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srivalli 's review for:
The Christmas Shoes
by Donna VanLiere
emotional
sad
fast-paced
2.7 Stars
Robert is a successful attorney with a good career, a bank balance, and a loving family. He is shocked when he realizes that his marriage is almost over.
Maggie has cancer and knows she doesn't have much time. She wants her last Christmas with family to be special for everyone. Her son, Nathan, an eight-year-old, decides to give his mother a final gift she would cherish.
Nathan and Robert have a chance encounter at a store. Robert is shopping for random gifts, while Nathan knows what he wants to give his mom. The encounter leaves Robert shaken and desperate to save his marriage before he loses everything he loves.
The story alters between the first-person POV by Robert and the third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
The Christmas Shoes is a novella inspired by a song with the same title. It deals with themes like the Christmas spirit, family, love, God, faith, etc. It's a typical plot but in a condensed form with not enough space for character development.
Some scenes are touching. They hit the mark of a Christmas novel about family and relationships. However, the rest is half-done and doesn't go beyond the surface level. It almost feels like adhering to a checklist.
Robert is a successful attorney with a good career, a bank balance, and a loving family. He is shocked when he realizes that his marriage is almost over.
Maggie has cancer and knows she doesn't have much time. She wants her last Christmas with family to be special for everyone. Her son, Nathan, an eight-year-old, decides to give his mother a final gift she would cherish.
Nathan and Robert have a chance encounter at a store. Robert is shopping for random gifts, while Nathan knows what he wants to give his mom. The encounter leaves Robert shaken and desperate to save his marriage before he loses everything he loves.
The story alters between the first-person POV by Robert and the third-person POV.
My Thoughts:
The Christmas Shoes is a novella inspired by a song with the same title. It deals with themes like the Christmas spirit, family, love, God, faith, etc. It's a typical plot but in a condensed form with not enough space for character development.
Some scenes are touching. They hit the mark of a Christmas novel about family and relationships. However, the rest is half-done and doesn't go beyond the surface level. It almost feels like adhering to a checklist.
- Robert- ambitious and not in touch with his emotions
- Robert's mother- capable, happy, sane, and loving elder (nosy & bossy)
- Kate (Robert's wife)- doesn't even have enough active presence
- Maggie and Jack- poor but loving couple; very goody-goody; somehow never have to worry about money despite being poor
- Nathan and Rachel- Maggie and Jack's children
- Doris- Nathan's loving school teacher who somehow never had a student's parent pass away in 28 years of her career
- Jack has compassionate bosses, while Robert's partners are ambitious like him
- Friendly Black neighbors
See the pattern?
I wouldn't have minded this much if the characters were fully developed. However, this short book doesn't have the space for the characters to grow. The encounter between Nathan and Robert and the subsequent change in Robert felt rushed. We are pushed into the next scene even before the importance of the event sinks in.
Then we have Robert's mother being too in the face about the issues in his married life. That man is 38 years old. Wouldn't it work better to nudge him than tell him what to do?
I'm also wondering about the ending. It is sweet, but I'm not sure why it had to be in that particular year (except that the book was published the next year).
To summarize, The Christmas Shoes has lovely themes but deals with them on the surface level. The more to think about the plot, the lesser its emotional impact.
P.S.: I'd rather read goofy romance for Christmas than about dying parents. There's enough pain in the real world, but make Christma painful in books too?