John Grisham: Skipping Christmas

By MARGIE THOMSON

When you're as successful and rich as John Grisham, you can afford to take a punt on a genre change.

Those who love his annual thrillers may be disappointed at his change of pace to a softer, semi-satirical tone as he pillories the excesses of the festive season (by a certain upper-class segment of Americans), while eulogising the Christmas spirit in its pure, generous form.

Totting up the accounts from the previous year's Christmas spending ($6000!), Luther Krank is appalled and convinces his wife Nora that this year they should skip the event and go cruising in the Caribbean instead. Why not? Their grown daughter has just left home and they have no ties ... or so they think. But society closes ranks around them, and the pressure to participate in local activities (street decoration competitions, for instance) is almost unbearable. A chilling depiction of social fascism, rampant commercialism and American sentimentality.

Century

$34.95