"Beyond" is where Benjamin began to venture with his first Christmas story, "The Little Red Dot," written when he was sixteen and published (in a slightly censored form) in his high-school newspaper's holiday edition.
Since then, said Benjamin, "I've tried to compose a new Christmas story every year. During my tenure as editor of the Mansfield (Mass.) News, I contrived to fill our fat holiday issue with Christmas stories written by kids in every grade of the Mansfield schools. The results were a joy to the world.
Christmas in a Jugular Vein compiles 38 of Benjamin's wildly variant and slightly transgressive holiday tales and poems. Among the contents of this sometimes startling, often humorous and occasionally poignant anthology:
• Eight dramas set in Bethlehem on or around 25 December 0000 AD, with all the familiar players and a few surprises, including a fat old man in a red suit, the "Fourth King" and the "Fourth Ghost," a Roman centurion named Marcus Suspicius, a skeptical shepherd and a pushy but prescient yuletide impresario named Izzy Glick
• An email from the Parkers, who've been imprisoned through Christmas in their "smart home" and its electronic system, the Acme "Total Home Interactive Networking Grid" (THING)
• Parodies and take-offs after the style of Dickens (of course), Clement Moore, Lewis Carroll ("Santawocky") and Robert Service
• The further adventures of Murray Lefkowitz, the drunk Santa kicked out of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade by Maureen O'Hara in Miracle on 34th Street
• The holiday depredations of George the cat
• Several of Benjamin's personal essays about the joys and miseries of Christmas
• And hey, what's Christmas without a zombie or two—or lots of 'em?
Nick Chiarkas, author of the award-winning novel Nunzio's Way, said, "This is a captivating, often irreverent, peek into the heart and creative mind of a master storyteller. Benjamin had me hooked with the first story, 'The Little Red Dot.' I continued turning pages to the end of the collection, chuckling at times and gasping occasionally.
"A chuckle, a gasp, but always entertained. The author's clever insights are woven throughout the collection. You will not want to stop reading Christmas in a Jugular Vein until the very end, and then, you will return to it from time to time."
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In deze nieuwe betoverende historische roman van de internationale bestsellerauteur van Violeta en De wind kent mijn naam reist een jonge schrijfster naar Zuid-Amerika om de waarheid over haar vader – en zichzelf – te ontdekken.
In deze nieuwe betoverende historische roman van de internationale bestsellerauteur van Violeta en De wind kent mijn naam reist een jonge schrijfster naar Zuid-Amerika om de waarheid over haar vader – en zichzelf – te ontdekken.
