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Skipping Christmas
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Plot Summary of Skipping Christmas
"The young daughter of a typical American family embarks on a journey with the Peace Corps to South America during the Christmas season, which practically devistates her father and mother, who then decide to go on a cruise during the holidays instead of celebrating Christmas. The situations that the parents encounter as they make their plans are both funny and unexpected. A MUST READ for Christmas."
Nell Marshall, Resident Scholar

"Skipping Christmas is a wonderfully humorous book, looking at our often and seemingly "materialistic" Christmas traditions. This is not your typical Grisham novel, in the sense that it is missing the incredible legal twist, detail and drama. Instead, this book is light, airy, hilarious, and pokes great fun at how most of America runs around crazy during the holiday season. I really liked this book, could not put it down, and found myself laughing at the antics of Luther and Nora Krank as well as their delightfully intruding close-knit neighbors on Hemlock Drive.

With their daughter graduating from college and leaving to spend a year in Peru with the Peace Corps, Luther and Nora decide not to celebrate Christmas this year. Instead, they decide to take the money that they would normally spend on all the trimmings and take a Caribbean cruise. That means no tree, no card, no present, no office parties, no decorations, no donations, and no annual home party.

Word quickly spreads throughout this small town that the Krank's are not celebrating Christmas and will not be participating in the neighborhood or town festivities. Instead their time is spent in tanning booths in preparation for the hot Caribbean sun. The neighbors harass them every chance they get and picket signs even appear on their front lawn. The neighborhood blames them for not winning the annual "best decorated street contest", as theirs is the only house not decorated!

On Christmas Eve, the Krank's get a surprise call from their daughter that she will indeed being coming home for Christmas and will be there in six hours. Will the Krank's go on their cruise or will they "attempt" to celebrate Christmas? Read the book find out what the ending will entail!

This book will have you laughing out loud at not only Larry Krank's antics and dialogue, but also at the dialogue and behavior of the neighbor's reactions to their skipping Christmas. The dialogues are just priceless! The pictures which Grisham paints in your mind will have you reeling on the floor!

The ending will warm your heart and bring an appreciation to all of your own traditions - what a really great story!!!
"

Judith E. Pavluvcik, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Skipping Christmas
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - upbeat
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Family, loving relations Yes
Special relationship with - daughter
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - accountant
Age: - 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - society
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 8 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Style
Person - mostly 3rd - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Unusual Style: - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Skipping Christmas
Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani
Daughter Mine by Herbert Gold
Accidental Happiness by Jean Reynolds Page
Postcards from Berlin by Margaret Leroy
Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks


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John Grisham Resident Scholar Profiles

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SCHOLARS:
Geoff Pears  Amy in Wisconsin  David Fletcher  Natasha Joiner  ryan mellish  Judith E. Pavluvcik  Beth Hemingway  


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