The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens

"John and Dot" by Clarkson Stanfield
(scanned by Phillip V Allingham
www.victorianweb.org)

The Cricket on the Hearth is one of Dickens's five Christmas stories, the most famous being A Christmas Carol.

The story centres around the family of John and Dot Peerybingle.  Through them we meet Tilly Slowboy, their maid; Caleb and Bertha Plummer, a toymaker and his blind daughter; Mrs Fielding and her daughter May; and Mr Tackleton, Caleb's insensitive employer.

Mr Tackleton announces his intention to marry the much younger May Fielding.  As the set date coincides with John and Dot's first wedding anniversary, Tackleton sees it as an excuse to make their social acquaintance in the most intrusive manner; however, the arrival of a mysterious stranger complicates matters.  There are misunderstandings and misdirections but, this being a Dickens Christmas story, there is redemption and a happy ending.

I like Dickens, even when he is laying the syrup on with a trowel, and there is a lot of syrup to be laid on in this novella. The good and decent folk are good and decent, and their shortcomings don't amount to a hill of beans; the bad guy is bad, even when he is being decent.  Lots of opportunity to boo and hiss.  That's the fun of it; and the idea of a happy home is, of course, a warming thought.

According to Dickens, having a cricket living in your hearth is a good omen.  The cricket that shares the Peerybingle's hearth acts as a kind of intermediary between this world and the world of the benign powers.  There are fairies, and Dickens does spend a lot of time anthropomorphising the non-human elements in the Peerybingle household.  19th century magic realism?  Would you expect any less of a Dickens Christmas story?  I like this kind of stuff; others may find it a bit much.

Publishing details: Cricket on the Hearth was written and published in 1845.  I read an e-book version without publishing details.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Japan, 1945:  A mysterious event injures a young boy and leaves an unnamed woman living with deep regrets.  Fast forward to modern Japan, a world with Walkmans and mobile phones.  Fifteen year old Kafka Tamura steals half a million Yen and runs away from home to look for his estranged mother and sister.  Meanwhile, Satoru Nakata lives in a nearby suburb of Tokyo.  He has the ability to talk to cats and makes his living by tracking down ones that have gone missing.

We follow the stories of Kafka and Nakata in alternating chapters, and as they move about Japan, their paths get ever closer.  The closer they get, the more extraordinary the events that overtake them become.

I read Murakami for the first time back in the late 80's.  I found his prose simple and his storytelling beguiling, and he has acquitted himself just as well with Kafka on the Shore. The half dozen or so characters are interesting, even likable.  The action is well-paced and the scenery is varied.  Many of the themes are universal.  No doubt about it, Murakami knows how to write a page-turner.

The major themes of Kafka on the Shore are the power that music and literature have to move us as human beings, our basic loneliness  and how we get by in the world, and the providential force of destiny.  Murakami uses the devices of magic realism to set out a vision of a benign world beyond our own mundane reality, one that will be our ultimate and welcoming home.

I don't want to say more as I fear I may spoil the many mysteries contained in the book.  If you like music, mystery and magic, then Kafka on the Shore may be your cup of tea. Be warned! There are some graphic descriptions of cruelty to cats.

Publishing Details: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, London, 2005)