More Books for Under the Tree: A Second Letter to Santa

Mr Pearce has more books for Santa to put under the trees of those good boys and girls who enjoy reading the same sort of books that he does.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Joseph Pearce

Dear Santa,

Last week, I sent you a list of recently published books which I hoped you would consider placing under the tree of those good boys and girls who enjoy reading the same sort of books that I do. Those books were mostly about the great writers, thinkers and musicians who have graced the history of civilization with their works of goodness, truth and beauty. This week, if I might impose once more on your precious time, I’d like to send you a list of books by those writers of our own day whose works glimmer like beautiful candles of hope in the darkness. It is true, Santa, that they are not as well-known as their illustrious forebears but they deserve a place under the tree nonetheless. Shouldn’t they be nestled comfortably beside those more famous writers who had inspired them, who had blazed the trail which they have followed and who have laid the foundations on which they build?

I will include on my wish list only one book of newly-published poetry, though I could have included several others, such is the quality and quantity of new verse and the new voices that write it. My one selection is The Favor of My Lord, a collection of poetry by Denise Sobilo, who has often graced the pages of the St. Austin Review, the cultural journal I am honoured to edit. There are few poets who have Miss Sobilo’s astonishing breadth of cultural knowledge which enables her to adorn her own work with the breathtaking brilliance of others. Each of her poems sparkles intertextually while speaking in her own inimitable voice, her words leavened with the levitas of the love that moves the stars.

The remainder of the titles on my list are all works of contemporary fiction, including, to my own surprise, a novel that made the New York Times Bestseller List. I usually avoid this list like the plague in the knowledge that most of the books on it are infected with a man-made virus far deadlier than COVID. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is the noble exception to this plague-ridden rule which I would like placed under the tree of all discerning readers. It is not, strictly speaking, a new book, being published in 2016, but it’s new to me, having been recommended a few months ago by a friend whose judgment I trust. Set in Moscow during the tyrannical rule of the Communist Party, from the days of Lenin and the Revolution to the period following the death of Stalin, it follows the fortunes of a civilized man, imprisoned in very uncivilized times, who lives a defiantly cultured life in the midst of a virulent cancel culture. The novel is truly superb in the way in which it handles the relationship between adults and children, an attribute which is all too rare in literature.

Moving from an author who is still managing to swim in the toxic mainstream, we will now move to those authors who find themselves in the catacombs where the marginalized writers of the Christian underground take refuge. Such writers deserve their place of honour under any tree.

Of the many works of the indefatigable Michael D. O’Brien which could be included on the wish list, I have selected The Lighthouse, a short novel which is truly and disarmingly charming published by the ever-reliable Ignatius Press. Dena Hunt’s Jazz and Other Stories, published by the pioneering Wiseblood Books, is full of the wisdom of a well-aged life, which, like a well-aged wine, must be savoured for the fullness of its flavour to emerge. Miss Hunt’s fiction should be read as gently as it is written. Many of her stories are songs of the south, resonating with the tunes of Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy but without the gothic grotesquerie of the one or the acerbic satire of the other.

Having mentioned the pioneering spirit of Wiseblood Books, I’d like to request that two works published this year by Chrism Press, another small adventurous publisher, be given a place of distinction under the tree. These are two fictional works by the same author, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson, the first of which is Brother Wolf, her new novel, and the second of which is The Letters of Magdalen Montague, a miniature gem of a novella (published several years ago by Kaufmann Publishing, another pioneering press), which Chrism Press has resurrected. According to Tim Powers, a bestselling author who also merits a place under any self-respecting literary tree, Brother Wolf “is a book you don’t just read – you live in it”. Mr. Powers adds that it is “a splendid Gothic mystery and a convincing werewolf story with an endlessly intriguing cast of characters”. High praise indeed from the highly praiseworthy author of numerous bestselling supernatural thrillers. As for the resurrected novella, The Letters of Magdalen Montague, it is a delicious vignette alive with the exotic exuberance of Huysmans and Wilde, which tells of the protagonist’s path from debauchery to the Divine.

This brings me, Santa, to the final title on this wish list.

Silent Angel is a novella by the Italian-Armenian author, Antonia Arslan, who is better-known for her international bestseller, Skylark Farm. It is a tale of faith, hope and love amidst the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. Based on a true story, it shares with A Gentleman in Moscow the unfailing and unfaltering sense that goodness, truth and beauty will always survive every attempt to cancel them. Such works fill us with hope. They show us that the good, the true and the beautiful can only be killed or cancelled as Christ Himself was killed and cancelled. Like Christ, they always find their way out of the grave, sharing in the resurrection of the One who is Goodness, Truth and Beauty Himself.

On this note, Santa, I will conclude. As you help us to share in the joy of Christ’s birth, this year as in all years, we know that His birth signals the conquest of death itself. And so, in the joyful expectation of His birth, in the sorrowful remembrance of His death, and in the glorious certainty of His Resurrection, I wish you, dear Santa, a truly Merry Christmas. And, as Tiny Tim will always say until the world’s very end, may God bless us every one.