Genre: Holiday Fiction
Published: October 12, 2011
Pages: 202
Marley was dead to begin with . . . These chillingly familiar words begin the classic Christmas tale of remorse and redemption in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Now R. William Bennett rewinds the story and focuses the spotlight on Scrooge s miserly business partner, Jacob T. Marley, who was allowed to return as a ghost to warn Scrooge away from his ill-fated path. Why was Marley allowed to return? And why hadn t he been given the same chance as Ebenezer Scrooge? Or had he? Written with a voice reminiscent of Dickens, Jacob T. Marley is to A Christmas Carol as the world-famous Wicked is to The Wizard of Oz as this masterfully crafted story teaches of choices, consequences, and of the power of accountability. It is sure to become a Christmas favorite.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and I can't for the life of me remember how I felt about the quality of the voice anymore (four-ish months later). So it was clearly not particularly memorable either way, clearly not spectacular, but also not horrible; just okay. I probably wouldn't be opposed to listening to it again at some point, just not right now because it's neither July nor December.
Which brings me to my next point, I was supposed to review this book back in December for my 12 Books of Christmas challenge, but because my life was in major upheaval with preparing to move and my husband's work holiday party that I baked like 12 pounds of cookies for (I had a lot of baking materials I needed to use up before the move), I just did not have the time to get it done, which means that my memory of the story itself is a little bit faded now as well, so maybe take everything I say here with a shaker of salt.
So this book was a look into Jacob Marley's motivations for helping Ebenezer Scrooge to change his ways and redeem himself. It posits that, if successful, Marley would be entirely responsible for Scrooge's redemption (basically) because he spearheaded the entire night of ghostly visits. The premise of the story makes a certain amount of sense, and I had no problem feeling as invested in Scrooge's redemption as Marley did. Maybe it helped that I was already familiar with A Christmas Carol though, but I think most people are.
Overall I give Jacob T. Marley 4.000004323 stars. - Katie
R. William (Bill) Bennett grew up on the Jersey shore and in Connecticut. He attended Lafayette College as a Government & Law major. He spent thirty-one years in business, including many years as an executive of various companies and most recently as division president of FranklinCovey. In 2009, Bill decided to spend full time writing, teaching and consulting. Bill is married to Loree Bascom and they are the parents of four children. Most recently, they have been blessed with two grandchildren.
Bill and his family reside at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Utah.
Bill and his family reside at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Utah.
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