Marley's Ghost

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"I wear the chain I forged in life," Jacob Marley says in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In this moving, cleverly imagined life of Scrooge's late partner, Osman reveals precisely how that chain was forged. Jacob Marley, born Jacob Turner, lives in bourgeois comfort with his handicapped twin brother, Ezra, until the age of nine, when their father, a small farmer threatened with debtor's prison, shoots himself. Soon afterwards, their mother dies, and the boys end up slaving in a coal mine called Elizabeth's Furnace. At 13, Jacob is framed for the murder of the odious mine foreman. Thrown into prison, he is finally rescued seven years later, in 1796, by cardsharp Bill Worthy. A paradoxical figure, Worthy is a scoundrel with a heart of gold, who takes Jacob under his wing and gives him his new name. The two become partners and gradually turn their illicit dealings into a legitimate, successful business. Since guilt-ridden Marley believes Ezra died without his protection, his capacity for affection withers. Only one person elicits some kindness from him--his clerk, the young Ebenezer Scrooge. Unfortunately, Scrooge's own emotional life is desiccated both by his association with Marley and the death during childbirth of his beloved sister, Fan. It is after Marley dies that the story as Dickens's readers know it begins to reveal itself. Marley is approached by Lucifer and given a chance to help one mortal. At the same time, he discovers that his beloved brother is still alive. He makes his difficult choice when he realizes that Scrooge needs his message of salvation more than Ezra does. Osmun's para-Dickensian tale is a solid piece of historical imagining, accurately reflecting the social and economic conditions of England in the 1800s. The noted artist Wendell Minor has designed the jacket for this promising debut. (Sept.) FYI: A percentage of the proceeds from this book will be contributed to the Holiday Season of Conscience, a program aimed at eliminating child labor abuses worldwide. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

From The Critics

Everyone familiar with Dickens' A Christmas Carol remembers Jacob Marley: the ghostly partner who came to warn Ebenezer Scrooge to change his ways lest Scrooge suffer the same fate. What fate was it? Only alluded to by the reference of the heavy chain wrapped around Marley's figure as the burden he forged in his own life, in Marley's Ghost Osmun picks up the faint thread of curiosity about Scrooge's old partner and weaves his own compelling tale of who Jacob Marley was, how he came to forge his burdensome chain of sin, and what events urged him to make that well-known Christmas Eve visitation to Scrooge from the afterlife.

The first part of the book deals with the life of Marley. From his happy childhood as a gifted twin to an equally gifted autistic twin brother, a drastic reversal of the family's fortune finds them forced to work in the coal mines where Marley is falsely accused of murder and must leave his beloved brother behind. After fleeing, Marley is caught and becomes hardened in prison where he subsequently meets Bill Worthy; an enterprising crook who makes Marley his partner in a trading company established once they escape prison. Upon the death of Worthy, Marley leaves to create his own business and hires Scrooge—whom he eventually makes his partner—both in business and indifference and emotional coldness to the needy and almost everyone else around them. On his deathbed Marley is shocked to realize that Scrooge cares nothing for him, only of business and money.

The second part of the book shows us the frigid afterlife that Marley enters upon dying. It is here that he meets the spirits which will be a part of the Christmas Eve visitation to Scrooge—as well as one other spirit: a seemingly benevolent guide who aids Marley in his self-examination of what he has done to deserve being in a frozen, hellish afterworld. However, only Marley himself can decide what he will do with the one chance he has to visit the real world again; how he might redeem himself. Only after the visitation with Scrooge—and to an extremely famous writer—will Marley discover his ultimate fate.

A masterfully written story, Osmun follows in the tradition of Charles Dickens—weaving a colorful tapestry about the battle between the forces of good and evil—and adds a new dimension to a legendary story.

Internet Book Watch

In Marley's Ghost, Mark Osmun has written a brilliant "prequel" to Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol". Here is the story of Jacob Marley whose ghost appeared to Ebenezer Scrooge to announce the coming of three spirits that legendary Christmas Eve. Jacob was a fugitive, prodigy, gambler, miner, mentor, corruptor and Ebenezer's partner in exploiting the vulnerable, the unwary, and the needy. Jacob was himself both victim and villain, capable of nobility and vile behavior. After his death Jacob wanders a frozen hell seeking answers and redemption. There he becomes a pawn in the battle between Light and Dark, ultimately compelled to choose between God and the Devil as the future of all human kind hangs in the balance. Marley's Ghost is a compelling, superbly crafted, original novel that does full justice to Dickens and is a memorable testament which may well become a classic itself!
—Internet Book Watch