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 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.… (meer)

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That it no way changes my opinion of this book.

Ever wondered what happened to Tiny Tim, his family and Scrooge after Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”? Well, wonder no more! We are re-introduced to Tim, and get to find out what he has been up to in his life, and where he is now.

Thanks to Scrooge, Tim is in good health, was able to complete Med School, and is a well-known doctor. His family is doing well; however, his practice keeps him so busy he rarely gets time to spend with them like he should. Then Tim starts to hallucinate, or so he thinks (much like Scrooge encountered), and he soon realizes what is really important in life. It was always Tim’s goal to help those less fortunate, and not lose sight of who he is.

I love Christmas themed books, and I especially loved “A Christmas Carol”. When I saw that an author wrote a sequel to one of my favorite books, I just had to read it. I was not disappointed, and you won’t be either. Kudos to Mr. Jim Piecuch.
… (meer)

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 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.… (meer)