Customer Reviews

The Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

FIrst off, let me say that I am Jewish myself and grew up in a Catholic neighborhod, where my family was one of the only Jewish families around. So I know plenty about being the "odd girl out" during the holiday season, with many of my own humorous tales.

However, I think it is wildly misleading to label a story collection "The Worst Noel" and then have more than half the stories about Jews who either are celebrating a bogus Christmas they clearly don't believe in (for the parties and gifts) or angsting because they are stuck with the incredibly lame Festival of Hannukah, the poor stepchild of Christmas. There is certainly a place for the assimilated (or unassimilated) Jewish writers to pour forth their anguish or glee or awkwardness, but it is NOT in a book glaringly mislabeled "The Worst Noel". Maybe it's in a book that could be called "The Worst Hannukah" or "The Worst Chrismukkah".

Anyone even nominally Christian, or even non-sectarian, who picks up this book hoping to read actual funny stories about CHRISTIANS celebrating THE MOST IMPORTANT HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR is going to feel wildly cheated. After all, Jews make up roughly 1.5% of the US population (although disproportionately more of the book buying public). It would make more sense to write about a Muslim's outlook on Christmas or a Hindu's or even an atheist's.

Maybe the publisher thought a story collection called "Dysfunctional Jews At Christmastime" wouldn't sell. But this book is a cheat and misleading. While about 1/3 of the stories are genuinely funny (although collected here inappropriately), the rest are often whiny and betray an insulated sense of privilege, as they are entirely about wealthy, educated intellectuals whose idea of how to celebrate the holidays bumps up against Southerners, low-lifes, non-intellectuals and peope with -- GASP! -- bad taste.

I guess therefore that "bad taste" is the ultimate sin against Christmas. I don't read any ringing indictments of tasteful, Martha Stewart/Pottery Barn celebrations.

HINT: buying this for a Christian friend or family member as a holiday gift would be a huge mistake.

I don't why this book has received so many poor reviews. I laughed (hard) all the way through. Perhaps the other reviewers were expecting endearing tales about minor holiday mishaps a la "A Christmas Story," all with heartwarming endings that remind them of their own best holidays--or at least make them forget about their worst ones. In that case, oh well. The essays aren't sentimental, but they're honest and even funnier for that. The essay by John Marchese about meeting his future in-laws on Christmas is hysterical. And Ann Patchett's tale of a blended family's Christmas is pretty funny--in a darkish way--because it's real.

As for those who complained about Jews writing about Christmas: Oh, please. Christmas is inescapable. I'm not a Christian, but I celebrate in my own secular-humanist way, and I enjoy it far more than many of my Christian friends, who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time praying for it to be over.

This book is smart, funny, and honest, and I enjoyed it so much I bought the audio book too. And it was worth it. Hearing Marchese read his own story--with all the accents--was a hoot. My cheeks were streaked with tears of laughter.

This is a collection of true stories from various authors sharing some of their worst Christmas memories ever. Most of the stories, while they may have seemed sad and tragic at the time, are cast in distinctly humourous light, from "Donner is Dead," about the misfortune of a car hitting a deer, to "Birthdays," Ann Patchett's lament about those unfortunate ones who, like herself, celebrate their birthdays in December. A few of the offerings, however, are more serious and more poignant, such as Anne Giardini's "Christmas 2001," in which she describes her family's last Christmas with her mother, who is dying of cancer.

One odd thing about this book was that a good number of the stories actually feature Jews celebrating Christmas. Although a few of these are quite amusing--most notably, "The Jew Who Cooked a Ham for Christmas," about one man's quest to cook the perfect Christmas ham--they seem somewhat out-of-place in a book about Christmas stories, even bad ones. My favorite story in the book was Binnie Kirshenbaum's "The Gift of the Magi Redux," a tale of two young lovers who don't quite succeed at holiday gift-giving.

If you like the idea of this book, I recommend Maeve Binchy's fictional This Year It Will Be Different, a more compilation of fictional less-than-perfect Christmas stories.

I read a review of this book in a magazine, and thought it would be the perfect thing to help get me through hosting Christmas in my home for my dysfunctional family.
Because I don't normally purchase books except as gifts or reference items, or unless I KNOW I'll love it, I put a reserve on this book in late November at my local library.
Christmas came and went, and the book was still not available.
Wow! I thought. This book must be really great! I looked so forward to getting it and curling up with it on a cold day.
When I finally got notice from the library that the book was available, I rushed to get it, and started in on it during a long car trip. (You know a book is bad when it makes a long car trip seem longer.)
This book is full of such neurotic, pathetic whining and overblown, uninteresting angst, that I actually felt ripped off - and I got the book for FREE from the library.
If I had actually spent anything other than time and gas money to obtain this book, I would have done whatever necessary - including demanding my money back from whereever I had purchased it, AND asking for an apology from the editor who compiled this little compendium of holiday drivel - in order to feel remotely satisfied with the experience.
I have never done an online review of a book I have read. This book, however, is so horrifically-bad, that I feel compelled to save even ONE person from having to read this dreck.

This collection of essays was obviously thrown together as publicity for the authors' next books. If you read the author bios in the back, almost all mention a new book coming out shortly and several even include website addresses as an additional plug.

I was less than impressed with all the authors and definitely won't be buying any of their material. Their essays in "The Worse Noel" are all dreary, pointless, and stupid. I was expecting some witty, dark humor but nothing even comes close to the mark. This book wasn't funny, it wasn't interesting, and it wasn't even particularly clever. It's just another contrived marketing vehicle for a bunch of writers doing a "depressed and cynical" schtick. Don't waste your money.

I received this book from a good friend who knows how I LOVE the Christmas season. It's better than Rxs to pick-up your spirit! Definately not in the league of "It's A Wonderful Life" - THANK GOD! Great short stories to get you moving when your down. My favorite author was Cintra Wilson. I may have to buy copies for friends because I may make reading this book an annual tradition!

Maybe my review isn't fair because I couldn't make myself go on after reading the first 3 shorts stories. I did laugh out loud at the deer accident, but then even that story lost my interest. I'll try to force myself to read on, but I assume they put the better stories near the front, so I'm not very hopeful. Can't recommend.

I enjoyed the stories very much especially the one by Cynthia Kaplan. Almost choked I was laughing so hard when I read it.

This book is awful. It is a depressing collection of depressing horrible stories. It's not even the splash of dark Christmas humor I expected, it is just a compilation of depresseed people who attemped to make a book. A person is much better off reading Holidays on the Rocks or an Idiot Girl Christmas, much more enjoyable dark humored Christmas books. Basically, if you are looking to be amused, don't read this. If you want to induce depression, then maybe. The stories are of all winter holidays which is an interesting twist, but those stores were also, equally awkwardly composed. It's just a really depressing, awkward read that is not what the advertising leads one to believe. No wonder the back of thh book reviews are from fictitious sources and not critically authored. It's that bad.

This is not only the "Worst Noel" it's probably the worst Christmas book- or worst book ever! I fought my way through the whole thing and I can say this: Whoever is responsible for this book owes me around 10 hours of hard labor.