Matchless: A Christmas Story

"The Little Match Girl" has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. True, it's horribly depressing, but it seems all the fairy tales I really loved growing up were ("The Little Mermaid" is another good example of that). So I was ecstatic when I won this through Early Reviewers.

I had no idea this was originally a story read on NPR. I wish I'd heard it because it's obvious that it's meant to be heard (I do plan on checking NPR archives to see if it's there).

Part 2 of the book is the fairy tale we all know--the story of the little girl trying to sell matches on Christmas Eve and how she can't go home until she's sold them all. But nobody buys them and she ends up lighting them one by one; as she does, she sees visions in the match show more flame. And of course, they find her frozen to death in the morning. But Maguire has padded it out, included another family, and the Little Match Girl's father is not a tyrant. I'm not so sure I liked that. It's well written, but this just never seemed the right story to convert into a happy(ish) ending. Hence the 4 stars instead of 5. show less

It had been a very long time since I read the well-known Hans Christian Andersen tale, "The Little Match Girl" (or, as it is titled in my copy of The Complete Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, "The Little Match-Seller"); all I remembered was that a little girl selling matches freezes to death one night. I'd completely forgotten about the minor character of the boy who seizes upon a shoe lost by the girl and runs away with it, saying he could use it as a cradle when he had children of his own.

In "Matchless: A Christmas Story", a re-imagining of Andersen's story by Gregory Maguire, the boy's tale is continued, and further entwined with that of the match girl. If you'd ever wondered what happened to that boy when he ran off stage, or show more what he did with the shoe, you'll find out in this sweet little book.

The original story is set on New Year's Eve (as I was reminded when I re-read it, after reading "Matchless"), but Maguire's is set on Christmas Eve. In the original, the dying match girl has a vision of her grandmother, but in the re-telling, she sees her mother. And, later, she ends up helping the little boy in a very fitting way, and the story has a happier ending than the original. Andersen's story has a decided religious ending, while Maguire's allows the reader to interpret it otherwise if so inclined.

Originally meant to be heard on National Public Radio (each year a writer is asked for a story with a Christmas theme), this story is a quick read. It's illustrated by Maguire himself and the book is beautifully designed, from the cover to the marbled endpapers to the pages themselves. I enjoyed it and can see it becoming a Christmas tale to be re-visited each year. show less

After reading the fairy tale of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, I was reminded that many fairy tales are darkly themed without happy endings. A long time ago I read Bruno Bettleheim's The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, wherein he posited that children should be exposed to fairy tales because they provide a realistic framework that life threatening problems are a part of humanity. Still, when reading the fairy tale to my seven and six year old grandchildren I wondered if the book was too vivid and too sad for them.

Maguire performed magic in his revamping of the tale of a poor, plighted, little girl who wanders along streets and alleyways, cold, hungry and fearful. Rather than place the show more child in dire straights at New Years Eve, Maguire tells the tale of the Match girl on Christmas Eve.

His reinvention of the tale is remarkable. His book is a story of transcendence, of light after dark and hope after severe circumstances. Without compromising Hans Christian Andersen's tale, Maguire leaves the reader with a feeling of breath taking beauty.

The illustrations are lovely, and in this rendition of the sad tale, he spins straw into bright shining gold.

Highly recommended to those who, like me, have experienced loss this year and appreciate a Christmas tale of striking a match as bold and illuminating as a sky riven with radiant stars. show less

Matchelss is described as An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic "The Little Match Girl", and it is. Maguire took Andersen's classic and one insignificant character (the urchin who picks up the little match girl's slipper) and creates a beautiful little story of family and forgiveness. Maguire tells us the story of that urchin, Frederik, and his mother, a seamstress to the queen. When Frederik finds the slipper in the street, he had no idea that it belonged to the poor match girl, and he takes it home to act as a boat for his toy family to be able to go and find a larger family, which it ends up doing on multiple levels for Frederik. I won't give anymore away except that the little match girl, in the end, forgives Frederik show more for taking her slipper and helps him find his own way back home.

It is a charming little story that can be read in no time at all, but one that also helped me decide that maybe Maguire will be worth trying to read again, as this short, quaint tale was filled with so much heart and soul. show less

Maguire weaves the original Match Girl story in with a new one of his creation. A poor boy named Frederik lives alone with his mother. Their lives cross with the Match Girl's and it changes their future. It's a sweet Christmas tale, but it lacks the depth and dark twists that have made the author so famous.

I've never read The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I picked this book up because I've enjoyed other works by Gregory Maguire and this seemed like a quick read, which is what I was in search of at the time. I wasn't disappointed at all. The story itself is fascinating and makes you want to keep reading. It is one of those stories that awakens gratitude (or at least it should!). It was equal parts entertaining and heartbreaking.

Matchless isn't so much of a retelling, as an expansion of the Hans Christian Anderson tale "The Little Match Girl," interweaving Frederik, a boy who steals fish from seagulls for his and his mother's dinners, into the narrative. While I've always loved "The Little Match Girl," I admit that the story is quite bleak. Maguire's expansion of the story gives a sense that life may still be hard, but it goes on with joy and hope.