(Originally Published 1966, Paperback Edition 264 pages)
There were two reasons I decided to read Mr. Shepherd's book: I love the movie "A Christmas Story" which is loosely based upon "In God We Trust," and the book jacket described him a predecessor of Garrison Keillor. Wow. Like Keillor? Really? I wonder what the person who wrote the description on the book jacket was smoking? It must've been some primo stuff. Mr. Shepherd's work is clumsily pulled together by inserting a short 2-or-3-page sub-story before each major chapter. The sub-story involves an adult Ralphie, who lives in New York City, visiting a bar run by his old friend Flick in their hometown of Hohman, Indiana. The two of them begin reminiscing about their childhoods. Each chapter erratically jumps to different ages of Ralphie: he's a 8-year-old, then a 14-year-old, then a 12-year-old, then back to being an 8-year-old, yadda, yadda, yadda. Also, unlike the classic Bob Clark movie, the author's work does not revolve around Christmas. There's plenty of stuff between the cover of this thing that was never in the movie. For instance, one chapter involves a Fourth-of-July episode about fireworks and another is about fishing during the summer. The book was published in 1966, so many of the references will be obscure to young adult readers.
The late Mr. Shepherd was nowhere near the talent of Garrison Keillor. While Mr. Keillor's satirical works have a more reserved delivery, Mr. Shepherd writes ponderous sentences that sound like he upchucked a thesaurus. The author's idea of humor is to use very heavy-handed exaggerations which, for me, fell flat. Heck, I don't think I even cracked a smile during the whole ordeal. Unlike the funny uplifting movie or Mr. Keillor's work, Mr. Shepherd's underlying attitude about his hometown is one of cynicism. Clearly, based upon other Amazon reviewers' feedback, I'm in the minority, so maybe you'll like it. I, however, found the book to be depressing, not funny and almost killed my love of reading.
The late Mr. Shepherd was nowhere near the talent of Garrison Keillor. While Mr. Keillor's satirical works have a more reserved delivery, Mr. Shepherd writes ponderous sentences that sound like he upchucked a thesaurus. The author's idea of humor is to use very heavy-handed exaggerations which, for me, fell flat. Heck, I don't think I even cracked a smile during the whole ordeal. Unlike the funny uplifting movie or Mr. Keillor's work, Mr. Shepherd's underlying attitude about his hometown is one of cynicism. Clearly, based upon other Amazon reviewers' feedback, I'm in the minority, so maybe you'll like it. I, however, found the book to be depressing, not funny and almost killed my love of reading.
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