Christmas At The Cross by Maeve Murphy, 2019
The magic trick:
A Christmas story set among the impoverished, but without an ounce of Tiny Tim sentimentalism to be found
Maeve Murphy is best known as a filmmaker, but if this story is any indication, she has quite a way with the written word too.
This is a very dark story. It’s about abuse and poverty and more abuse. Be careful as you read this, if anything along those lines might trigger you this holiday season.
It is a powerful story, though.
The narrator is trying to make it as a musician, apparently without a ton of success. As Christmas approaches, she’s trying to break away from her abusive boyfriend, while navigating her neighborhood full of crime, drugs, and potential spiritual enlightenment.
Throughout, our narrator alternates between walking the brink of utter collapse and moments of almost-superhuman emotional strength.
It’s a wild mix.
And that’s quite a trick on Murphy’s part.
The selection:
Poverty I tell you is the most soul-destroying thing. You spend your whole time thinking about what you can’t have, and seeing as basically as money and beauty are the only two things most people seem to value, then you are the lowest of the low if you don’t have either, an invisible. I would say both a skewed romantic-type socialism and maybe some eastern mystics got it terribly wrong. There is nothing praiseworthy in poverty. It tightens your life to a point of rigidity and decisions are made from that cramped tense state of mind and often not wise ones. The police had by now arrived and finished talking to that girl and let her go. Her pimp or whoever the track suit guy was stayed on talking to the police. I lowered the cloth on the window and got dressed.
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