This slim book ( just 183 pages with a very low word count per page) is a clear let down by John Grisham.
First of all though written by Grisham, the King of legal thrillers, it’s not a thriller and certainly it has nothing to do with law. The lead character is not even a lawyer but an accountant.
The Plot : When the story begins, it’s only about a month to Christmas and everywhere people are shopping like hell. Luther Krank, working for a small time accounting firm Wiley & Beck suddenly has a bright idea: why not skip the xmas altogether and spend the money on a Caribbean cruise instead? Their only daughter Blair has just left for Peru to spend a year with Peace Corps; His little calculation shows that they’ve spent $6, 100 during last xmas on things that don’t make much sense anyway- cakes and cookies that nobody ate, gifts no one wanted, clothes that lay buried deep in the closet and so on. At once he buys a package tour on Island Princess, the luxury ship, with non stop food and eight stops in the Caribbean.
Nora, his wife is understandably horrified at the thought of skipping xmas. But even she comes around as with Blair away, she too likes to take a break.
The Kranks begin to prepare furiously for the cruise. They are to leave on the X’mas day at noon. They go on a diet to lose weight and even attend artificial tanning sessions.
After this, a major part of the book is spent in describing the tough time Kranks have to go through trying to explain their idea to everyone from neighbours and colleagues to the boy scouts selling trees, to the police club selling calendar for charity, to the fire dept. selling fruit cakes also for charity. Luther also skips his office party.
Everybody gets shocked at their plan. They think the Kranks have gone nuts. The Kranks become the object of ridicule in the Hemlock neighbourhood as theirs is the only home to be without any decoration.
This goes on till page 112. This portion makes a tedious reading. Then on page 113, the bombshell explodes: Blair is coming for xmas! She is already in Miami and would be home in another 7 hours. What’s more, she is bringing along Enrique, her fiance, a doctor she just met in Peru. Enrique has never been to the US and Blair is eager to show him around the way xmas is celebrated at home.
Actually, for the readers it doesn’t come as a big surprise at all as we come to expect that some disaster will strike and Luther’s plan would come tumbling down. It’s too wonderful to happen as planned! This is the major weakness of the book.
In the next 43 pages we see the Kranks running madly to put together a hurried xmas party. Nora orders that Blair is not to know a word about their ’stupid’ plan to skip xmas. They somehow have to pull it off!
Luther has to borrow a tree from a neighbour who is away.He almost gets arrested as somebody thinks he is on a burglary. Nora can’t get any turkey or ham and had to be satisfied with smoked trouts which look awfully stale. Worse, they couldn’t get a single guest accept their invitation as none is free.
Then Luther has an accident while trying to put the snowman on the roof. He hangs upside down in the mid air. In a moment the whole neighbourhood gathers around him and they rescue him with the help of the fire and police departments.
The last 25 pages describe how the whole neighbourhood chips in with their food and even a snowman to make a grand party for Blair and Enrique. Enrique turns out to be a fine gentleman who everyone likes.
And finally Luther gifts his cruise, which he could not use anyway, to one of their neighbours , Walt and Bev Scheels. Bev had cancer and recently it had spread to her lungs. Rumour has it that she has just 6 months left.
Thus the first 170 pages make a heavy reading and in the last 10 , there is an overflow of sloppy sentimentalism. Should have been written as a short story in 30 pages. Then it would have been appreciated.
The book is banal at it’s best and simply silly at worst. Might be useful during a journey. Skip it otherwise, you wont lose anything.
Tail Piece:
After finishing the book I thought that the book could perhaps be better enjoyed as a film. Had anyone made a film already? I decided to search the imdb (internet movie data base) site: Voila! indeed it is being made into a film, to be called ’Christmas With The Kranks’! To be released on 24th November this year (US). Starring Tim Allen & Jamie Lee Curtis, directed by Joe Roth.
i’m happily waiting for it’s release. So you got one more reason to skip it: you could watch the movie instead! Believe me, it’ll be much better! (at least that’s my guess :) ).