A fairly pedestrian story told reasonably well but nothing out of the ordinary or even really that exciting to be honest. Maybe it sounds strange to refer to this particular genre of book as exciting but when you get a good one they are, in a grin-inducing, worth spending my time kind of way. Sadly this book did not generate of that feeling.
The characters are sparse and I never really got to feel like they were anything more than someone in anothers imagination. Some culture stereotyping goes on here too, but I couldn't get too mad about that really because the stereotypes are there for a reason - some of them are disturbingly accurate. The plot of the book is generic romance but it was nice to see a loving homosexual relationship being portrayed in the same a more heterosexual one would be and the advice all the neighbours give Sam Bishop about getting together with his mystery Carrot Lady was tender, funny and surprisingly down to earth. At least we were spared grandiose gestures to seep her off her feet.
The one thing I loved about this book was the linking device of the Street Dog, Jack, and how his daily peregrinations brought a normal, urban street together. The range of people living on Christmas Street was realistic ranging fro an elderly widower to, the aforementioned, homosexual couple and their quest to adopt.
Actually can we use the term homosexual now? It's not in the book, in fact never is Max and Arthur's sexuality openly named it is just husband and husband the perceived normality of which I was very pleased to see. How to put that component in a review is difficult though as there are so many landmines of terminology nowadays so I'm going to go all 1950s and use the term - sorry if that offends anyone.
There is a gentle humour in this book but it was so gentle no grins were raised by this particular reader. It was an average read that was vaguely enjoyable but didn't leave me wanting to read more of this author's works or even find out what happened after the New Year to the residents of Christmas Street.
**Review originally published December 22nd, 2017**
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