Details
Synopsis
At Christmas time, a nun agrees to donate to Rockefeller Center a fir tree which has been her best friend since the time she arrived at her convent as a young orphan., The story of the Rockefeller Christmas tree, 1996, which came from a convent in New Jersey, and of the old nun who watched the tree, a Norwegian spruce, grow from a sapling.
| Size | | Length: | 118 pages | | Height: | 7.5 in | | Width: | 5.0 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 8.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
The chief gardener at Rockefeller Center dreads Christmas because one of his responsibilities is the selection of the center's giant Christmas tree, which is not an easy job. Thus, he is thrilled one spring to have found the perfect tree so early and foresees no problem in persuading the nuns who own the property on which the tree stands to let him have it. Then he meets Sister Anthony, who came to the convent as a young orphan and made a close friend of the Norway Spruce she calls "Tree." This charming little tale from the author of The Net of Dreams (Random, 1996) is a perfect choice for the holiday season. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/96.] Elizabeth Mary Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Breitman
Trying not to behave like Scrooge may be a book critic's most difficult task this Christmas season. This thin holiday fable is based on a true incident, but it is saturated with sentimentality. Narrated by the unnamed, curmudgeonly chief gardener of Rockefeller Center, the tale concerns his annual search for the tree whose lighting heralds the holiday season in Manhattan. When the narrator says that he looks for a tree that has "character," whose "beauty comes from the inside and not just the outside,'' we know we must swallow some anthropomorphic whimsy. He discovers just such a tree on the grounds of a convent in New Jersey, but Sister Anthony, who has a special relationship with the magnificent Norway Spruce (she calls it simply Tree, and talks to it), is loath to let it be cut down. She tells the narrator the story of her life: how, as a lonely orphan child she was brought to the convent, where the tree became her only friend. When she decides to make the supreme sacrifice, her message that we must look for beauty even when life is hard melts the crusty old man's heart. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Saloman, who wrote such incisive books as The Devil's Candy and The Net of Dreams, seems to have overdosed on saccharine. Random House audio. (Oct.)
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