Two storylines contained in this sweet book. One storyline goes back to 1860 and follows Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as you see his life that inspired his "Christmas Bells" poem that has outlived him. The other storyline follows multiple people as they are preparing for a children's Christmas performance at a Catholic church and each chapter focuses on a character involved in one way or another with the performance and what they are dealing with during the holiday season.

I absolutely adored this book. I did tend to enjoy the present storylines as it jumped from character to character more than the historical, but I appreciated the historical to give me some knowledge behind the poem and the author and his family. I had never read anything about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and didn't know of the tragedy that befell him and his family, so to read his story and get context on how his art was created was interesting.

Kids and adults each get the chance to share their stories during the present storylines. There were moments where the past and the present mirrored with war going on in each storyline and the toll that it can take on the entire family. I appreciated that the author was able to weave these stories in and out and they fit well together.

I would recommend this read especially during the holiday season and even suggest it to a reader who doesn't tend to read historical fiction - with it mingled within a great story, it was a nice balance.

Well written, with informative historical sections that look at Longfellow's family and life in 1860s Boston, as backdrop and the climate when his poem, "Christmas Bells," was written. This is often sung as an anthem or hymn in churches at Christmas time. The entire poem is reproduced at the beginning of the book, and I had not realized its connection to the American Civil war. I found these sections to be quite interesting as I was not familiar with the poem and did not know much about Longfellow.

The alternate contemporary chapters of this book are told from the perspectives of a music teacher & children's church choir director, the accompanist, a mother of two children in the choir (whose military husband is missing in Afghanistan), the two children, the priest, an elderly nun, an older couple who are church benefactors. This device works fairly well, as all perspectives merge at the penultimate choir practice before the Christmas Eve children's choir concert. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters and seeing how their stories interacted.

I really enjoyed reading this book, the first of this author's works I've read that was not part of her Elm Creek Quilters series.

The books by this author are wonderful. I love the historical fiction, and her going back and forth between Boston 1860s and the current day during the holidays was very enjoyable.

CHRISTMAS BELLS
Written by Jennifer Chiaverini
2015; 336 Pages (Dutton Penguin)
Genre: historical fiction, based on true events, contemporary

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)

Rating: 2 STARS


"In 1860, the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow family celebrated Christmas at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publication of Longfellow’s classic Revolutionary War poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” was less than a month hence, and the country’s grave political unrest weighed heavily on his mind. Yet with his beloved wife, Fanny, and their five adored children at his side, the delights of the season prevailed.

In present-day Boston, a dedicated teacher in the Watertown public school system is stunned by somber holiday tidings. Sophia’s music program has been sacrificed to budget cuts, and she worries not only about her impending unemployment but also about the consequences to her underprivileged students. At the church where she volunteers as music director, Sophia tries to forget her cares as she leads the children’s choir in rehearsal for a Christmas Eve concert. Inspired to honor a local artist, Sophia has chosen a carol set to a poem by Longfellow, moved by the glorious words he penned one Christmas Day long ago, even as he suffered great loss.

Christmas Bells chronicles the events of 1863, when the peace and contentment of Longfellow’s family circle was suddenly, tragically broken, cutting even deeper than the privations of wartime. Through the pain of profound loss and hardship, Longfellow’s patriotism never failed, nor did the power of his language. “Christmas Bells,” the poem he wrote that holiday, lives on, spoken as verse and sung as a hymn." (From Publisher)

Critics of Chiaverini's historical fiction all share one thing - they do not like her rambling descriptions and find themselves forgetting the story because of the writing. I have mostly liked Chiaverini's novels but this one just sunk for me. I was really curious to read this one as I have always like the poem "Christmas Bells" and this novel was set both in the present and past. I liked the first chapter of the present day story and then after that I could not get into the story. With Longfellow's story I hung on for a few chapters and then found myself fading. There was no character I could anchor myself to so that I could keep reading. It was pure strength and curiosity that got me through this book because I needed to know if it gets better. Unfortunately, it didn't. I would highly recommend her novel The Spymistress. Great characters and story.

Despite the name, Christmas Bells is a novel that while it fits more with the holiday/winter season, it can certainly be enjoyed throughout the rest of the year. The title relates directly to the poem, and later the Christmas carol, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the novel by Jennifer Chiaverini takes that poem at its heart and builds around it both a modern story as well as a historical story. Let’s explore that more.

The historical story is set during the years of the Civil War in the United States and follows the Longfellow family (yes, the Longfellow that wrote the titular poem) through all the trials and tribulations that led to the composition of said poem. I had not known anything about Longfellow, I’m not a huge fan of poetry, but I found his life fascinating, but so tragic. There was a lot of sadness during this time for him. While we learn a lot about the man himself we also see what some aspects of the War would have been like for those living in the North as well as on the battlefield as that touched close to home for Longfellow as well.

The modern story line ties in because it is based around a church children’s choir that is practicing to perform Christmas Bells for their Christmas service. While the historical narrative follows one man/one family, the modern narrative looks at several different people’s stories each filled with a lot of hardship and sadness around the holiday, just like Longfellow.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked both the historical and the modern for different reasons. The historical narrative evoked the time period very well and looked at the effects of the War on the people at home and how they dealt with their family member being at war. The modern story was one that kept you on the edge of your seat wondering how each person’s plight would resolve and if it would be happy or not. Both stories pulled at my heart strings and made me truly care about the characters. However, there were a couple issues as well.

My major issue was with the structure of the novel. The historical narrative is told from the limited perspective of Henry Longfellow whereas in the modern narrative each chapter is told by a different character – from children in the choir, to the choir directors, parents, and church people. It was weird for me to bounce around between characters in one narrative, but remain with one character in the other. However, this wasn’t my most significant issue with the structure. In the modern narrative there were some instances of repetition in storytelling between characters. This was particularly obvious with the chapters from the brother/sister and their mother. There were entire passages that I skimmed right past because I had already read that exact thing not a chapter before, which was a little frustrating. It felt almost like a copy/paste job. You can still have overlapping segments, but being from 2 perspectives there should be differences there. They were wasted words on me.

At its heart, Christmas Bells is the story of survival, moving on, and embracing what life throws at you, which can be appreciated at all times of the year.

Christmas Bells – Jennifer Chiaverini

This book was very difficult for me to get through. The author uses many characters and storylines within the book, which makes it hard to follow.

The two main storylines take place in modern day Boston and 1860’s Civil War time, with emphasis on William Wadsworth Longfellow, his family events of the time, and his writing of the poem, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.

Modern time storyline covers a Senator and his wife, a military family of 4, a school teacher (choir director) and accompanist for the choir, a Priest and his family, and a Nun at the Catholic church. I found it hard to keep following all the jumping back and forth between storylines that become interwoven through a children’s choir at the church and the fact that one of the songs they sing is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.

The storyline with Longfellow covered many things about the Civil War, which I really didn’t enjoy as I don’t really like to read historical novels.

I’ve read several of the author’s books and have enjoyed them, but didn’t really care for this one, other than it was a book with happy endings for the holiday.