REVIEW: SKIPPING CHRISTMAS by JOHN GRISHAM

-


   I recall mentioning some posts back that I was on break and, that caused me to have time for more books away from school. If you have been keeping tabs on this blog, you’d probably suspect that I have a thing for John Grisham’s works and, your suspicion is right. My first experience with him was when I stumbled upon THE SUMMONS in my home library (funny how I never got to review that) and thereafter, I went out of my way to find the other books of his that I have read including THE BRETHREN. Anyhoo, I went hunting again during this break and last month, I found the book mentioned in the title and I couldn’t help but want to read it for two basic reasons:
I) The seeming christmas theme and,
II) It was unrelated to law which as far as I know is what Grisham majorly writes about.
  So yeah, I dug right in, head first.


OVERVIEW
As the title implies, the book tells the story of a couple’s (The Krank’s: Luther and Nora Krank) plan to skip Christmas. Their only child was going to be away on a missionary trip that Christmas and, Mr Krank after crunching some numbers thought it wise to skip Christmas and divert some of the money that would be saved to a 10 day cruise alongside his wife who initially wasn’t on board with the plan. Essentially, they wanted to try something different especially with their child Blair away this time around.
Changes and choices--that proved difficult to be made initially--were made to their regular Christmas traditions. They skipped out on the uniform house decoration on Hemlock street which came with consequences of alienation by their neighbours and press coverage too, skipped out on the in-house decoration, Christmas parties of any sorts, the police calendar and a couple other things they did every other Christmas. Mr and Mrs Krank got their bodies ready for the beaches they planned on hitting, went on diets to lose some pounds, got tanning sessions and got some beach wears too. Every moment leading up to the day of the cruise saw Mr Krank reminding himself and his wife of how much they were saving by skipping Christmas.
The afternoon of Christmas eve shocked the Krank’s with the news of Blair coming over for Christmas with her fiance whom she hoped to show how her family celebrated Christmas from the decoration down to their Christmas eve party that they hosted every year. Last minute arrangements had to be made, a tree had to be gotten, frosty had to be in place right beside the chimney, and a Christmas eve party had to be held one way or the other. Luther still wanted to go ahead with the cruise plan while Nora found herself wondering why she let Luther talk her into skipping Christmas in the first place. Things had to look normal enough for Blair to not suspect they didn't plan on celebrating Christmas.

MY THOUGHTS
This was an interesting read for me. It conveyed smoothly the stress involved in preparing Christmas and the expenses that we often dip ourselves in. The fact that it was good despite being was away from Grisham’s popular style of writing. It was a tasteful blend of humour and truth. I also liked how the author used other characters aside the key ones to shape the story, from the police officers selling the calenders to Spike, the blended Frohmeyer family, Yank Slader and the Scheels to mention but a view. The backstory no matter how little to most of the families on hemlock street, went further to cement the story and create a connection the characters.
Now, there a couple of books that get me thinking of movie adaptations and most of those thoughts don’t occur until I’m chest deep into the book. For the one though, it was pretty different, after the first two or so chapter, I started having those thoughts. My thoughts were right on track as I discovered there already was an adaptation about 3 years after the book was initially released (Christmas with the Krank’s).
 Credit
All in all, it was an interesting read and sure didn’t fall below my expectations from Grisham. It would make a good Christmas read and if well adapted, a good Christmas watch (I need to watch that BTW). on a scale of 10, I’d rate it at an 8.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW : VIOLENCE BY FESTUS IYAYI

-
Image
  Hello peeps, how has the month been? I’ve been playing coward for a while now, let me tell you why. I read a book some weeks back—which I stumbled upon by the way—and I was like it’s something I’d like to make a blog post about but I have been “shifting post” ever since. I have decided to take the bull by the horns and do it anyways.     Hmm!! Where do I start? Okay, this book I’m talking about is titled VIOLENCE written by FESTUS IYAYI and I’d say it was a good—real good—read. The time in which the story was set wasn’t really stated but I figure it was set sometime in the 70s going but the copyright and an account somewhere in the book. The storyline spans roughly 2-3 weeks, my guess being right.     The plot revolves basically around two couples, one affluent and the other poverty stricken. The story tells of the things that being poor can make one do and things that the affluent can use to lure the poor as well. It also shows how manipulative some rich folks can be, going b
Read more

GROWING UP BIG FOOT

-
Image
Howdy mates!!!! Over the past week, I found myself brainstorming on what to write next for this blog. Honestly, blogging the way I do (writing articles) can be much of a work at times. Some days, I just sit in front of my screen, staring blankly, with no idea on what exactly to write about. Other days, I could have numerous ideas floating in my head, sometimes, I’m lucky enough to get most of them down and fleshed up, other times, I get to just a couple and the rest fly away or just don’t seem as interesting as the initial thought. Today’s post is several years old but it still rings true and possesses the same initial vibe it had. And, guess what? It is not as particularly serious as my last couple of posts have been--just something on a lighter note. I currently stand somewhere between  5ft 9’ and 5ft 10’ and by NBA standards, I’m nothing near tall (probably been seeing too many NBA games of recent). Away from the giants and back to the real world, I’m somewhere above average he
Read more