Christmas Challenge

I found a blog called Word Trix and learned about the Christmas Challenge on The True Book Addict. I love book challenges--especially Christmas ones! This particular challenge is easy--read 1 to 4 Christmas books. I thought of one I could do, up to 5 if there was no Obesity Help Rants & Raves Book Club choice for December.

Today, I finished the first book I picked: A Christmas Blizzard by Garrison Keillor. I've completed the challenge and yet I can go further if I want! I chose this book because it's new and I love Garrison Keillor. He writes funny stuff, very down to earth and true to life. Well...usually.

As I started to read the book, I wondered if this would be yet another variation of the bah-humbug-find-the-meaning-of-Christmas types. They're good but enough already, you know? Anyway, James Sparrow is a 42 year old successful self made man (by a lucky meeting with a down-in-his-luck chemist). Sparrow has it all--tons of money, a lovely loving wife, a successful business...but there's just one thing. He has this "thing" about cold weather, Christmas and iron water pumps.

He really wants to go to his home in Hawaii with his wife to celebrate Christmas. She's one of those people, though, that loves the traditional holiday and weather and helping people. She gets the flu. On top of that, he gets a call from his cousin. Apparently his favorite uncle is dying and so he has to fly to North Dakota.

He's only planning to go for a few hours but stuff happens, you know. Like ... a blizzard. Up until this point, the story was coherent and kind of funny in places. I started to get lost, though, when Sparrow was on his way through the snow to the uncle's but ended up back at the airport somehow. The plane is snowed in and no one's going anywhere so he decides to go stay in a fishing shack.

At that point, I felt like I entered Wonderland. I kept wondering if James was having some kind of drug trip or blizzard hallucination but some of the strange things that happened actually were real. Other things...well, were they real or were they like the scenes with Clarence the angel in It's A Wonderful Life?

I won't give away the ending but I will say I wasn't especially crazy about the story. Oh well. Better luck next time.