Bittersweet Christmas

Writer L.D. Clark has more than a touch of the mystic about him, and it glows between the lines of this handsome coming-of-age novella.The protagonist, 15-year-old Bruce, as young people that age often do, is fascinated by the story of his great-uncle, Jerome, who vanished after being acquitted of murdering the twin brother he killed during a quarrel over a young woman. Now, after having all but been given up for dead, Jerome has wired he will attend the annual Christmas gathering at the family homestead after an absence of half a century.What follows is a penetrating and tightly controlled story of how one young man has his first serious brush with mortality and adulthood, told without any hint of moralizing. Mr. Clark has captured the flow of family interaction with consummate skill, with all its eddies and undercurrents. He also hasn't forgotten what it's like to be a boy trembling on the knife edge of becoming a man, and his portrait of Bruce is both empathetic and unblinking.There is a bit of a resemblance between BITTERSWEET CHRISTMAS and James Agee's compelling A DEATH IN THE FAMILY as the members of the extended Coldthorpe family deal first with the impending arrival and then the sudden death of the clan's notorious black sheep. The contrast between the dark past and the gaiety of a family holiday celebration is deftly balanced, flavored with a hint of ghostly mystery that Mr. Clark wisely allows to go unresolved.This is a superb little tale, full of all the things that make life the rich experience it is and peopled by a family that embodies all the contradictions such a unit can. It is a perfect gift for a reader, at Christmas or any other season.