Jean ShepherdRecensioner

Laugh out loud funny. Takes me right back to my childhood in the Midwest

This movie was a truly awful, awful idea…both on the part of the people who decided to make it, and on the part of those of us who decided to watch it.

The original Christmas Story is one of the best movies ever made and represents the upper echelon of film making. This lame turkey is so far at the other end of the film-making spectrum it should inspire a federal law banning all film sequels—permanently.

The nicest thing I can say about it is that it will easily be forgotten…Thank Heaven for small favors!

Watch the original and bask in the glory of its warm, happy glow; ignore the fact that this abomination even exists & you’ll have a very Merry Christmas!½

Had I read the book before seeing the movie, I might have enjoyed this more fully. It helps tremendously that it’s read by Dick Cavett, who captures that wry tone of voice that Jean Shepherd used in narrating the movie. The primary difference between the two is that the events in the book are more a disconnected set of stories, rather than events woven together to make it flow. But still, an entertaining story and worth 3 ½ hours spent listening to it.

Audio version, via Audible.

Simply the best Christmas tale. Why did I wait so long to read this?! I grew up loving the movie and being proud that it was written by a Hoosier who lovingly wrote about where I grew up (the "region"). Reading this collection of short stories (taken from another short story collection by Jean Shepherd) that inspired the cult classic Christmas movie, I was in awe of how truly funny it was. I literally laughed out loud on multiple occasions much to the annoyance of my cats. I can't praise it enough. It's fantastic and I want to reread it every holiday season. It's too damn good to read just once. For fans of the movie adaptation, humor, and Hoosiers. Not to be missed!

I love the movie and have for years. This book is....just ok. The stories are the same, but in the movie, it seems they are all tied together more neatly. In this book, the stories each get their own chapter and they don't really relate to each other. The book is more like a mash-up of magazine or newspaper features, which makes the movie more entertaining.

Well worth reading to get a slightly different slant on this Christmas Classic.

More of a 3.75. I have the ebook and the audiobook. I listened the the audiobook and it was the most disappointing part of the book. Being used to hearing Jean Shepard's narration, it was a shock to the system to hear someone else telling the story. Especially because their narration was bland and a little momotoned. All of the movie is there--with minor changes here and there. The story switches back and forth between older Ralphie's present day and him flashing back to memories from his childhood. It isn't all one long story based on Christmas like in the movie. It was funny and a little weird considering I have been watching the movie multiple times a year since the 80's. The story of the movie is ingrained in my memory, so it was odd hearing the story as a mish-mash of seperate memories. Not a bad story, though I do regret purchasing the audio version.½

More of a 3.75. I have the ebook and the audiobook. I listened the the audiobook and it was the most disappointing part of the book. Being used to hearing Jean Shepard's narration, it was a shock to the system to hear someone else telling the story. Especially because their narration was bland and a little monotoned. All of the movie is there--with minor changes here and there. The story switches back and forth between older Ralphie's present day and him flashing back to memories from his childhood. It isn't all one long story based on Christmas like in the movie. It was funny and a little weird considering I have been watching the movie multiple times a year since the 80's. The story of the movie is ingrained in my memory, so it was odd hearing the story as a mish-mash of separate memories. Not a bad story, though I do regret purchasing the audio version.½

Really brought me back to my teenage years when I'd listen to Shep on WOR NY nightly. One of the finest humorists I've read or heard. Little slice of life of 1960's USA.

This is even better then the movie, even better then listening to Shep tell the story yearly on his radio show. If you enjoyed the movie you really owe it to yourself to give this a read.


The fight

I had woven a tapestry of obscenity that as far as I know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan. And my mother had heard!

Santa

Every evening immediately after supper we would pile into the car and drive downtown for that great annual folk rite, that most ecstatic, golden, tinseled, quivering time of all kidhood: Christmas shopping.

The lamp

That night, for the first time, our home had a Night Light. The living room was bathed through the long, still, silent hours with the soft glow of electric Sex.

When Jean Shepherd tells a story you know it's going to be epic, legendary tall tale. Ralph, Randy, the Old man and his mom are back along with Farkus, Schwartz and Flick. I think my favorite story is sort of a spiritual sequel to Christmas story when the boys all head off to summer camp. His story about the troop train shows what a great writer Shepard was as he makes you feel that you are on the train with him. The best story about the Old Man and family has to the Ice Cream war. I really think that Shepherd is as good as Twain at telling a story about a time and place in America and also for making you laugh.

Not up to the standard of "In God We Trust ... All Others Pay Cash", "A Fistful of Fig Newtons" or even "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories".

This has always been one of my favorite Christmas movies. Reading the book it was based off of was really interesting. I was seeing everything in the movie in this book - and more - within the 133 pages. It was fun to see the details that didn’t make it into the movie in their entirety - Grover Dill, the Bumpuses, and the school, for example. It was also fun seeing what the movie elaborated on, while keeping it all in theme to Christmas. This was a very short read, and I highly recommend it.

I watch "A Christmas Story" quite frequently each Christmas season, as I am sure that many Americans do. For some time, I have taken note as it begins that it is based on this book, and have been interested in seeking it out and reading it. I finally did it this Christmas season (2017).

The book has a few chapters, and a few parts of chapters that are reflected in the movie. These reflections are sometimes very clear, and sometimes they are dim reflections. The movie is very cheerful and funny. The book has funny parts, but it also has reflective, sad, and observant moods. Personally, I really enjoyed these viewpoints.

The storyteller proclaims that the book is a work of fiction, but even a casual search about the book's background indicates that it is semi-autobiographical. The view points are from various ages between around 7 to maybe 16 or so, as well as viewpoints of a grown man talking to an old friend and reminiscing. We therefore get Indiana depression era reminisces mixed in with what seems to be mid 60's reflections about mid-America and New York (where the storyteller currently resides). I found the mixture of these reflections to be thought educing and enjoyable.

The book is laid out in a manner of a man returning to his old haunt, and grateful that it is only for a short visit. The charms of the place are covered with the mundane and the muck of normal life in a blue collar area. Shepherd relates stories of the cold (which is ever present, and I can attest to as I lived nearby in Wisconsin during the winter), boyhood experiences such as candy, sports, various school adventures, blind dates, and then some adult experiences from the perspective of a boy such as fireworks, fishing, and taxes. The story about taxes is particularly poignant, especially as it is told pretty straight forward. This quote was one of my favorites, which came at the conclusion of that story: " I'll tell you one thing," flick said, "I Keep up with the bills. I don't owe nobody..."

This type of book brings me great enjoyment, fulfillment, and often brings about a self-awareness and introspection. Perhaps it was even stronger because of the time of year that I read it.

Shepherd captures the essence of life in Northwest Indiana as a child in the 1930s with exquisitely funny phrases.

I'm reading this again for the holidays. I love this book!

Hilarious!

I liked this much less than the movie, "A Christmas Story."

Please note that I gave this book 3.5 stars and rounded it up to 4 stars on Goodreads.

Who hasn't seen "A Christmas Story?" I have been watching this movie since I was 6 years old and it's been a holiday tradition in my family that every year we watch this. Heck, I am not going home this year, but my brothers, sister, and I are still going to watch it and group chat. My favorite scene hands down is always watching how proud the Old Man was watching Ralphie playing with his BB gun that he wanted for Christmas.

Reading the book that inspired the film I can say that I was a bit disappointed with the structure. Since I am so familiar with the movie and can quote that thing off the top of my head, the book only really focuses on Christmas for one part of the book. The other parts occur at different times of the year, and I thought the last part focusing on the Bumpus's family was off-putting and pretty gross in parts.

The book starts off introducing the book and tying it into the movie that many readers may know about. From there it goes into the quest for the Red Ryder BB Gun. There are course are many of the same scenes in the movie so we have the whole "you'll shoot your eye out." and even the same admonishments from his teacher and Santa Claus, however, he still gets his gift, the day before Christmas. Apparently in this household, Christmas Eve was when all of the presents were opened by this family, with Christmas Day all of the other relatives showing up to provide gifts. We also do get that scene were he almost did shoot his eye out, but lied to his mother about what happened and got away from it. I found parts of this story sweet and found myself smiling throughout.

We are provided other details about the terrible Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, The Old Man and his special award, his fight with a bully named Grover Dill, and how much the family hated it when a clan of hillbillies (the books words) called Bumpus moved in next door. I am really surprised with how well the movie/screenplay was since the movie intertwines everything quite beautifully. The book jumped around a lot and maybe it wouldn't have bothered me so much if I did not have the movie playing in my head as background while reading.

I thought the writing hit the right level of nostalgia for childhood things like snow storms, being warm in the house, and love of Christmas and Santa Claus. After that though, we get Shephard's comments on marriage (his parents) and how they work. I thought looking at the major award section and how his father and mother quietly dueled over the lamp that my mother would have outlawed in our home too was pretty funny. However, unlike with the movie, this causes a three day freeze between his mother and father, before his father finally breaks the silence and everyone goes to the movies afterwards.



The flow didn't really work though in this one I have to say. I think it's because we have Shepard using a present incident (like the woman who was screeching about the terrible toy industry to him as an adult) to recall his childhood affection for his Red Ryder BB Gun. We get another off segue when Shepard does his best to hit on some woman (sounds like this took place during the 1960s) and is thwarted by her female lover which leads to him talking about his parents struggle over a lamp.

The setting of the book takes place in Indiana during The Great Depression. I didn't really get a sense that the family was struggling, which is weird, cause my grandmother before she passed away still was all about never throwing out food and keeping everything she had ever been given because she always had a fear about running out of food or needing clothes and blankets. She also passed this along to my mother who was a pack rat and this is why if any of you ever visit my home you will see how minimalist I am. I do a yearly purge because I still dream of rooms filled with old blankets that scratch and smelled, but we had to put on our beds every winter because they were still good.

Shepherd does a great job though with describing his neighborhood and the times of the day and how everyone was crazy for prizes in newspapers along with listening to the radio every night.

The ending was a bit of a letdown though. The book abruptly ends and I thought it needed an epilogue or something included since you feel like another story is just waiting to be told.

I read this for the twelve tasks of the festive season, task 8, the movie ticket.

I adore the movie, and I wanted to like this collection more than I did. Unfortunately, the movie has primacy in my head, so I got taken out of the storytelling a little by recognizing some parts and having to reconcile others. Shepherd's writing is darker than the movie, less Norman Rockwell-ian in recalling the Great Depression. There’s a lot to like in his humor and I think I might enjoy his stories better if I didn’t already think I knew them, but the overall tone is substantially different.½

This is the book that, in part, "A Christmas Story" is based on. I loved the familiar stories about when the Ralphie character was young. But I couldn't really get into the later stories of him as a teenager and adult, I found them kind of tedious. I guess that's why there was no sequel to the movie.

This is a collection of the short humor pieces that appeared separately and then were collectively the inspiration for the 1983 movie of this name. "Duel in the Snow, Or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid," which is the piece that all the BB gun stuff (and all the specifically Christmassy stuff) comes from, is the best. Some of the others go on a bit--and contain some attitudes that don't go down so smooth now as they might have when they first were written.½

Three chapters in this book were used as the basic plot and story line for the movie "A Christmas Story" that came out in 1983. There are actually five chapters.

It is life as viewed by Ralphie Parker while growing up in Indiana during the Depression Era. It is a blue collar town and things are tough. Ralphie's dream Christmas gift is a Red Ryder BB gun, but the standard comment he get is "You'll shoot your eye out!", which is basically a no.

His chance to ask Santa doesn't go well. Having to keep pushing his younger brother along in line, the Christmas carols blaring, the long line. By the time he makes it to Santa's lap he freezes and when he doesn't say a Red Ryder BB gun, Santa says a football and time is up.

Another chapter deals with his dad winning a prize in the "Great Heroes From The World of Sports" contest. His dad bragged about it, even when he didn't know what it was he was getting. When it arrived it was a lamp in the shape of a life sized woman's leg wearing a spiked heel black shoe. His dad was over the moon and gave it 'pride of place' in the front window of the front room. All that walked by the house could see it. Ralphie's mother was not a fan.

The style of writing and pace is great. You can see the scenes in your mind and hear the sounds as you read. I have seen the movie, enjoyed it, but I like the book much better.

A CHRISTMAS STORY was based from this book - great read!

Loads of fun, as are all of Shep's works, this is a collection of shorts from Car & Driver (mostly) of varying topics. Now, Shep is probably an acquired taste, but some of these tales are genuine hoots, like "An independent survey..." and "The man of the future..." But he is at his best when he's recalling events from his past, as in his days as a gas jockey, or his first trip to the Indy 500...true classics, both of them. A book to be savored, and saved. Thanks, Shep.