Skipping Christmas |
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John Grisham
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Pages: 200 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0099481685
Pub: Arrow Books Ltd
Pub date: 2004-11-04
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 17332
Editorial Review:
John Grisham has turned a satirical eye on the overblown ritual of the festive season, and the result is Skipping Christmas, a modest but funny novel about the tyranny of December 25. Grisham's story revolves around a typical middle-aged American couple, Luther and Nora Krank. On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving they wave their daughter Blair off to Peru to work for the Peace Corps, and suddenly realise that "for the first time in her young and sheltered life Blair would spend Christmas away from home".
Luther Krank sees his daughter's Christmas absence as an opportunity. An accountant, Luther quickly estimates that "a year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas", and had "precious little to show for it". Luther makes an executive decision, telling his wife, friends and neighbours that "we won't do Christmas". Instead, Luther books a 10-day Caribbean cruise. All goes well until people get wind of the Kranks' subversive scheme. Everyone, from Christmas card salesmen to horrified neighbours, besieges the couple with questions; what about the Christmas party, carols and the erection of Frosty the Snowman? Things start to turn nasty in the local neighbourhood.
Grisham builds up a funny but increasingly terrifying picture of how the tightknit community turn on the Kranks, who find themselves under increasing pressure to conform. As the tension mounts, will they ever manage to board their plane on December 25? Skipping Christmas is Grisham-lite, with none of the serious drama of earlier books such as The Pelican Brief, but a funny poke at the craziness of Christmas. --Jerry Brotton
Reader Reviews:
Not funny (0/0 people found this helpful)
Skipping Christmas seems like a slightly whimsical and alternative take on A Christmas Carol on the surface but I found it anything but. Maybe I don't get Mr Grisham's sense of humour, or he just doesn't have a very good one but I found this book pretty dry and slightly sinister in parts.
Fed up with the stress and expense of Christmas, Luther Krank hit on the idea of skipping it for one year - after all his daughter had flown to Peru to do voluntary work so Frosty the decorative snowman could stay in the garage for one year. His wife was soon "on board", looking forward to a Caribbean cruise starting on the 25th itself but friends, neighbours and even the boy scouts were not impressed. What should have been a fairly light read went a bit dark as the Hemlock community put pressure on him to conform with Free Frosty placards on his lawn, carol singers invading his property and the police grossly offended about his refusal to buy their overpriced calendar. The stress Luther Krank endured transferred itself to me (the reader) so it was hardly a fun read for the most part.
Whilst it had a happy ending of sorts, I found this an uncomfortable read at times but it was an eye-opener about what it's like living in America's professional suburbs and if it's even half true then they can keep it. Keeping up with the Jones and the pressures to conform, not to mention having the local police at your beck and call (ok, I'd settle for that). Whilst it went a bit National Lampoon towards the finale, this didn't rescue the book in my opinion as JG obviously had some kind of festive axe to grind in the preceding chapters and it was pretty much devoid of any warmth and humour - it was just a middle age man being persecuted for daring to be different.
Over the years I've enjoyed several Grisham books, including his American football sortie Playing for Pizza but this one didn't jingle my bell I'm afraid.
To read before Christmas! (0/0 people found this helpful)
Not you usual Grisham book. It is much shorter than most of his other books, an eye opener and very funny!
But not recommanded as a Christmas present...
Reading Christmas (0/0 people found this helpful)
The best book about christmas, its ideas and some ironic views on it. Far better than all related movies on the matter. A good read especially for parents with kids age 16-25 and for those kids. Dirk sends
Fun... (0/0 people found this helpful)
A fun easy read, get's you into the Christmas spirit. Much better than the film.
A fun festive read (0/0 people found this helpful)
We chose this book for our book club's December meeting in order to have something topical but not so long that it would interfere with all our festive preparations and outings. It was a good choice.
It was written in a lighthearted way and if you have read other Grisham books you would not ever have guessed that this book was by the same author!
Due to the length of the book you do not get a real feel for many of the characters, but that doesn't matter in this tome. It's more about a general attitude that envelopes us all in the build up to Christmas and how non pc it is to try and buck that trend. Season of Goodwill??? I don't think so! Not if some of the books characters are to be taken into consideration.
At the beginning of the book, I found myself hoping that the efforts to "skip Christmas" would be unsuccessful and they would be forced to fall into step with the neighbours. However, as the book progressed I found myself, much against my better judgement, becoming quite sympathetic to their stance and began to side with them in their efforts to avoid all things festive.
I won't spoil the book by giving the outcome as it is certainly worth a read. I'm not sure that the ending is the one that I would chosen, but having discussed it at book club, we decided that the jury was still out on that!
Would like to read another Grisham written in this lighthearted vein, but a longer book, where the characters were given more depth.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Special Features -> Custom Stores -> Fiction -> Film & Television Tie-In
Books -> Special Features -> Custom Stores -> Fiction Complete -> Contemporary Fiction
Books -> Special Features -> Custom Stores -> Fiction Complete -> Film & Television Tie-In
Books -> Subjects -> Crime, Thrillers & Mystery -> Authors, A-Z -> G -> Grisham, John -> Paperbacks
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> By Period -> General AAS
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General AAS
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
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