We are all familiar with Charles Dickens’ holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. How can we ever forget the gruff and stingy businessman, Ebenezer Scrooge? Or Jacob Marley, his equally stingy business partner? How about Bob Cratchit, Ebenezer’s overworked, underpaid clerk? Do you recall Belle Endicott, the beautiful woman who broke Ebenezer’s heart years earlier? In The Red Button, Keith Eldred gives us the engaging backstory of A Christmas Carol, and he lays an intriguing foundation of how these relationships began and later evolved. In this prelude, we meet Bob Cratchit as a child; a bright, mathematically inclined young boy who was full of potential but destined to be forever bound by the inescapable trappings of poverty. We are introduced to Jacob Marley, the formation of their greedy partnership, as well as the influence he had over Scrooge. But it is Ebenezer’s complicated relationship with Belle that takes center stage in this novel. Eldred provides the heartfelt history of their love story, detailing how they came together, their courtship, engagement, and later breakup – a painful blow from which Ebenezer never, ever recovered.
Belle was a kind, caring and generous working-class young woman. She and her father, Archie, ran a small button making shop. Ebenezer was an ambitious young businessman who had just invested in a button factory. The two businesses merged together, and shortly thereafter, Belle and Ebenezer fell in love. Their blissful union was short lived, however, as Belle’s concerns about Ebenezer started to mount. After Belle ended the relationship, Ebenezer was devastated. Forever.
I loved The Red Button and found Eldred’s unique writing style to be well paced, balanced and uplifting. I enjoyed being transported back in time to London, surrounded with all the vintage imagery of this time period. The novel is quite charming. Yet, it also delivers some universal, relatable and agonizing truths; the perpetual divide between classes, the effect of money and the stiff price of acquiring new wealth, the complexities of relationships, the devastation of dementia and death. These themes are presented poignantly, realistically, and appropriately.
The characters are well-developed and multi-layered. I enjoyed seeing the deeper dimensions of Scrooge presented as a younger, kinder man; a man who changed as he became absorbed in his own success. I was surprisingly able to sympathize with him at times. It was quite evident that his greed and harsh exterior were all rooted in an intense fear of failure. Additionally, I found Belle’s character to be intriguing and I appreciated Eldred’s rich presentation of her. In A Christmas Carol, her history with Ebenezer was important to the story line, but Belle herself wasn’t a major character. I enjoyed getting to know this compassionate, mature, deeply grounded and highly insightful young woman – the only woman who Ebenezer would ever love.
Eldred did a magnificent job on this rich, detailed and meaningful prelude to A Christmas Carol. I think it would make an incredible play and I’d love to see this story on stage. Charles Dickens would be proud! This novel would make a perfect holiday gift for any fan of A Christmas Carol. To purchase The Red Button, click Amazon. Note that this is an affiliate link, which only means that when you click the link and make a purchase, I receive a tiny commission at no additional cost to you. My opinions remain my own. Happy shopping!
The author provided me with a copy of The Red Button in exchange for an honest review. Please visit Keith Eldred’s website, www.thisis.red. This Is Red is a project created by Eldred and his wife, Janet, who suffers from dementia. Visit their website and check out their twenty published Christmas books. Happy Holidays!
“…you were not then what you are now. I am still who I was then. We used to happily plan the same life. Now that life would make you miserable…I release you” Belle Endicott, The Red Button (Keith Eldred)
