A Christmas Story: 05/15/07

A Christmas Story is a series of semi-autobiographical short stories by humorist Jean Shepherd. They were first published in Playboy in the mid 1960s. These stories were later put together to make the very funny film of the same title in 1983. The book in its current form was published posthumously in 2003.

The short stories which now act as chapters are:

• "Duel in the Snow, or the Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid"
• "The Counterfeit Secret Circle Member Gets the Message, or the ASP Strikes Again"
• "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award that Heralded the Birth of Pop Art"
• "Grover Dill and the Tasmanian Devil"
• "The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds"

Of these stories, my favorite two are "My Old Man..." and "...Bumpus Hounds." The first covers the scene with the lamp and I'm just a fan of that sort of kitsch. Reading his family's reaction to the lamp always makes me smile and laugh. The "...Bumpus Hounds" story closes out the book with a tale of the worst neighbors imaginable and how they ruined the Easter ham. It's the description of the house's deterioration and the hordes of animals that crack me up in that story.

Overall, A Christmas Story is a very quick read. It's only a 124 pages. I think the film takes longer to watch the book does to read! The book interestingly has less swearing than the film which surprised me.

Comments (0)