Christmas in Our Time
Book Summary
Hardcover
5.5 x 8.5 inches
204 pages
ISBN 978-1-964530-08-6
Published November 2024
Fiction / Holidays
Christmas in Our Time is Gerald Toner’s first collection in twelve years to examine the unique and often bittersweet Christmas season that now falls anytime between November and December. This time, Toner’s tales explore characters and settings not often found in Christmas literature, while he continues his exploration of Christmas as a time filled with turbulent emotions and issues begging resolution.
From business types snowbound in a typical Courtyard Marriott to a gas station panhandler, from a politically conservative farm family in western Kentucky to a gritty homeless beggar and an aging lawyer called back to service by his church, Toner explores the redemption brought in quiet ways through the spirit of the season.
Toner’s tales skillfully fill an ever-widening chasm between the romantic Christmases of Hallmark and the uberviolent films Hollywood sets during Christmas. We believe his pen pal as a young adult, Frank Capra, would be pleased with the result.
Miracles come in all shapes and sizes during the Christmas season. More often than not, they go nearly unnoticed. Through 40 years and more of exploring the actions and emotions of everyday people during the holidays, Gerald Toner has shown a bright spotlight on small events with larger meaning. So it is again with Christmas in Our Time. There are presents and Christmas trappings and even the spirit we call Santa Claus in these short stories, but their appearance is subtle and often secondary to a larger message.
These tales are for readers of every age, and especially for adults and youth who have too soon surrendered the joy of Christmas to the youngest among us.
Praise for Gerald R. Toner
On Lipstick Like Lindsay’s and Other Christmas Stories:
“The book offers no tinsel, no glitter and certainly no perfect families; just the repeated, ringing affirmation that the Christmas spirit still lives and triumphs.”
“Toner’s stories illustrate the ‘Gift of the Magi’ story we all know in our everyday lives, and they underscore the importance of the gift of love.”
On Whittlesworth Comes to Christmas:
“Like Dickens’ Carol of the mid-19th century, Toner has graced us with a lovely Christmas tale much needed today.”
“As in his previous stories, Toner does not write with an overt religious message; that is, there are no angels here. But beneath the events of everyday life there is an underlay of goodness and a belief that there is an engine of good operating in this world.”
On Holly Day’s Café and Other Christmas Stories:
“Like the pilgrims who came to Holly Day’s Café, readers will be drawn to Gerald Toner’s new book. Many will want to return each holiday season to renew acquaintances there, and to recall the special messages of the story.”
About the Author
Gerald R. Toner was born and raised in Ft. Thomas, Kentucky—a small bedroom community on the hills and bluffs overlooking the Ohio River and Cincinnati. He graduated from Harvard College then obtained his law degree from Vanderbilt University. For nearly fifty years, he has specialized in the practice of civil jury trials, most often defending physicians from claims of malpractice. For longer than fifty years, he has written fiction, culminating in the mid-’80s publication of short stories exploring the Christmas season. His stories appeared in Redbook and three successive stories in The Saturday Evening Post, followed by Ladies Home Journal and other periodicals that once published fiction. These stories and others were compiled by Pelican Publishing, which included Lipstick Like Lindsay’s and Other Christmas Stories, a novel, Whittlesworth Comes to Christmas, and a novella, and three short stories: Holly Day’s Café and Other Christmas Stories. Most recently, The Christmas Turkeys and Other Misadventures of the Season was published by Butler Books. The short story Lipstick Like Lindsay’s has appeared in two Christmas anthologies: Kentucky’s Twelve Days of Christmas, A Literary Anthology (Vested Interest Publications) and Christmas in My Heart (Tyndale House Publishers).
Aside from trial work and writing, Toner has, for over thirty years, been engaged in the recording and publication of the Kentucky Bar Association’s Oral History Project, which captures in video and book form the life and times of Kentucky’s most senior counselors. His proudest achievement and greatest joy has been his family. Like many parents “in our times,” he and his wife, Carol, live part-time in Louisville, Kentucky and part-time in Baltimore, near their grown children and families.
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