Secure A Literary Christmas: Great Contemporary Christmas Stories Executed By Lilly Golden Accessible In Copy
some of the stories in this book might be described as "downers," they're all good, Authors include Italo Calvino, Annie Dillard, and Raymond Carver, But my two favorites are by lesserknown at least to me authors: The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson, and The Birds for Christmas by Mark Richard.
The title of the latter story refers to the Alfred Hitchcock movie, which might give you some idea of what it's like, I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for some seasonal reading many of the stories, such as The H Street Sledding Record, are quite suitable for reading aloud to adults or teenagers that is different from the usual fare.
I forgot who bought me this book many years ago, but I picked it up and have already read Tobias Woolf, Ray Bradbury, and Raymond Carver stories.
Good stuff. Decent collection of Christmas/ winter stories although it was missing a few modern favorites such as Capote's "A Christmas Memory" which is so darn good,
I skimmed through some but really loved unsurprisingly Annie Dillard's folky legend holiday feast, Ray Bradbury's surprise scifi twist, and Raymond Carver's unsettling characters he wrote one of my favorite short stories "A Small, Good Thing" and this reminded me to read more of him.
My Original Notes:
Soso, So many of the short stories were depressing! I enjoyed these, though:
Bless Me, Father, for I Have Sinned by Ray Bradbury
Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster
Christmas for Sassafrass, Cypress amp Indigo by Ntozake Shange
Christmas by Harper Lee
Where You'll Find Me by Ann Beattie
The Night of the Magi by Leo Rosten
The H Street Sledding Record by Ron Carlson
My
Current Thoughts:
I no longer own this book, so I can't go back and reread these stories.
Afteryears I have absolutely no recollection of any of them! The finest writers throughout the centuries have graced us with their literary visions of Christmas, Charles Dickens, O. Henry, Truman Capote immediately come to mind, Dozens of collections contain history's best, But what has been sorely missed on bookstore shelves is a collection of great contemporary Christmas stories by today's most gifted writers, Here, gathered in one volume, are twentyseven stories that celebrate the spirit of Christmas present, In Ray Bradbury's tale an aging priest becomes reconciled with his past on Christmas Eve, while in Frank O'Connor's story a young boy's Christmas morning brings the end of innocence in the devastating knowledge that there is no Santa Claus.
Paul Bowles tells the traumatic account of a small boy's Christmas that is overshadowed by his cruel father, while Ron Carlson offers an inspiring story in which a loving husband's unspoken Christmas wish is granted when his wife tells him she wants to have a baby.
Though these stories share the subject of Christmas, whether as a central theme or as subtext, each explores a unique aspect of the holiday season and its psychological and emotional reverberations.
And most important, in each of these marvelous stories, some uplifting, some deeply melancholy, we are given a Christmas tale of the highest literary order, .