by Stuart Le Grice

Created on: November 13, 2008   Last Updated: December 25, 2008

My favorite novel of the moment has to be "A Dog Named Christmas", by Greg Kincaid. It's fair to say that life on the farm suited George well; he enjoyed the honest but hard way of life a great deal. He enjoyed still further the help and support of his beloved wife Mary-ann and the youngest of his five children, Todd.

Todd was born ten years after George and Mary-ann thought they had changed their last diaper. Todd was - depending on which Doctor you asked - mildly retarded, or autistic, or learning disabled. He simply didn't seem to function at full speed, but what he lacked in some areas he more than made up for in others. A kind and gentle young man, Todd seemed to hold a special affinity with animals. They trusted him, they enjoyed being around him, they felt unthreatened by him.

And so it was with an almost unstoppable inevitability when Todd heard an earnest appeal on the local radio station for people to volunteer to adopt a dog for the Christmas period, he set about convincing his parents that they had to help out, they simply had to adopt a dog for Christmas. But whereas Todd saw such matters in their simplest black and white form, George was a lot more reticent about letting a dog into their lives after so many years. Previous experiences with dogs as a young man had left him heartbroken and scarred, and he wasn't at all sure that he was ready or able to offer the love and support to a canine again.

Nevertheless, with plenty of lobbying from Mary-ann and the promise that Todd would feed, water and exercise the hound religiously - it was decided that they would adopt a dog. But only under the complete and irrevocable understanding that this was a short term deal, that the dog would be returning to the animal shelter once the holidays were over. Little did George realise, however, that come the 26th December, events would take an unexpected and life altering twist, and the decisions made would have ramifications reaching far beyond their lives on the secluded Kansas smallholding.

Without wishing to give anything of the ending away I found this an immensely enjoyable read. At varying times my emotions fluctuated between sadness, anger, happiness, and joy - Not a bad sensual journey from a book that is only one hundred and eighty pages in length. I think most people can find some sort of affinity or bond with an animal - be it a dog or cat or whatever - and this feeling is what Greg Kincaid taps into so well in this book.

He also sets the story at Christmas

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