Marianne Jordan

Countless people are familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge and the Dickens holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. Now retell that story with a man named Ebenezer who's a miserly old innkeeper around two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, where a curiously bright star has been hovering over the little town for some time, and you have A Miser. A Manger. A Miracle. by author Marianne Jordan.

This book showed up on my radar about three years ago, and I, a Christmas Carol fan, have been intrigued by the idea of it ever since.

I'll admit I had trouble getting into it the first time I tried it last year. Even this time around, I still found a good chunk of the story to be slow, along with a caricatured Ebenezer (not necessarily a bad thing, as he is supposed to be a "Scrooge"), choppy emotional development and awkward perspective shifts in places, and a style that doesn't have the original classic's wit.

But I kept reading this time, still intrigued by the general basis of a Scrooge's journey, so to speak. And I think the tale gains its power as it moves from its nativity theme into its overall theme of the Gospel, showing how it's more than a Christmas story. Showing the price that love pays to redeem wayward souls.

Hence, I'd say this retelling is just as fitting for Holy Week as it is for Christmastime.… (plus d'informations)

What a marvelous adaptation of the Christmas Carol by Dickens! I've never heard of anyone taking the Christmas story and adapting it this way. Better yet, this book came about as a result of a play written by the author for her church production. What the author has done is to flesh out the story for the readers. She has done this so well that at times I was walking with Ebenezer in his soul searching journey led by three different angels.

Ebenezer was the Inn keeper in the tiny town of Bethlehem. He was delighted at the opportunity to earn a great deal of money when the Romans decreed that the descendants of David register in their home town to be counted and taxed. Ebenezer loved making money. He didn't care how he accomplished that or who he hurt on the way. He considered himself above the rabble anyway. As people crowded into the small spaces of the Inn, Ebenezer had one room left and he was holding onto it to save it for a rich customer who could afford his lavish rates. One couple he turned away was a man and his pregnant wife.

Then that night the angel Gabriel appeared to him in his home. He would be visited that night by three more angels, in an effort to redeem his corrupted soul. First he visited his past. Then the present. But nothing touched his heart until he started to get to know a man called Jesus. Even the man's teaching didn't touch his heart until he witnessed the scourging and the crucifixion of this innocent one. Finally he was a broken and repentant man. For the first time in his life, he wanted to save this man's agony by offering his life for Jesus' life. Then he was told this was Jesus' choice, to die for him, the wretched, greedy Ebenezer.

Don't let the familiarity of the story scheme distract you. The author has done a marvelous job of allowing us to see life from Ebenezer's eyes. There are many other elements of the Christmas Carol you'll find familiar when you read this book. All of this enhances the experience Ebenezer lived in his one night of revelation. Since we already know the outcome of the story, and even the way it is being told, the joy is in the details. And the author did a wonderful job of telling this story with realistic detail and heart. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I hope you do too.… (plus d'informations)