We don’t do Christmas. We save the money, spend it on ourselves for once. Not a dime on food we won’t eat or clothes we won’t wear or gifts no one needs. Not one red cent. It’s a boycott, Nora, a complete boycott of Christmas. (11)
With this fantastic idea, Luther Krank sets in motion the wildest Christmas season in his neighborhood’s history. With their daughter away to Peru for her first Christmas away from home, the Kranks hope to fight the depression by skipping the holiday entirely in favor of a Caribbean cruise, though very few in town are willing to accept their scheme as anything but selfish nastiness run amok. Nothing stands in their way of a holiday away, save for a surprise phone call on Christmas Eve, just hours before their departure.
I’ve enjoyed reading through a number of Christmas books this season—fiction and non-fiction alike—but none have been as fun as Grisham’s short novel, Skipping Christmas. It’s been so long since I’ve read a Grisham novel, I’d forgotten how simple yet engaging his writing style can be. The majority of his characters in this book are too flat or caricatured to be believable, yet that in itself sets the tone for its comedy. I laughed a numbers of times through this comic book, and even though the story got tedious—untying all those knots the characters had made for themselves—I sort of wished it were longer.
The only thing to hold against the book is the latent racism which Grisham, for whatever reason, writes into the Kranks. Why they appear to be so overly concerned with Enrique’s skin color seems to diminish a bit from the overall package, though that didn’t seem to prevent the story from selling to Hollywood producers. After I finished the book, my wife and I watched Christmas with the Kranks, which is a fairly consistent film version, though—as usual—the book was much better than the film.
In a number of years, I may come back to this one like I might to a favorite movie. It’s a fairly clean, pleasant read for the holidays, and while it emphasizes giving and community, like most every other secular offering during this important season, it lacks the religious purpose of Christmas. If you can get over that hump, though, this would be a fun escape for your holiday break.
©2016 E.T.
Read More from John Grisham:
- The Rainmaker (1995)
- The Street Lawyer (1998)
- Skipping Christmas (2001)
- A Painted House (2001)
- The Summons (2002)
- The Broker (2005)
- Playing for Pizza (2007)
- Gray Mountain (2015)
- Camino Island (2017)
- The Rooster Bar (2017)
Read More Christmas-related Books:
Fiction
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)
- The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke (1895)
- The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Frank L. Baum (1902)
- Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie (1938)
- Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark (1995)
- Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (2001)
- O Little Town by Don Reid (2008)
- Saving Christmas (movie) by Darren Doane (2014)
Nonfiction
- The Greatest Christmas Ever by Honor Books (1995)
- The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel (1998)
- God in the Manger by John MacArthur (2001)
- Stories Behind the Best-loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins (2001)
- More Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins (2006)
- Why a Manger? by Bodie and Brock Thoene (2006)
- The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren (2008)
- God is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2010)
- Hidden Christmas by Tim Keller (2016)
- Christmas Playlist by Alistair Begg (2016)
- “The Worst Song of Christmas” by Elliot Templeton (2023)