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MARLEY

Jon Clinch

From the acclaimed author of the "marvel of a novel" (Entertainment Weekly) Finn comes a masterful reimagining of Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol with this darkly entertaining and moving exploration of the twisted relationship between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley.
Young Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley are very different in temperament when they meet in the gloomy confines of Professor Drabb's Academy for Boys, but they form a bond that will endure for the rest of their lives.

As years go by, with Marley's genius for deception and Scrooge's brilliance with numbers, they build a shipping empire of dubious legality and pitiless commitment to the slave trade, concealing their true investments under the noses of the London authorities. Circumstances change, however, when beautiful Belle Fairchild steps into Ebenezer's life and calls into question the practices that made him wealthy. Under the influence of a newfound passion, Ebenezer tries to turn Scrooge & Marley's business toward better ends, but his partner is not ready to give up his unsavory past or easy profits so quickly. Ignoring the costs to themselves and those around them, the two engage in a shadowy war against each other, leading to an unforgettable reckoning that will echo into their futures.

Brilliantly written in Jon Clinch's signature "spellbinding" (The Washington Post) prose, MARLEY is an unforgettable reimagining that will forever deepen the way you view the classic novel.

Jon Clinch's first novel, Finn -the secret history of Huckleberry Finn's father- was named an American Library Association Notable Book and was chosen as one of the year's best books by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Christian Science Monitor. It won the Philadelphia Athenaeum Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. His second novel, Kings of the Earth, was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post.
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Published 2019-10-08

Comments

MARLEY is a People Magazine's Best New Books in the 10/14: "[A] lively imagined prequel." Read more...

(Marley) provides an authentic background for understanding the development of Scrooge's angry, bitter nature, and eventual redemption.

It's one thing to come up with a brilliant premise, but it's another thing to know what to do with it, how to realize its potential. As he did with Finn, Jon Clinch digs down to the bones of a classic and creates must-read modern literature.

By some uncanny act of artistic appropriation, [Clinch] has, without imitating Dickens, entered into the phantasmagoric realm that is the great novelist's quintessential territory. . . . Clinch endows Dickens's snapshots with a three-dimensional, often alarming, life. . . . He triumphantly succeeds. . . Startling and creative. . . masterly . . . remarkable.

Intrigue and betrayal infest the shadowy underworld of Dickensian London. The tight-fisted Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghost of Jacob Marley come vividly to life in an assured reimagining of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol by novelist Clinch (Belzoni Dreams of Egypt, 2014, etc.), who brilliantly captures the wit and irony of Dickens' prose as he unfurls a tale of greed, cruelty, and passion. ... An adroit, sharply drawn portrayal of Dickens' indelible characters.

Jon Clinch is a brilliant stylist, effortlessly capturing Dickensian locales and characters with a precision that is both evocative and a joy to read. But what separates a good novelist from a great one is a profound sense of humanity, a delve into the deeper questions. In Marley, Clinch revisits Dickens's A Christmas Carol and dares to ask, "What precisely are the chains that shackled Marley?" Read through to the last page of this brilliant book, and I promise you that you will have a permanently changed view, not just of Dickens's world, but of the world we live in today. Yes, Jon Clinch is a great novelist, and Marley is delightful, disturbing, and deeply profound.