Skipping Christmas

The title already sounds very un-John-Grisham. Perhaps due to the theme being outside of the other titles which are more associated with John Grisham, such as The Firm, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury, etc, it spurred me to pick up the book for a read.

Skipping Christmas is about the grand plan of the tax accountant – Luther and his wife, Nora to skip Christmas in a traditional neighbourhood. Being tax accountant, Luther did a tallying of the expenditure associated with Christmas and was shocked to discover the high damage yearly. As their only daughter was out of town this year, they have decided to skip Christmas and all the preparations. In replacement, they will be taking a cruise to the Caribbean.

Despite their determination, a twist of fate caused their grand plan to collapse. When their daughter suddenly flew back and brought her fiancé to celebrate Christmas. Luther and Nora were forced to drop their cruise plan and ran into a frenzy to pull together Christmas at the eleventh hour.

During Luther’s fight against his probing neighbours and colleagues on his decision to skip Christmas, he was ostracized and was placed in the limelight. He was deemed to be selfish when he did not support any of the fund raising activities from the sale of festive goodies. He was being singled out again when his refusal to decorate his house caused his estate’s loss of the award of the best decorated neighbourhood. Yet, he was not deliberately different. He had merely wanted to lead a different holiday.

This story somehow reminded me of my preference of skipping Chinese New Year as well, though I must confess I have not gone to such extreme. I still went ahead with CNY preparation, but I might not be in town during the first few days of the CNY celebrations.

Nonetheless, this was still a refreshing change from the more familiar legal tousle themes more associated with John Grisham.