Aww, a Christmas story, crime story even, to melt any curmudgeon's heart. With a chunky short story collection like The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, it's hard to know which story to pick. It's also the sort of book you don't easily carry around in your bookbag and poor planning means that you might opt for a shorter story rather than a longer one. Yes, today was a 'must squeeze in a short story' sort of afternoon.
So, a cursory glance through the contents (noting how many pages long the stories are . . .) and then a slightly longer perusal through a few stories that caught my eye, and I finally settled on John Lutz's The Live Tree. I am not familiar with Lutz, or at least thought I wasn't. He has, however, more than forty novels to his name and two hundred short stories. best known for SWF Seeks Same, which you might know by the movie adaptation, Single White Female. Yes, I've seen the movie and hadn't realized it was based on a book. I may now have to look for the book.
A nice easy and entertaining holiday read on a rainy (if it was colder I would be saying snowy) Sunday afternoon. I hate to admit it, but this sounds almost like my own sentiments:
" . . . what Christmas really is. Nothing but a major marketing blitz that starts sometime in October. You know retail stores make half their profits during the Christmas season? He peaked his eyebrows in indignation. Half! I mean, it's reached the point where how well they can con us at Christmas determines how the entire economy's gonna go. The world economy! Goddamn governments rise or fall on it."
Okay, okay, so Clayton is pretty grinchy, particularly since these sentiments are in response to his son's wish (and his mother's too) for a real tree for Christmas. Clayton will agree to an artificial one, but he would prefer to have a tree painted on his window blinds that he would simply lower for the holidays and then raise thereafter.
Since the story is from a crime collection you might be wondering where murder or other bad behavior comes into play? It comes into play in the guise of Clayton's brother who happens to be incarcerated due to mail fraud, though he is pretty good at all kinds of fraud according to Clayton. A knock on the door and a surprise visit and who do you think it is? Yes, Willy has arrived for a brief visit thanks to a temporary release as part of their 'good behavior program' fraud being a nonviolent sort of crime.
What do you think happens? Something awful goes awry and a horrible ending to the family? Maybe Clayton gets annoyed and murders his brother Willy? I won't tell, you'll have to read the story to find out (unless of course you really want to know . . .). But go back to the top of this post and my opening sentence will give you a hint. Let's just call this a combination bad boy makes good and unexpected ghost story. Hmm.
I still do think the whole Christmas season starting in October and the endless bombardment (for a good three months) is pretty annoying. But, hey, give the little kid a real tree--even I am not that grinchy! But something simple. Not a mention was made once of any inflatable lawn animals.
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I do have to mention the New Yorker story I read this week, or rather, listened to (and read along). In the current issue (December 14) there is a marvelous and very notable story, "Jelly and Jack" by Dana Spiotta, whose work I was not familiar with (well, only peripherally as I have seen her books around), but now I want to go out and buy everything she has ever written. I can see why she has been nominated for and won numerous awards. The story is kind of melancholic but the character who narrates the story so very sympathetic and very, very real. It sort of breaks your heart, all the while some of us can understand her predicament so very well. I'll just say Nicole is a, hmm, shall we call her a serial phone crankster? Well, not exactly. She sets out to make men fall in love with her from a distance through 'chance' phone calls. It sounds a little outrageous maybe? But Spiotta totally pulls it off. She had me riveted. This is why I love short stories--in the hands of such talented writers you find these little human truths that make you nod to yourself, yes, that's life. Well, maybe you'll go and read it for yourself since it is online here. Gentle nudge, nudge--it's only a mere half hour or so of your time. The illustration that accompanies the story is perfect by the way.
Not sure what I'll do for my short story reading for the next couple of weeks--more from my crime Christmas collection? Some other partially read book that calls out to be finished. Some other story from another anthology (that are perfect for dipping into). I have a few new collections I should really share with you--and dip into. I will most definitely be reading my weekly short stories in 2016 but am not exactly sure how or if I will write about them here.
Now, go on, go read a short story yourself!