despite her successful escape, takes us back to Wharton to face the ghosts of her past in The Wharton Echo.

In Snowflake, 12 year old Thomas Mullen and his grandfather lead us through a Christmas Eve in 1985 that turns magical and although we know "nothing lasts forever," we find that Christmas is a time for wishing and remembering and perhaps that is what lasts forever.

Seasons' Greeting is a great title for this wonderful story as indeed the seasons are plural!

Then there's my favourite character - lovable, comical Carlton, in Ninety Degrees who spends a riotous Christmas Eve at the hospital.

All the stories come together in a nice, neatly wrapped package in Christmas Day and throughout them all we see Dr. Glover.
Dr. Glover is just one of the reasons I love this book. In 1985 Dr. Glover had been the town's medical practitioner for 53 years. He is the connecting thread throughout all of the stories. He seemed to be at the grassroots of the small town and grew with it over the years, along with his expanding girth! But the good doctor is not without fault.

Christmas at Grandfather's House has a powerful, pleasing, all encompassing quality, brilliant in its ambiguity and now is sine qua non on my bookshelf! It brims with interesting characters, and they all make me feel that they are as real as the people in my own family.

As in the author's own words regarding snowflakes..."each precious gem carrying with it a simple but true promise of Christmas"....and so each of the tightly connected stories that make up Christmas at Grandfather's House are gems unto themselves with each story having its own unique theme: love, salvation, hope, forgiveness - to name a few - and the overall motif of the book culminates with a humanness all its own.

To see what happens to Dr. Glover, Tommie, Carlton, Mary Ellen and the rest of the people who love, live and breath in Christmas at Grandfather's House, you'll need to read the book!

This is without a doubt the most moving book I have ever read. It is also the cleverest. I am an avid reader, going through about one book a week. I thought I had seen everything until I read this book. It made me laugh, but mostly it made me cry with probably about a dozen incredibly touching moments sprinkled throughout. And when I thought it was just about done, the author didn't let me off the hook, shocking me to the very heart-wrenching core with a twist that I don't think even the slickest reader would see coming. (At least I didn't!) Mark Leever is now my favorite author. I hope there's a sequel!

I'm Jewish and I loved this book. I was interested because when I was a kid, I lived for a short while at each of my grandparents house. Also, now I am a grandfather, and my grandchildren sometimes stay over for a few nights.

It is a heart-warming book, a feel-good book and it's perfect for the Christmas time of year. However, I know that I will pick it up at various times throughout the year to re-read sections. I have to admit that I like the format of several stories, rather than one long story--makes it easier to digest and savour.

Buy this as a gift, but by all means, by it for yourself. You'll love it.

Arny Handelman

I am 66, a grandfather and a widower. My daughter recently gave me this book for my birthday. I just finished reading it, and although I'm not a very emotion man, I have to admit a couple of times I cried. I don't know if it was because of the book by itself, or because my daughter gave it to me. I think it was a combination of both because the message I took from it was that my daughter truly appreciates me and that she understands I did my best raising her. I wasn't perfect, but I did my best trying to give her a happy childhood. This book is a tribute to all the good parents and grandparents out there. A very meaningful book.

If you want a Christmas gift for someone you care about, whether a mother, father, grandmother, or grandfather, I recommend this book. It is beautifully written, and although it is fiction, as I read the book, it felt like I was reliving my childhood. It was also so convincing, at times I had to shake myself back to my senses; the book had me believing my grandfather was still alive, even though he passed away in 1992. It may be a cliche, but this book truly is the gift of love.

This is not just a book of Christmas short stories...it's a book of inter-connected stories. They are well crafted and touching. I think I speak for all who have read this wonderful book: We want more books from Mark Leever!!!

I also highly recommend:

Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices--a story that celebrates the spirt of giving.

The Other Wise Man--a Christmas classic that will warm your heart.