Jean Shepard, A Christmas Story
Featured Book
Reading the book behind the classic movie is like discovering Muddy Waters after a lifetime of Rolling Stones.
Listening to Jean Shepard’s A Christmas Story is a little like discovering Muddy Waters after a lifetime of Rolling Stones. Ah, so this is where that came from. The question is: Does the original – necessarily simpler and subtler than the pop culture monster it unwittingly created – still have anything worthwhile to offer modern ears? Yes, of course. The movie is wonderful, hilarious, a classic. This, the unabridged audiobook version of A Christmas Story, is all of that, too.
Nostalgia’s a tricky thing, so easy to oversell, but Dick Cavett winkingly leads the listener through the post-Depression-era adventures of Ralphie, the poor Indiana kid who just wants a Red Rider BB-gun, and whose old man wins a gaudy leg-lamp, and whose mom accidentally (?) breaks the lamp, and so on. Separated into digestible vignettes and bolstered by memorable bits Hollywood had no use for, the story is funnier and fresher than you know.
