Who knew John Grisham wrote a comic Christmas novel? I certainly didn't until Skipping Christmas (#700) was suggested for my book club's December read. It's actually more of a novella that was turned into a movie q couple of years ago - Christmas with the Kranks.
Personally, I found it less comical than mean spirited. The movie version does its best to add an element of Christmas magic to it by expanding the mysterious character of Martin, who only makes a brief late appearance in the book.
The premise is that a few days after Thanksgiving, Luther and Nora Krank drive their daughter to the airport to see her off (in the pre 911 days, when non-ticket holders could actually go to the gates!) as she leaves for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru. Her mother moans that Christmas won't be the same this year. The kernel is planted in Luther's head that they should forget Christmas this year altogether and go on a luxury cruise instead. He didn't count on his wife's resistance, nor the neighborhood outrage when he refuses to decorate his house or participate in the community charities. Does he succeed in skipping Christmas? Of course not! When he's forced to scramble to put together a last minute celebration, it seems it's payback time.
Well deserved, if you ask me, for both parents. I found both of the Kranks thoroughly unlikeable. In real life, there wouldn't have been any Santa (aka "Martin") to smooth things out. Although Luther does make one generous gesture in the end, I found it unconvincing and uncharacteristic. It was a case of "too little, too late" for me. Luther didn't strike me as having a complete spiritual conversion a la Ebenezer Scrooge. I'm hoping for happier Christmas reading elsewhere. Ho! Ho! Ho!
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