Customer Reviews

A Literary Christmas: Great Contemporary Christmas Stories

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Lilly Golden and Larry Dark have put together a remarkable series of collections over the years. All of them are "Literary" collections of short stories. Then again, it's probably more accurate to describe them as "Literary" collections of *contemporary* short stories. Each year, we're faced with numerous warm and "feel good" books and CDs bearing a traditional Christmas theme. This one is more than refreshingly different. As a psychiatrist therapist, I'm all too familiar with what Christmas *really* means to a substantial number of people in our country. This book contains a cross-section of gritty and realistic stories that just happen to take place around that holiday. An early selection is Paul Auster's penetrating "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story," the core around which his later film "Smoke" was constructed. My favorite, though, is Mark Richard's "The Birds For Christmas," in which two hospitalized boys conspire to be able to watch Hitchcock's classic film way late on Christmas night. 27 stories in all, most by well-known masters of the form (O'Connor, Wolff, Shange, Dillard, Disch, Calvino, Beattie, Carver, Smiley, Boll, and Bradbury, to name a few). You'll probably have to find your copy used or remaindered, unfortunately. But they *are* still out there! Go get one!

Not everyone comes from a two-parent home in the suburbs with a cozy fireplace and a tree laden with sentimental ornaments. The editors of this volume did an outstanding job of selecting tales of Christmases you won't see gracing a Hallmark card, but still have lots of seasonal joy and wisdom to impart.

Whether you're reading Frank O'Connor's tale of sibling rivalry, Patricia Highsmith's ode to loneliness, or my personal favorite by Mark Richard of two hospitalized boys who want nothing more than to watch "The Birds" on Christmas Eve, you will enjoy the insights into the human heart which each story profoundly uncovers.

This isn't Dickens or even O'Henry, but it is a marvelous collection of twenty-seven gritty and realistic stories set at Christmas. The wide range of emotions and situations isn't idealistic, but for many they are as symbolic of Christmas as mistletoe and holly.