Stevie‘s review of The Christmas Train by Rexanne Becnel
Contemporary Holiday Fiction published by Pocket Star 17 Nov 14
I’ve ranted elsewhere about my dislike of overused tropes being used in Christmas stories – especially when nothing new is added by the author to enhance the reading experience. However, I must admit to really enjoying seeing an old trope taken and made new, especially in a compact story, where the trope can become a form of shorthand, filling in some of the gaps that would otherwise require a much higher word count.
Tom has never met his ten-year-old daughter, Anna; he was involved with her mother while a student, but they split up after she told him of her pregnancy. He’s tried to support them over the years, but has been effectively shut out of their lives since Anna was a year old. Now Anna is being sent to join him for Christmas, following the death of the grandmother she’s been living with, and no one, barring Anna’s mother, is happy with the situation.
Forced by her mother to travel alone, in spite of being under the minimum age to do so, Anna befriends an elderly woman – a stranger before their journey – whom her mother has charged with looking after the girl. Eva grew up on the German-Polish border during the Second World War and had to flee her village after her brother was discovered to be a member of the Polish resistance. Later, she married an American and they had a long and happy marriage before she was recently widowed. Now, Eva seems ill and confused, convinced that the train is taking her back to her childhood home to see her brother – and that anyone in uniform is a Nazi soldier.
After a series of adventures that would seem minor to a healthy adult, Eva and Anna reach the station where Tom is waiting, only for Eva to become more confused and mistake him for her brother. Tom is lovely about it all, and lets Anna talk him into playing along in order to ensure that Eva can be admitted to hospital while the authorities search for her real family. Meanwhile, Tom also has to pluck up the courage to tell his own family, and his girlfriend, all about Anna’s presence in his life. He also has to figure out how to take care of his daughter – and even whether he’s capable of doing so.
Anna and Eva together take on the role of the stranger with lessons to impart in then classic Christmas story trope, but in this case the story feels fresh and not at all clichéd. There are some definite sad moments, but overall I finished reading and was filled with hope and happiness about the upcoming festivities. I’d like to read more from this author.
Grade: A
Summary:
An estranged father and daughter meet for the first time at Christmas in this touching holiday story that will tug at your heart, from USA TODAY bestselling author Rexanne Becnel.
On the train to meet her father, young Anna Spano befriends Eva Stephens, an older woman who occasionally thinks she’s traveling to her home village in pre–World War II for the holidays. Recognizing Miss Eva’s disorientation as the same dementia her late grandmother experienced, Anna isn’t sure who is actually taking care of whom on the journey.
At the far end of the journey, Tom Thurston is anxious about what to expect when his daughter arrives. So he’s doubly shocked when a teary old woman embraces him, convinced that he is her long-lost brother.
At Anna’s insistence, he reluctantly agrees to bring the woman home with them and try to locate her family. And as Anna clings loyally to her new friend, and Tom struggles to be who Miss Eva needs him to be, both father and daughter begin to understand one another. And through Miss Eva, they learn the true meaning of family, and of love.
No excerpt available.
