Marley by Jon Clinch

November 24, 2019

Marley by Jon Clinch

A re-telling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Jacob Marley.  Ebenezer Scrooge and Marley meet as boys at boarding school and become business partners for the rest of their lives.  While Scrooge is a penny-pinching number-cruncher, Marley is the schemer who comes up with all of the plots and plans.

While this is very creative and well-written (like Clinch’s novel Finn), I found it disappointing in a number of ways.  Marley comes on the scene as a young man at boarding school, already swindling his fellow students, and the reader learns nothing about his childhood or what made him the way he is.  I had the impression that he was at least a few years older than Scrooge.  Marley is portrayed as purely evil, while Scrooge is cast as Marley’s dupe and not very bright.  They are not friends, merely business associates, who eventually spend most of their time trying to ruin the other.

There are references to A Christmas Carol as well as several of Dickens' other works (David Copperfield, Hard Times, et al) which were fun to spot.  But the ending was depressing and hopeless, as Marley waits to be released from what appears to be hell by the soul of a very good man that he had murdered.  There is no hint of Marley desiring to return to earth to save Scrooge or anyone else, just himself, as usual.  Not recommended unless you're looking for a depressing book.