Call it the flip side of Holly Claus. That is a Christmas tale guaranteed to bring back the late 19th century, from its language to its heroine and other main characters to its lovely detailed illustrations.
Christine Kringle, by Lynn Brittney, is thoroughly grounded in the 21st century—and totally fun. In Brittney's Christmas universe, there is no one "Santa Claus" or gift-bringer during the long holiday season between December 6 (St. Nicholas Day) and January 6 (Epiphany). Each country has its own gift bringer (or gift bringers) and all belong to the Yule Dynasty; many of them are married and have children. Every year they hold a conference in a different location to discuss various problems and innovations they wish to bring to the Christmas celebration.
This year the American Santa, Kriss Kringle, and his wife are nervously awaiting the conference. The Yule Dynasty always passes from father to son, and the Kringles only have one daughter, Christine, with no future chance of a son. The Kringles want to propose that Christine become the next American Santa Claus, but they know they will face stiff opposition from some of the more traditional members of the Dynasty, like the old-fashioned Babbo Natale (the Santa of Italy) and Grandfather Frost of Russia. They will receive lots of support from "The Sisterhood": the female gift bringers like Santa Lucia and Tanta Amie, but the head of the sisterhood is abrasive La Befana of Italy, who's always been a bit militant and off-putting.
Christine, in the meantime, makes friends with "Little K," an inventing whiz and son of the Japanese Santa Kurohsu, and Nick, the son of the British Father Christmas, who actually hates gingerbread and a lot of other things about Christmas. It is they who are recruited to sneak away with the help of The Sisterhood when an emergency arises: a small, failing town in England called Plinkbury has banned Christmas! Afraid this movement will spread, Christine, Nick, and Little K go to Plinkbury to find out what the problem is and to bring Plinkbury back into the Christmas spirit, with the help of Nick's mom Zasu, a flaky "tall elf," and her brother Egan, who runs a chain of Christmas shops.
This is a hilarious, inventive novel with lots of neat touches: the "Santa parents" are just like regular ones—some spoil their children, or they have to take care of mundane problems like laundry while dealing with reindeer and other magical creatures; it's the assistants like Holland's Black Peter and the other members of the "Black Gang" who keep order at the conference; the Yules have a Kareoke contest after their first dinner together; Babbo Natale drives a Ferrari instead of using an animal for transport; Nick's mother is a "blonde" in the most pejorative sense of the word, but is the sweetest, most generous woman; etc. In the course of the narrative Brittney skewers news reporters, indulgent parents, marital and parental relationships, Christmas aficionados—without ever forgetting the true meaning of the holiday.
There are some reliances on stereotypes—Babbo Natale and his family and assistants have strong Mafia overtones, for one—and American Christine and her family speak in Britishisms, but these are small quibbles in such an amusing book. Christine Kringle should be in everyone's stocking this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment