Skipping Christmas

What a disappointment. This book started off with such promise, and ended in such a ridiculous way. Luther and Nora decide they don't want to deal with the hassle of Christmas, and after Luther breaks down the expenses and thinks about what he and Nora do, he decides to quit it. Personally, I don't blame him.

However, he and Nora are bullied... there's no other way to say it, BULLIED by their neighbors for choosing to not decorate their house or put up a snowman statue. The harassment over the snowman was frankly ridiculous. There simply was no justification for how the Kranks were treated, they didn't try to stop anyone else from celebrating Christmas!

The ending was a huge disappointment. Instead of scrambling around when Blair said she show more was coming home with her fiance (she announces this RIGHT BEFORE Christmas!) her parents should have said, 'Oh sorry, honey, we already made plans'. Blair is an adult, she could have very well just stayed in South America with her fiance. Luther nearly dies putting up that stupid snowman statue on the roof, and the neighbors, who had tormented the Kranks with anonymous letters (how mature!) and even sending carolers to their house to annoy them, pitch together to have a Christmas that Blair can come home to.

The fact that the neighbors cared about Blair enough to want her to have a nice homecoming doesn't cancel out the way they treated Mr. and Mrs. Krank beforehand. I mean honestly, if I had neighbors like that, I would have sold my house to a horrible, grungy, trouble-making family and hightailed it out of there.

This book, which started out with a great message, ended as a huge disappointment with the overused cliche of Christmas cheer. The book should have ended with the Kranks going on their planned vacation, instead of giving their vacation to one of the guys who had a big part in harassing them in the first place. Granted, the Kranks felt bad for the guy's wife, who had cancer, but that still doesn't cancel out the fact that the neighbors relentlessly bullied the Kranks, all because they didn't want to deal with the hassle of Christmas preparation. (eyeroll) show less

My first time ever reading Grisham, here—and unless the point of this little comedy was to say, "Don't be like any of the bigots and bullies in this book," then this wasn't at all a good introduction to the author.

The neighborhood's, and the Kranks', sentiments make it obvious that anything that isn't Caucasian, Christian, and Western doesn't jibe with them. I mean, the little pokes at Hindus and Buddhists in the characters' minds just weren't funny. Luther referring to Peruvians as "heathens" and thinking of their foreign children as "primitive," and he and his wife being utterly relieved to find out that the skin color of a certain Peruvian doctor they have to meet isn't too brown—and I quote, "Nora and Luther...looked beyond to show more see how dark Enrique was. He wasn't dark at all! At least two shades lighter than Luther himself!"—no. Just no. Just not funny.

The fact that one Pakistani family moved into the neighborhood once and moved away again a short time later is no surprise. Not when you see the way the Kranks' neighbors literally, collectively, blatantly, relentlessly shame and harass the Kranks for taking a non-conforming route this season by not putting up Christmas decorations and such.

Yep. Go on and browbeat folks into celebrating the birth of Christ (or whatever it is you're celebrating through this holiday) just the way you want them to. Gossip about 'em, laugh at 'em, get crowds together to publicly heckle 'em, bombard 'em with spiteful "joke" Christmas messages in the mail, etc....

Yep x2. That'll learn 'em that 'tis the season to be jolly.

I read the whole book because 1) it's short, 2) I absolutely love Christmas and reading Christmas books, and 3) I figured the Kranks were really going to learn something, or something, through choosing not to participate in the façade that calls itself Christmas rather than truly being Christmas.

But it seems the façade wins out, here. Not to mention the fact that none of the characters are likable. Even when a gesture of Luther's toward the end is apparently supposed to be magnanimous, it seems likely that he may be most concerned not about other people but about making sure a big chunk of his money doesn't go to waste, given his attitude.

Then with the outright racism going unchecked in the end, as if it's just supposed to be a quirky joke or some such...

Nope.

Again, unless Luther is supposed to be an Archie Bunker-ish caricature and the moral of this story is not to be like the Kranks or any of their nasty neighbors, I'm not exactly sure what the point of this book is supposed to be. show less

I've only known John Grisham as a writer of legal thrillers, but storytelling is his art. Grisham knows how to elevate intrigue and wonder. It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and what would happen if you could simply skip the stress and give

"A snap of the fingers and it's January 2. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, no tipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic and crowds, no fruitcakes, no liquor and hams that no one needed, no Rudolph and Frosty, no office party, no wasted money. His list grew long."

I couldn't help but be intrigued to learn if Luther Kranks can pull off skipping Christmas. After all, Luther's only proposing the idea to his wife, Nora, for this year, as their daughter, Blair, won't be home from her new show more job with the Peace Corps until next Christmas. He can hardly believe his wife seems to be warming to the idea. It's easy to love his alternative plan. As Luther and Nora are both being bombarded by inquiries, the question becomes, will one of them cave or continue full speed ahead with the alternative plan? As the reader becomes engrossed in the idea, I was reminded of the John Lennon quote, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

This is John Grisham at his best, making us think about choices and what ifs, and as the story comes to a close, the unexpected ending. I didn't know what to expect, but Grisham delivers a Christmas tale that captivates interest and is effectively written. Don't skip it! show less

“Skipping Christmas” is a short novel ( 3hours 42 minutes / 256 pages ) yet, by the time I was halfway through, I was tempted to skip the whole thing.

The book is about the tribulations of the Kranks, a middle-class American couple in their fifties, who decide that, as their daughter is away from home for the first time, they will skip Christmas and spend the money on a cruise instead.

I struggled in the first part of the book because Luther Krank is so hard to like. He is a man who resents spending money on Christmas but doesn’t dare stop because his neighbours will disapprove. He is shallow, cowardly, seems to have little emotional connection to family or friends, is unconsciously racist and complacently privileged. Krank’s show more motives for skipping Christmas are venal and hard to embrace. The way he treats his neighbours as he executes his plan is unpleasant and childish. After a while, I began to realise that, if he got what he deserved, there would be no happy ending.

Even though it was first published in 2001, it feels more like something from a 1970’s sitcom. The neighbours are ruled by what others might think of them. The women plan charity events but don’t have a job. The men play “my salary is bigger than yours”. Christmas parties are a licence for married Partners in the firm to get drunk and grope “the homeliest secretaries”. When a daughter in one of the families declares her intent to marry a foreigner, her parents are relieved that his skin is not as dark as they expected. Surely this can’t be modern-day suburban America?

There is a twist in the second half of the book that rescues the story from completely failing and redeems at least some of the characters but this is not “A Wonderful Life” but rather “A Life Slightly Less Awful”.

It didn’t fill me with Christmas cheer but it did make be very glad that I don’t live in the Krank’s neighbourhood. show less

Something is bound to go wrong when Luther Krank (of Hemlock Street) decides he and his wife are going on a cruise (to save money) rather than celebrate Christmas. Much to his neighbors’ dismay, he even refuses to decorate—jeopardizing Hemlock’s winning the town’s Christmas decoration contest. Luther antagonizes the Boy Scouts, the police, and emergency services when he refuses to make holiday donations. So when things go wrong, in a surprising way (I certainly didn’t see it coming), he will suddenly need all those folks he antagonized and befuddled for help. And that’s when it gets downright hilarious. And there I was, somewhat sympathizing with Luther about the cost and hassle of the holidays!

Being no fan of the commercialized Xmas holiday, I was predisposed to enjoy a book in which the protagonists decide to skip the season in favor of a Caribbean cruise. Of course the ways that the neighborhood in question purportedly celebrates Xmas is awfully over-the-top, as is the neighbors' reaction to the Kranks' decision to forego the season; however, the exaggeration adds to the farcical nature of this light-hearted story. Overall, I found this book rather fun, with some truly hilarious scenes that had me laughing out loud. I can imagine that Xmas lovers won't like the book, and likewise for readers who might want characters to act like real people. C'est la vie.

As for author John Grisham, he continues to impress me with the show more breadth of his abilities. Naturally, back in 2001, this work was released just in time for the holidays, and in a format that fits into a large Xmas stocking. show less

This is a delightful and funny read. It's got characters you love and ones you love to hate. Everyone has, or knows someone who has, neighbors like those of the Kranks and I could absolutely sympathize with Luther Krank's annoyance with the busybodies. There's humor, heart, and holiday fun in this novella and it's great to revisit this every few years.
Content Note: some minor language and mentions of a company Christmas party that got a little out of hand, but there is nothing explicit.