Review of the book of “The Christmas sweater”

In Glenn Beck’s “The Christmas Sweater,” we are reminded that the material items we desire cannot replace the relationship with our loved ones. When loved ones leave this earth or our lives, those material elements no longer have the same fascination as they would if we had had someone to share them with.

Mr. Beck creatively based the events of his young life on a work of fiction. At the end of the book, he explained why he did it for the purpose of making the story come together. In the story, his father had died when he was young. In real life, he was in a relationship with his father later in his adult life.

The story is about a twelve-year-old boy named Eddie who loses his father a few years earlier and later loses his mother. She had wished for a bicycle for Christmas, but instead, she receives a hand-knit sweater from her mother that she resents receiving. His mother dies in a car accident that night and he goes to live with his grandparents. He makes a close friend with a boy named Taylor at school who he thinks has worked because his family is better off financially. Turns out Taylor thinks Eddie has it better because his grandparents have time for him.

The most interesting concept was the character he created named Russell. In the story, Russell seems to be a kind of guardian angel that he has conversations with. The character Russell sometimes appears to him when he passes a nearby farm field. When you tell your grandparents about Russell, they say that no one has lived there in years. Russell’s character was compiled from all those in Mr. Beck’s life who had guided him with words of wisdom throughout the years.

As an aspiring writer, this is the kind of work that inspires me to look at the people, places, and events in life that we can all relate to.