Almost Like Christmas

by Joseph Heller

(A Mulholland / Strand Magazine Short)

A masterful short story from the acclaimed author of Catch-22, about one long night of anticipation.
In a small town in the American South, it is night in the middle of the twentieth century. Carter, a high-school teacher and football coach in the newly desegregated schools, is awaiting news of two of his students who have been in a serious altercation. Outside the building where Carter has kept his vigil, a crowd of townspeople have also gathered to keep watch. Carter must choose how much he wants to participate in the spectacle, and how much he can afford to keep his distance.
"Almost Like Christmas" by Joseph Heller is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Short Stories, Christmas, Classics

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2015

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Joseph Heller was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel Catch-22, a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice. He was nominated in 1972 for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Reviews

[Moonkiszt]

Almost Like Christmas. . . .bleak and bleaker. An opportunity to change things not taken. In fact, he went home and took a nap.

Most likely slept right through the rest of his life.

ugh.

[Ellen Kozisek]

Listening to the audiobook, I found it hard to follow at first. I actually had to start over, and even with a 2nd listen I still had trouble keeping everything straight. Not sure how much of that's the writing versus the way it's read. I did, though, in the end, find it a worthwhile read.

[Gina Gifford]

what?

[Kevin]

Not exactly a happy joyful Christmas tale. Rather on the dark side of things.

[Riley]

Great premise for a story, but the storytelling execution doesn't quite live up to the very high standard of the author's other works.

[Maria Lew]

An interesting & quick 48 page short story which I found to be engaged till the end. The characters were all realistic and possible. I liked the way as you read on you learned more and more about the situation at hand. I can see this actually happening.

[David]

Engaging and realistic characters with more depth than short stories often provide.