Mr. Bingle
1917
The Bingles open their modest apartment every Christmas Eve to children who have no other place to go. Thomas and Mary Bingle are bookkeeper and wife, living quietly in old New York, and though they love each other deeply, they live with an ache that never quite heals: no children have come to them, and the rooms feel too large for two. On this particular Christmas Eve, the Sykes children burst in with their usual chaos, and Mr. Bingle settles into his ritual, reading 'A Christmas Carol' aloud while the fire crackles and the apartment fills with warmth. This small act of reading, of gathering, of creating family from those who need one most, that is what McCutcheon captures so tenderly. Written in 1917, this novel captures a particular kind of urban loneliness and the remedies we build against it. It is sentimental, yes, but with genuine emotional weight. For readers who loved 'A Christmas Carol' and want to linger a little longer in that warm, bittersweet feeling, this is a forgotten Christmas gem.
