Customer Reviews

My Mother's Wish: An American Christmas Carol

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jerry Camery-Hoggatt writes My Mother's Wish remarkably in the voice of a woman looking at her early years with uncommon insight. Little Ellee sounds much like Mark Twain, while Teen Ellee sounds a lot like someone I want to know and could have been. As a Polar Express, conducted by humor like that of Twain and Roald Dahl, this story is priceless. It should be read aloud to children and adults at Christmastime.

Ellee's mother tries to tie off the loose ends of unfinished business with her own mother by naming Ellee after the older woman, "Eleanor Crumb" McKutcheon. The name Eleanor represents high tea and lace, while young Eleanor wants to be called by her real name, Ellee, which represents adventure and individualism. She wants the unconditional love and acceptance we celebrate at Christmas and does not want to wear the cloak of expectations best suited to someone else. Ellee flees one night after she listens from upstairs as her mother calls her horrid names to her father downstairs.

Only Ellee's third grade teacher ever understood the need for a real name, later coming to Ellee as a gypsy in a dream. Ellee becomes that gypsy, heading out of the 1960's Midwest to Nebraska, where she seeks shelter from a storm in the Comeback Cafe close to Christmas day. The diner goes silent as an old trucker picks up a crying infant and sings ancient Christmas carols that transform the diner into Holy Ground for several minutes of magic that evaporates as he returns to his seat at the dining counter.

Amid school administrators and waitresses that seem to have several arms each, Ellee finds a friend in a trucker driving a boatload of goulash to the Midwest. He's related to someone she knows and perhaps also to God himself. His truck, called the Good Ship Horvath, transports Ellee towards acceptance with a parable.

If we could apply this story outside of the week between Christmas and New Year's, we could better change the world, one corner at a time.

Don't mail Christmas cards this year-send this book.

Armchair Interviews agrees.

On first inspection, this book may seem pretty short, but starting with the first page, you're taken for a very fun ride that doesn't stop until the last page. The author gives the main character, Ellee, such a unique voice. And all of the supporting characters just jump off the page. They have interesting quirks about them that might make you think, "I know someone just like that."

Having read the author's brief bio, there's much about Ellee's journey that mimics his own. Each of the main characters is longing for something. But isn't that sort of what a lot of us are doing at Christmas? Ellee has to go on journey that takes her in a complete circle before she finds it, while another character doesn't realize what's important to them until they've lost it.

Overall, a fun, heartwarming book that I plan on re-reading during the Christmas Season.

This book made me laugh, cry and everything in between, what a wonderful story about relationships and a keen observation of how power works in a family system.

MY MOTHER'S WISH: An American Christmas Carol, by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt (88 pgs., 2008). This is a sweet & charming & very short Christmas novella. It's the 1960s in the Midwest & Ellee Crumb McKutcheon is a seventh grader who is bent on changing the world or at the very least bent on getting her teachers & her mother to recognize that her name is Ellee, not Eleanor.

She has run-ins with some authority figures at school, a boy in her class & her Mom. She finally gets fed up & runs away from home. She gets a lift from a friendly trucker. They stop for a meal at the Comeback Cafe, where they are served by a three-armed waitress & meet some nicely eccentric strangers.

Hopes, dreams, wishes & desires are what this book is about. Read how these quirky strangers eventually help Ellee return home & how in the end she reconciles with her Mom & teachers & ends up marrying that boy.

You'll laugh & cry & tears will roll down your cheeks. You'll also wonder just who is that truck driver & your belief in Santa will be solidified.

Wow!!! Camery-Hoggatt is masterful 21st century storyteller who crafts animated characters and compelling narratives with an inspired pen. My Mother's Wish is a holiday tale seen from the perspective of a young girl named Ellee living in a '60s middle America landscape. Ellee's observations reveal a girl with insight and smarts but whose conclusions are still constrained by the inexperience of her limited years. It's a sweeping first-person Christmas narrative that tackles the many complexities of growing up. It's about a mother learning to accept a daughter's uniqueness and a daughter learning to see the maternal love that parenting often masks. C-H created a character that's sharp, quick-witted and independent, and crafts a tale that reminds its readers that the greatest Christmas gift of all is family. My Mother's Wish is a first-rate holiday story!

Although this is a quick read it is an excellent one. It will stay with you for a long time. I highly recommend it. :)

www.abookloverforever.blogspot.com

My Mother's Wish by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt is aptly subtitled An American Christmas Carol. Ellee McKutcheon has never been able to live up to her mother's expectations of her and has actually taken pride in living life her own way, but after a major fight between her parents, Ellee takes to the road. A stop at the Comeback Cafe resurrects old feelings and more than a few ghosts bringing Ellee home and to new appreciation for her mother on Christmas. Camery-Hoggatt writes with a wry and witty style making each anecdote a delight. While the story is short, it packs a real punch about the meaning of Christmas, family, and love. It's a charming book perfect for holiday gift-giving.

My Mother's Wish, An American Christmas Carol, by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, is a sweet little Christmas story told with the imagery of Garrison Keillor, if Garrison Keillor had the bizarre sense of humor and imagination of Tim Burton.

My Mother's Wish tells the story of Ellee, a young girl who embraces being "contrariwise" in every sense of the word. She insists on being her own person, defying the mold her strong willed, proper mother has created for her. She resists her given (read "forced upon") nae of Eleanor and the image it conjures.

Ellee paints word pictures that will make the reader feel 8 years old all over again. In fact, her narrative style will remind you of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Ellee is wise beyond her years, funny and sadly misunderstood. But in the end, she is loved and accepted for who she really is. This is a tale of reconcilliation . . . a wry, hilarious, sad little tale of eventual acceptance and forgiveness. Thankfully, Christmas morning comes just in time.

My Mother's Wish is a neat little hardback novella set in the 1960s in the Midwest. It was fun to read and heartwarming. I loved the author's generous use of hyperbole. It would make a great stocking stuffer!

In Hastings, Nebraska, young Eleanor "call me Ellee" Crumb McKutchen heeds the call of the poet Juan Ramon Jimenez who urges people to "write the other way"; thus Ellee's philosophy of life is "contrariwise". She wants to be part of the changing the world and knows where and who she wants to start with; her mom who has an image that she expects from her daughter; a vision that Ellee cannot see for herself.

Considering running away the tweener sits at the Comeback Café, thirty miles from her home, wondering how to mend her broken dreams without hurting her mom who puts up blank Christmas lists for herself, her spouse, and her two children Susan and Eleanor; Susan being Ellee's older engaged sister. Each fills the list, but fulfilling it is irrelevant. Ellee knows mom means well even if her good intentions pave the way to hell for Ellee. Suddenly a three-armed waitress and an eccentric truck driver Jedidiah accompanied by his cat Cecily provide the distraught child with a strange holiday brew; an adventure on the backwaters of the Plains in what matters in life.

This is a terrific tweener Christmas Carol, Americana Midwest style starring a distraught girl whose flight of fancy is in opposition to her mom's no nonsense attitude. Fans will enjoy Ellee's adventures as Captain Jedidiah and his not named Mrs. Smee cat take her on a journey of understanding. This is a fun tale and mom's gift to her youngest daughter is the perfect Christmas present.

Harriet Klausner