Roads

Wow. More than two months since I finished a book. Not that I haven't tried. Lee Child, Stephen King, Carrie Vaughn and F. Paul Wilson haven't been able to shake me out of my funk. Now that I have gotten one out of the way maybe I can get going on Sue Grafton's latest.

I have owned a copy of this book for the last few years, but never got the itch to start it. But I needed a Christmas read and this was what I chose. What a wonderful little novel (or perhaps novella since it is a little more than 100 pages long. ROADS gives us an origin for Santa Claus and ties it into Christian mythology. While it has a scathing interpretation of religion, it is very kind to Christianity and Judaism (and to Norse mythology). Mr. Quinn shows the reader how the shortcomings of man infect the purity of religious belief. We also learn how Santa started as a warrior and evolved into what he is now. This is definintely not a young child's story, but it could be shared with older children. There is some implied marital relations between Santa and Mrs. Claus, but they are married and in love aren't they?

Overall this is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone, particularly if they can get the impressive reproduction that Red Jacket Books did a few years back.