The stories of Jean Shepherd are great; Cavett's narration not so much

books:


	• A Christmas Story: The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Film Jean Shepherd Broadway, 2003 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A CHRISTMAS STORY

This look at the holiday season through a child's eyes is just hilarious. Jean Shepherd knew how to make us relive some of those moments!

The stories of Jean Shepherd are great; Cavett's narration not so much

When we were kids, we used to take out our transistor radios, get under the covers at night and try to tune in WOR from New York which was usually able to be heard at night from our home in suburban Philadelphia. The allure of this activity was Jean Shepherd telling hilarious stories of his childhood in his cheerful, fruity voice. It was a forbidden pleasure (staying awake after 10:30pm on a school night) and you could both recount the stories and brag about staying up the next day at school (if you didn't doze off in class.)

Five of Shepherd's stories were melded into the film "A Christmas Story" which among my friends is counted as one of the funniest films ever. When I finally saw the film, I was transported, not only because it IS the funniest Christmas film ever, but I was a big fan of Shepherd's.

The film was composed of various short stories Shepherd wrote over the years, and they are narrated here by Dick Cavett, so you can enjoy them in your car or at home on the cd player.

Sadly, though the stories are as good as ever, Dick Cavett's light voice is too "amusing news story" style for my tastes. I think these need a richer, deeper voice. And worse yet, the background music and sounds detract rather than add to the story. The tale of the leg-shaped lamp in particular is marred by someone's idea of burlesque music in the background. Let the imagination fill in the sounds, I say. The narration (even Cavett's) should be enough. And for people with hearing discrimination problems (when background noise obscures consonants of words), the music tumult makes listening to a story difficult and irritating.

I was disappointed by this production, as the publisher is usually one of the best for audio books. If you can find a tape of Jean Shepherd narrating these stories instead, I'd recommend that.

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Worth a Listen, and a Read!

After having been a fan for years of the movie, "A Christmas Story" I've wanted for some time to read the original stories upon which it was based. Recently, that opportunity came to pass in the form of the audio version of this book as read by Dick Cavett. It did not disappoint!

In fact, I suspect hearing the book probably in many ways was even better than reading it. Much of Shepherd's genius is in the way that his writing appeals to the ear of the listener. Like most good story tellers, he uses cadence and pace to build anticipation in the listener. Of course it helps that Dick Cavett has a very mellow and rich voice and the experience to bring this story across well.

While many of the stories included in "A Christmas Story" were not originally set in the context of Christmas. That did not in any way detract from the listening experience for me. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the movie, in retrospect, captured the essence of these stories.

The only criticism that some may offer is perhaps the over emphasized hillbilly dramatization that Cavett performs. I frankly think it was in perfect keeping with the story itself which sets the tone and offers it own appeal to the common stereotype. As such, it reflects the story itself, rather than adding any foreign interpretation.

I can recommend the book itself for having listened to it and I'm sure it reads well. The use of sound effects and the skill of Cavett's rendering however, would lead me to recommend, if at all possible, that you listen to this book and I believe you will enjoy it even more.

Bart Breen

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A Nostalgic, Hillarious Look at Christmas

Haven't we all experienced Christmases gone wrong--burned turkeys, strange gifts, family misunderstandings? This book deals with all the things that can go wrong during the holidays...but it also shows that through it all, there are still a lot of things that somehow go right at Christmas...

Also recommended: Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices--an inspiring Christmas story...

The actual short stories that "A Christmas Story" is based on.

Let me say first off that this is NOT the "Book of the Movie". Nor is it a single work, as the blurb on the cover may lead one to believe. This book is a compilation of the original wryly funny Jean Shephard short stories, that were developed by him into the classic film. These include the saga of the Red Ryder BB gun, naturally, the "Major Award", "Grover Dill" AKA "Scutt Farkus" and the Bumpuses; though one learns more about them, than just their hounds.
The whole book runs to only 130 pages, and is a perfect size for a stocking stuffer, or a gift for those folks one just doesn't know what to buy: work, "Secret Santas" etc. Recommended.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana?the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film.

The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family?s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It?s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker?s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father?s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie?s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie?s unstoppable campaign to get Santa?or anyone else?to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, ?You?ll shoot your eye out, kid??

The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey?s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

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