A Snow Garden - Rachel Joyce

There is something about Christmas that makes me reach for short stories, why is that? And if there is a promise of magic, all the better. This year one collection that I loved was ‘A Snow Garden’ by Rachel Joyce. She presents us with seven scenarios, with people whose lives are imploding. The characters are struggling, yet there is always hope that everything will work out fine.  As with her previous books that I have reviewed, the characters in these short stories are very normal - quietly so, and that is just what makes them so special. She gives us mothers and fathers trying to hold it together just long enough to give their children a ‘normal’ Christmas when things are anything but. No one is fooled though. The pain that these characters are living with is blinding, like a shiny object, stuffed in a box that no one ever sees, but once it is taken out into the sunlight, it dazzles. Between the pages of this book we meet a whole array of characters, battling to survive the season of peace and joy: Binny, the mother coming to terms with an infidelity; Alan and Alice, married for decades, warring it out as the try to assemble a racing bike for their son on Christmas Eve; an unexpected birth at the airport; a single dad who promises his sons snow for Christmas; a pop star’s homing-coming; a father and son dealing with regrets. And then a beautiful moment from world of Harold and Maureen Fry, that almost broke me. These are the cast of characters who people this heartwarming, gem of a book.

We are told in the introduction to the book, that they have one thing in common - they were all cast-off and rejects from other novels and radio plays that the author, for one reason or another, cut from her published works.  In a way, this book is a second chance for these characters - their opportunity to prove to the world that their stories were worth reading.  We delight to see these broken, forgotten creations finally get their moment in the sun. This fact alone, fills the reader full of hope.  

And then, to add a double layer of spine-tingling pathos, Joyce gathers bundles of joy within each story, and wraps them up for us like a gift.  Tiny, impossible, yet possible plot lines, connections and insights, fill us with delight in what can only be described as a hefty, seasonal helping of Christmas spirit. Yet there is a bittersweet aftertaste with every mouthful - this is real life after all!

You will recognise yourself in these stories, the people from your past, and those who surround you everyday. People who make bad decisions, silly mistakes and show poor judgement on every page - but that is the thing that makes them human, endearing, and unforgettable. It is the juxtaposition of the normal, with the magical that makes this book so special. It is a perfect Christmas collection of short stories and will be one I return to again and again, not just at Christmas, but whenever I need to be reminded that we are all in this together, and that stories are waiting around every corner.  And, dare I say, magic too.