Book Review: A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis
I adore Connie Willis, so it was a given that I’d love this collection of Christmas stories. I actually think, if you’ve never read Willis previously, this might be a good place to start. Her unique style is on show throughout this collection and you’ll get an idea of whether you love it or hate it.
For Willis fans you’ll straight away be familiar with the issues the characters have with their physical settings – getting lost, getting stuck in the snow, unable to find the right spot to hide etc. There’s also the usual communication breakdowns – phones don’t work, or characters go to say something and are cut off by others, or just plain ignored. And, of course, my favourite Willis touch of including pop culture references.
As this is a Christmas themed collection, Willis uses Christmas movies, carols, books, bible stories and fairy tales. She also throws in a couple which don’t have anything to do with Christmas, and I felt all warm and cosy when some of my favourite movies were mentioned –Jumping Jack Flash, All About Eve, Desk Set, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
My favourite of all the stories was the first one called Miracle. It’s probably one of the most romantic and has an excellent ‘looks aren’t everything’ message. (It also includes debate about whether or not It’s a Wonderful Life is that great of a movie. There’s a running joke about how many times the movie is shown each year and this made me laugh due to the fact I have never seen it, nor do I remember it ever being shown on tv here in Australia. So maybe Willis needs to come over here one year to get away from it!)
The other two standouts for me were Newsletter, where people’s personalities are much more pleasant when they’re taken over by aliens, and Cat’s Paw, a classical mystery paying homage to Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle, with talking apes.
Good scifi always includes important themes and those Willis covers include global warming, AI doing the jobs of humans (even though this story was obviously written quite a while ago, it’s very much a topical subject, given the recent Hollywood strike!), tolerance and acceptance of refugees, and that appreciation of art is what separates man from animals.
If you’re looking for something a little different with a Christmas setting, I can’t recommend this enough.
5 out of 5
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