wonderful short stories on people deciding to make a change at Christmas, because of Christmas ( )

I have loved several of Maeve Binchy's novels which is why I am always looking for more, although there have been some that I did not enjoy that much. I still expected to like this book of short stories, but frankly, I did not. There are fifteen short stories in the collection and I liked two, found one to be ok, and disliked the others to various degrees.

The reason is that the stories are full of people who loathe each other and are mean to each other. There are lots of men who cheat on their wives, women who put up with it (both the wives and the lovers), elderly people who bossy around their adult children, characters who give up hope,... Just why are these Christmas stories? It is certainly not what I expected from Maeve Binchy.
While of course it does not all have to be candlelight and sugarcoating, I was not up for the degree of despair, negativity and also misogyny in these stories.

Of course Maeve Binchy was a good writer and she managed to say a lot within a few pages, so it might have been a different reading experience if my expectations had been different.

Just to point them out:

My favourite story was "A Typical Irish Christmas" about a widower who travels to Ireland for the first Christmas after his wife passed away. I liked this a lot, but it was much too short.

I also enjoyed "Miss Martin's Wish" about a young teacher who finally realizes her dream of traveling to New York years after the cancellation of her wedding. ( )

Christmas

Hmmmm. I didn't realise that it was a book of short stories, i saw A new book i'd not read before and bought it without reading the back.

I much prefer to have a good long read and i just got into a story and it was finished.
Its a good book to read in the bath though, 2 chapters and you know your wrinkly haha.
The stories were good, all different people and how they spend Christmas... blimey, even what could have been me was in there!
( )

Hmmmm. I didn't realise that it was a book of short stories, i saw A new book i'd not read before and bought it without reading the back.

I much prefer to have a good long read and i just got into a story and it was finished.
Its a good book to read in the bath though, 2 chapters and you know your wrinkly haha.
The stories were good, all different people and how they spend Christmas... blimey, even what could have been me was in there!
( )