Jim Piecuch

I've had this collection of essays on various reading lists pretty much since it's been published, but always held off seeking it out, because there always seemed to be something more compelling to request at the given time. My main response is that I should have read it sooner, as this is the best work I've read on cavalry in the Revolutionary War. Besides giving accounts of various actions from the cavalry perspective, if there is an over-arching theme, it's how the Continental Dragoons show more evolved from being a reservoir of scouts and messengers into being a force capable of delivering "shock action" with cold steel. Much of this seems to have come from William Washington's interaction with the European officers of Pulaski's Legion. Other particularly interesting essays deal with the impact that turn-coat American soldiers had on Tarleton's Legion at the battle of Cowpens (not good from Tarleton's perspective) and African-American dragoons in British service. show less

Who hasn’t wondered what happened to Tiny Tim and the rest of the Cratchit family in Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol? In the original story, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Ebenezer Scrooge how sick Tiny Tim is and warns that the boy will die without treatment. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come then informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim does, in fact, die because his family was too poor to get him taken care of. Through the intervention of the three ghosts, Scrooge undergoes a show more miraculous change of character. Dickens tells us that as a result of Scrooge’s miraculous change, Tiny Tim does, in fact, not die and that Scrooge becomes a “second father” to him.

Dickens leaves us wanting more. What happened to Tiny Tim and the rest of his family? How did his “second father” affect the boy’s life and the man he was to become? Jim Piecuch, an associate professor of history at Kennesaw State University in Georgia now introduces us to the rest of the story. In so doing, he has created a tale that will be on my annual reading list for future Christmases.

In this wonderful sequel to Dickens, we learn that Scrooge spent day after day taking Tiny Tim to the finest doctors in London. One diagnosed Tiny Tim’s ailment as an easily curable disease. When Bob Cratchit and his wife asked Scrooge how they can repay him, Scrooge says they owe him nothing. “Tim is the one who will have to repay me.” “How?” asks a perplexed Bob Cratchit. “By remembering what was done for him, and trying to do his best, whatever path he chooses in life, to help others.”

Tim chooses to become a physician and a surgeon. When Scrooge dies, he leaves Tim an inheritance that allows Dr. Cratchit to work, without pay, among the poor of London.

Piecuch’s story begins a few years later, just before Christmas of 1866. A homeless mother, Ginny, who Dr. Cratchit helped in those early years of his practice and who now has a very sick young son is led, with help from an elderly man who looks remarkably like Scrooge, to the doctor’s doorstep. Tim examines the boy and realizes that although he may be able to help him, he needs first to talk with other doctors. He arranges for mother and son to stay at a local Mission and has his maid feed them and then take them shopping for warm clothes.

When Ginny offers, as payment for Dr. Cratchit’s services, what few coins she has, Tiny Tim is forced to remember the poverty and struggles of his own childhood. And he sees himself and his dire circumstances, many years earlier, in the young boy.

No good story of the Victorian age is complete without a love interest. In this story it is Jane Crompton, the unmarried 26-year old daughter of one of Dr. Cratchit’s patients. Tim has been “attracted to Jane’s understated beauty since the first time” he saw her. I’ll let you figure out how their story ends.

The Scrooge of Dickens’ story is replaced with Tim’s ‘partner’, Dr. Eustace, who berates Tim for caring for the poor and who, when he wants to take a day off, dumps his own patients on Tim without asking.

Instead of the ghosts who visited Scrooge, it is now the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge who works behind the scenes to guide Ginny and Jonathan to Tim’s doorstep. Tim’s rough wooden childhood crutch mysteriously is moved from the attic to Tim’s office. An elderly gentlemen helps buy a Christmas present for Tim. He appears again and again to continue to help Tim. And in those experiences Tim Cratchit remembers the cold and hunger of his youth as well as the love of his parents and siblings and the true meaning of Christmas.

Tim Chratchit’s Christmas Carol should be on your reading list every Christmas to come. Don’t read the original Dickens story without following it with this warm sequel.

This review is based on a free copy of the book from the publisher. show less

Sissy: This is Jim Piecuch's first novel and I absolutely loved it.

Bubby: I have a confession to make. I prejudged this book so hard that I almost refused to read it. I mean, really? You're going to try to out-Dickens Dickens? Good luck with that! And yet, it works. The writing is not a copy of Dickens' style in any way. Piecuch definitely has his own voice. Instead of trying to be Dickens, he instead just continued Dickens' story, and did it very well. Read our full review at show more www.bubblebath-books.com show less

Sequels of great books of the past rarely live up to the original, however, I truly believe that Charles Dickens would have been proud of the portrayal of Tim Cratchit in this book and the revival of the spirit of the redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge.

Tim Cratchit is a grown man, a doctor, who in the past had given his time and talents helping the poor but in the past few years he had gotten away from aiding the unfortunate and concentrated on his wealthier clientele. Several weeks before Christmas, show more Dr Cratchit has a impoverished young woman appear at his Harley Street office needing help for her sick child. We see again the small Tiny Tim and how generosity can cure not just the spirit but the body as well.

The story that continues is worthy of Dickens' character and the holiday season.

I loved the story and the characters and would happily recommend this book to everyone for the holidays! show less