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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Books John Grisham, Ayn Rand, and a White Christmas

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 3:19 PM

Every year at Chrstmas time, I think of John Grisham's 2001 novel Skipping Christmas and how it's become a modern Christmas classic. When I was a bookseller, I can't tell you how many older women told me I simply had to read Skipping Christmas because it was a poignant reminder of the joys of the holiday. One woman even compared it favorably to It's a Wonderful Life. Every time they recommended it to me, I had to bite my tongue. Skipping Christmas is the only Grisham book I've ever read, and it is awful enough to make me swear I'll never read another one as long as I live.

Last night, I was discussing the awfulness that is Skipping Christmas, and I Googled it and came across Bill Peschel's great review of the book. It looks at Skipping Christmas in a way that I had never before considered: as an Objectivist holiday fable. Whether Peschel is right or not about Grisham's Ayn Randian intentions, he correctly points out the real horror of the book. Much of Skipping Christmas consists of the main characters worrying about their daughter's fiancee being too brown because he is from Peru. Luther and Nora can't bear the thought of Enrique's grubby brown hands on their daughter:

"Don't Peruvians have dark skin?" he asked.

Nora froze for a second. They stared at each other, then both looked away.

"I guess it doesn't matter now," she said.

"She's not really getting married, is she?" Luther said, in disbelief.

...and that's not all from the joy-master Grisham. The Kranks' fears about a dark-skinned Peruvian marrying into the family and polluting the blood line prove false. It turns out that he is a) a doctor; b) capable of speaking English; c) educated in London; and d) well, to quote the book:

Nora and Luther both glanced at her first, then quickly looked beyond to see how dark Enrique was. He wasn't dark at all! At least two shades lighter than Luther himself!

Ho, ho, ho! A white Christmas in every sense of the word! In conclusion, fuck John Grisham and especially fuck Skipping Christmas. I will now put this book away for 2009, until I drag out my hatred next year, like a particularly ragged piece of garland. Hating Skipping Christmas has practically become a Yuletide tradition for me.

Comments (10) RSS

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Jesus that's repellent.

Posted by Fnarf

on December 24, 2009 at 3:29 PM

And it was done as if he was not aware how racist it was? Or was their racism part of the story?

Posted by Vince on December 24, 2009 at 3:46 PM

What 2 said. The second part, I mean. Especially that second excerpt. Sounds like it's supposed to be one of those "aha! / message!" moments.

Posted by Jason Josephes

on December 24, 2009 at 4:02 PM

@2 even if the latter, the resolution makes a shitty, stupid literary device. that "lesson" ends up not meaning much, since the glories of intraracial relationships prevail. their daughter may help the brownies, but she does not fuck them. that part of the narrative, in total, portrays racism as mere pettiness.

Posted by cranky on December 24, 2009 at 4:26 PM

I haven't read this particular book, but I've read a few of his other books. Racism often plays a part in his stories. Taken out of context, these passages make Grisham sound racist. I don't think he is. I suspect he was merely portraying one of his characters as racist, and trying to show how wrong that is (in a rather clumsy way, perhaps).

In any case, whether you like his writing or not, it is wrong to leap to the conclusion that he is a racist by reading a couple of sentences out of context. I am almost certain that is completely wrong.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on December 24, 2009 at 5:04 PM

"The Innocent Man," which is not fiction and not racist is a pretty gripping Grisham book. It's the only one I've read and I'm not too interested in reading any of his fiction.

Posted by SteveM on December 24, 2009 at 5:20 PM

But the first Grisham book is good. You can diss but not dismiss him until you've read that one.

Posted by Tim Appelo on December 24, 2009 at 5:32 PM

I'm not fond of his work, but if he pretends to be doing more than churning it out for the mass market I haven't heard of it. His audience pays to have its prejudices tickled but not poked.

Posted by gloomy gus on December 24, 2009 at 7:09 PM

If this is PC's sad little gullibility test at the expense of Slog readers, it seems to have scored.

If PC means what he writes, and nobody yet called him on it, that's even sadder.

FYI, Grisham is a Democratic activist, prolific contributor, Innocence Project board member, courtroom gladiator for the disadvantaged ... and the pervasive, corrosive nature of racism and intolerance in our society is a major theme in his writing.

Leave it to functional illiterates to review books around here.

Posted by RonK, Seattle on December 26, 2009 at 2:54 PM

And again, it's a big leap to go from racist characters to racist author. As for Grisham's writing, it's pulp-legal-fiction, like Dan Brown' near-future sci-fi or Tom Clancy's largely-outmoded pro-military Realpolitik manifestoes. The writing may not be heavy on craft or form, and the characters may be cookie-cutter archetypes, but the stories are pretty engaging for the most part. But really, equating character sentiments to those of an author? Have you ever taken a single class or read a single book on literary analysis? We might as well say Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was a racist for writing a character named "Nigger Jim".

Posted by John Horstman on December 28, 2009 at 8:12 AM