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Summary: Read This Book! God Bless Us Everyone!
Review: I loved this book and can't imagine how it could be any better! Don't pay ANY attention to a negative review! I would recommend this book to everyone!
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Summary: Tiny Tim All Grown Up, It Worked For Me
Review: I read this book recently while visiting a friend (it was her copy) and it was so wonderful I have to have a copy of my own because I definitely want to reread the book. Soon. Yes, this is the story of "Tiny Tim Cratchit, all grown up," and, personally, I think Bayard did a wonderful job portraying the figure created by Dickens, though the book is probably darker than many readers would like it to be.Mr. Timothy is a highly atmospheric novel and Bayard captures the quintessence of Victorian London perfectly. This is the world of orphans, starving children, starving adults, thieves and murderers that Dickens peppered his novels with. MR. TIMOTHY takes place in a London that's filthy, damp, moldy, sooty, muddy and dark. MR. TIMOTHY isn't all atmosphere, though. Bayard also does a wonderful job with characterization. Although it would take a very hard-hearted person not to wish the best for Tiny Tim at the end of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bayard has wisely resisted the urge to make everything "sweetness and light" for Tim Cratchit. And this despite the fact that his Uncle N (Uncle 'Neezer or Ebenezer) has left him some money so he isn't quite as destitute as most Londoners are. Tim is far from wealthy, however. He lives in a brothel, his only payment being teaching its madam, Mrs. Ophelia Sharpe, to read. When he's not occupied in the brothel, Tim is with his friend, Captain Gully, trolling the Thames for dead bodies. (It's a moneymaking enterprise, believe it or not.) Not everything in Tim's life is bad, however. He's been able to discard his leg brace and crutch and he walks almost as well as any "normal" man does. And he does have friends. Although MR. TIMOTHY is a wonderful creation in its own right and certainly not a sequel to A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bayard does draw some parallels to the earlier book, all to MR. TIMOTHY'S good, I think. MR. TIMOTHY takes place during the Christmas season, just as A CHRISTMAS CAROL did, and, more importantly, there are ghosts in MR. TIMOTHY, but not the variety of ghosts that visited old Ebenezer. The ghosts in MR. TIMOTHY are far more real and they haunt Tim much more relentlessly than the ghosts in A CHRISTMAS CAROL haunted Ebenezer. In one passage, Tim even utters, "I have a retinue of ghosts dogging my every footstep." Indeed he does, the most important of whom is the ghost of his own father, Bob Cratchit, dead only six months before the book's opening. Some of the most poignant passages in MR. TIMOTHY occur in Tim's letters to the dead Bob. It is in these letters that Bayard really develops the character of Tim Cratchit and breathes life into him. Although Tim Cratchit grew up to be a melancholy, sardonic young man who lives each day with little hope for a better tomorrow, the book isn't all sad. Some of the scenes and set pieces are quite comedic but these are really few and far between, however they do offer relief from what would otherwise be unrelenting darkness. At its heart, MR. TIMOTHY explores the theme of how we grow into the person we are. What shapes us? What causes us to want the things we do? What drives us? Why do we make the choices we make? I think Bayard did a very good job of answering these questions and I felt quite satisfied after finishing the book. Bayard has not only captured the atmospheric moodiness of Dickens, he's peopled MR. TIMOTHY with a cast of characters that one might think stepped out of a Dickens' novel and into this book. There is Tim, of course, and Gully and Mrs. Sharpe. But there are wonderful children as well: Philomela, a "wee poppet," and just about as Dickensian as any character can get, as well as Colin, a very Dickensian boy. I loved reading MR. TIMOTHY so much I didn't want it to end. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because the ending felt rather contrived and "forced" to me. Although I felt satisfied, I would have preferred it had Bayard ended the book on a quieter note. That might just be personal preference, though. MR. TIMOTHY, although encompassing some comic moments, is, overall, a dark book and one certainly worthy of being set in 19th century London. Anyone who loves Dickens, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, or 19th century literature will probably love MR. TIMOTHY. People who "just can't stand Dickens," however, should probably give this book a pass as well.
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Summary: A Cleverly Written and Superb Tale
Review: In 1843, Charles Dickens brought us A CHRISTMAS CAROL and introduced us to Tiny Tim, a pitiable lad who stole our hearts. That fateful Christmas when young Tim hobbled around in wretched style, old Ebenezer Scrooge spent a fitful night with three ghosts who taught him some hard lessons about stinginess. Now, Louis Bayard shows us Timothy Cratchit in his 23rd year, grown up yet still quite a charmer. And "Uncle N," despite some unwise money handling, pledges a monthly stipend to Tim and demands very little in return --- just the occasional visit. It is the 1860s, and young Mr. Cratchit has found himself lodging in a bawdy house, tutoring the madam in reading in exchange for the room. He leads a comfortable life, his crutch cast off long ago, leaving him with a limp and some residual stiffness. The only thing haunting him now is his father --- recently dead --- who accompanies him on walks or appears atop stone walls with one leg swinging down or perches himself out on a pier with a fishing pole. Tim composes letters to him, searching for peace from every infraction a child commits against his father in a lifetime. In so doing, he writes some very eloquent words. He comes to understand what the dead need from the living, and what the living seek from the dead. One day, shortly before Christmas, Tim happens upon a small corpse, that of a child in her preteens, branded with a grotesque "G." Not long after that, he is confronted with another. He can't leave it alone. He finds himself enchanted by the mystery and engrossed in the chase. As Timothy is dealing with his personal ghosts, he catches a glimpse of a girl fleeing through the streets below his window. Their eyes meet for the briefest of moments, but it is long enough to send him in search of her. Colin the Melodious, a shifty youthful character whose trustworthiness is questionable, teams up with Timothy in the quest --- for a fee, of course. Surprisingly, maybe even for Colin, the nocturnal waif is found, a foreign child named Philomela. A bond is quickly formed and the three begin the arduous task of unraveling the mystery of the branded girls while they themselves try to stay alive. As with A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the story takes place one ancient Christmas, with the fogs of London shrouding the streets with the eerie unknown. If any thriller can be said to be heartwarming, this spellbinder from Louis Bayard is just such a thriller. Throughout its too-few pages, Mr. Bayard's characters stay true to themselves and to their time, showing great complexity and some well-placed irreverence. They come fairly alive on the pages. I had never thought of Tiny Tim in his 20s, but Bayard's imagination has blessed us with an excellent look at the fellow as a young adult and fashioned a superb tale at the same time. And if Dickens were here to read MR. TIMOTHY, I believe he might smile broadly, even chuckle, well pleased. It is cleverly written with just the right combination of droll wit, sidelong glances at 19th-century London and headlong suspense. --- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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Summary: Not A Christmas Carol. . .but Excellent
Review: It is a risky and difficult task to take on a famous piece of literature. Everyone who falls in love with a book likes to imagine how the story continues after the author decides to leave it. A writer who challenges a reader's imagination does so at his own risk. Failures are legion. But that is just what Louis Bayard has decided to do with Mr. Timothy, a novel based on characters from Dickens' A Christmas Carol. As the title suggests, the story focuses on Tiny Tim Cratchit, now grown-up and healthy except for occasional twinges in the leg and a slight limp. Despite the support of the still living and reformed Scrooge, Tim is cast adrift upon the death of his father, Bob, and has thrown his lot in with a group of prostitutes where he earns his room & board by teaching the madam to read and write. While there, he becomes entangled with a young, troubled girl. In the process of trying to save the girl he discovers a ring of slavery and murder. It's quite a plot!--not original but deftly handled and interesting mainly because of the risks he takes with character. Here are characters we know--the Cratchits, Scrooge--who Bayard has made his own without losing touch with the foundations Dickens has laid. Despite the happy ending we might have imagined at the end of A Christmas Carol, Bayard has not hesitated handing around death, weakness and despair to the Cratchits along with strength and goodness. He is not catering to his readers but challenging them, particularly rabid Dickens fans like myself, and he succeeds. Whatever I ultimately felt about the plot, I totally believed that this is what could have become of the Cratchits. Because of that, I enjoyed this novel immensely. And Bayard has added a cast of new characters almost Dickensian in scope and many--Gully, Colin, Philomela, and a host of others--just as memorable. Intertwining these characters and their stories with reminiscences of how the Cratchits got from Dickens to now, Bayard has created a powerful piece of fiction. Having no knowledge of Bayard's other work, I had no idea what to expect from him but I am very pleased with the result and I think any reader, Dickens fan or not, will find a good read here.
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Summary: stop, thief....
Review: Just kidding...i don't think louis bayard is a thief for taking the characters from 'a christmas carol' and creating a sequel. Afterall, scrooge is a minor character here and tiny tim's 'not so tiny any more, that's a fact.' Bayard expands from the point of what became of timothy cratchit after scrooge's conversion. He was as good as his word and looked after his clerk's children, especially timothy, who got all the best doctors, private teachers, and a regular allowance, even in his adulthood. The stipend does not allow luxury, but gives Timothy a rather leisurely life.
so what does become of tiny tim? he still has a limp, lives in a brothel, and has become the protector of a reluctant young girl, who apparently has come to the attention of a pedophile ring. for allies, timothy has colin the melodious (ok, maybe bayard did steal the artful dodger and renamed him) and a one-handed sailor named gully. his father has recently died, but timothy still sees his ghost (or at least thinks he does).
Timothy is a torn character: he knows he is fortunate to have scrooge as his benefactor, but at the same time abhors his reliance on him; he misses his father, but also remembers his faults. Bayard pulls you in thinking everything must have turned out rosy, but it's not so. I was thoroughly engrossed with this book. I think he captured 1860's london wonderfully. His characters, each and everyone, is fully depicted and engaging. And the book is full of mystery and thrills besides. A masterful work...i hope timothy's adventures continue.
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Summary: A dark, atmospheric reinventing of Dickens
Review: Mr. Timothy is a wonderful achievement for Louis Bayard, and is full of rip-roaring action set to a wonderfully "literary" style. Mr. Timothy takes us on the journey of Timothy Cratchet, who with his trusty companions Colin, the Melodious and the enigmatic Philomela, works to break up a sinister pedophile ring reaching high up into the British aristocracy. Bayard has recreated the world of grown-up Timothy Cratchet - the crutch-wielding tyke from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol - who is now a "mostly able-bodied" 23 years old residing in a London whorehouse in exchange for tutoring the madam. He struggles to wean himself from financial dependence on his ancient "Uncle" Ebenezer Scrooge, and is haunted by the spirit of his late father--a man whose optimism and strength the son feels himself incapable of imitating. We first encounter Timothy, during the Christmas season of 1860. He's vexed by the discovery of two dead 10-year-old girls, each branded with the letter "G"--one found in an alley, the other fished from the Thames River by Cratchit and his "diamond in the rough" best friend Gully. What follows, is a tale of horror and a wonderfully breathless flight through the teeming markets, shadowy passageways and the rolling, sinister foggy London of the 1860's. Bayard brings the sights, sounds and smells of 19th century London vividly to life: The smoky, stinky atmosphere of London pubs; the claustrophobic feeling of Mrs. Sharpe's brothel; "the kitchen grease, the rat droppings and the spit-laden gin"; the muddy streets of London with the "shattered frothing cisterns, and the wrenched-off water spouts, clogged with black ice." Totally atmospheric on substance and tone, Bayard reinvents Dickens for the modern reader, and provides us with a very clever story that is perfect for Christmas. You also don't need to have read A Christmas Carol or know anything about the story to enjoy this novel. My only criticism is that I wish Bayard had included some gay content in his story - even a subplot involving a gay or lesbian character would have sufficed for showing us what life may have been like for our community in 1860's England. Nevertheless, Mr. Timothy is a wonderfully inventive and a meticulously researched read. Michael .
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Summary: An amazing trip
Review: Mr. Timothy is an amazing book in many ways. A compelling mystery, a trip back in time, and a chance to relish wonderful writing from the first page to the last. The writer displays true genius in his prose and narrative drive, while creating an accessible and fascinating story that will please thriller and literature fans alike.
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Summary: Mr. Timothy A Triumph!
Review: Mr. Timothy is an engrossing tale from start to finish.Beautifully crafted, the story and descriptions of 1800's London flow like colorful poetry.Dickens leaves Tiny Tim as a tyke,wishing everyone blessings on Christmas.Bayard continues the tale with an adult, crutchless Tiny Tim, who boards in a brothel and fishes corpses out of the Thames for a bit of pocket money.If you haven't yet read Mr. Timothy, head to the nearest library today--check it out, or buy it, but don't miss it!
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Summary: good start, then......
Review: One might have wished that the author had used his Christmas Carol background as more than a stepping-off point for a mystery thriller that is occasionally Dickensian in subject matter but scarcely Dickensian in flavor or panache. Somehow I felt I'd been tricked, or that Tim and Uncle Scrooge had somehow been taken advantage of by a well-intentioned author who simply lacked, well, the inspiration of his inspiration. And mysteries that must, toward their conclusions, laboriously explain themselves are not high on my list of pleasures. I didn't have a bad time by any stretch of the imagination, but I am, in the end, disappointed.
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Summary: Not so tiny any longer...
Review: Remember one cold winter's night, a cute little muffin perched atop his father's shoulder,wishing God's blessings upon everyone he met? This Tiny Tim, who helps the reformation of one of literature's best loved misers, has long deserved a tale of his own, and Louis Bayard has granted this request in "Mr. Timothy".
This story's yarn starts at a Tiny Tim of 23, young man, nearly healed leg thanks to the benevolence of his evergiving "Uncle N". Just burying his father Bob Cratchit, Timothy ventures out in the story to make a name for himself, and his own mark on society. Pulling up digs in of all places a bordello, in which he earns his room by teaching its grand madame the fundementals of reading. Like his uncle, he's haunted by his own ghosts, in the form of his father, whom appears randomly throughout the streets of London through Tim's eyes.
Soon, dear Tim meets a waif, the irrepressable "Colin the Melodious", a nine year old, streetwise urchin who becomes Tim's Dr. Watson, in the case of several girls found dead along his neighborhood streets. For awhile, the branding of a letter "G" on their forearms is the only clue Tim has, until he meets another waif, Philomena. Beautiful of face inspires Tim to help her, along with a lack of English that hinders him, Philomena is the unwitting center of a mystery that only Tim's pernaciousness will crack.
Bayard's writing is both true to the mid-ninteenth century style of Dickens, and enjoyably brisk. Having command over both slower scenes that develop the story, and faster, action packed scenes that become real page turners (one involving a carriage that was simply amazing), Bayard makes this story come alive and a truly enjoyable read. It does take awhile to adjust to the words he uses, and from time to time, his exacting descriptions of 1860's London were a bit much to fuss through. Rest assured, you'll be on your way in the story in no time flat.
Do all of our beloved characters of literature grow up? Peter Pan? Tom Sawyer? Tiny Tim? Perhaps, perhaps. This Tiny Tim certainly will not let you down, and you'll enjoy your time spent in London with a cast of characters richly drawn and realized in "Mr. Timothy".
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