• A Christmas Story

  • The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Film
  • By: Jean Shepherd
  • Narrated by: Dick Cavett
  • Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,108 ratings)

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A Christmas Story  By  cover art

A Christmas Story

By: Jean Shepherd
Narrated by: Dick Cavett
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Publisher's summary

The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family's typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

This audio production of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker's shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father's pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie's duel in the snow with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie's unstoppable campaign to get Santa, or anyone else, to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid"?

The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

©2003 The Estate of Jean Shepherd (P)2004 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a divison of Random House, Inc.

Featured Article: Tune into the Best Christmas Movies Based on Books


What's just as satisfying—or maybe even better—than curling up under a blanket with a big bowl of popcorn and a mug of hot cocoa to watch one of your favorite holiday films? Listening to the audiobook that it's based on! Many of the most iconic movies we watch every year during the holidays were inspired by books, some well-known and some eclipsed by the fame of their adaptations. These listens are worth revisiting time and time again.

What listeners say about A Christmas Story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Poor Jean Shepherd

I guess Jean Shepherd and J.K. Rowling have something in common -- the movies are never quite like the book. I love the "Christmas Story" movie and watch it ritually every Christmas season. I have to admit, I like the movie better than the book -- but like with Harry Potter, that is probably not a fair comparison -- directors take too much license with these stories. This is a great story. Shepherd writes in such a descriptive manner -- I almost feel as if I lived in that house and fought the Bumpuses dogs. I probably listened to the audiobook six times last Christmas season, and will probably do so again next season. It is just that good!

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A cluttered production

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This is a short book that can be gone through in an afternoon of housework. I think it rather a pleasant choice for listening.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

A lot of reviewers have mentioned that Cavett is not a good fit. I agree because Cavett brings with him a personality that just doesn't fit with the background of the books narrator. Can you imagine Cavett as the child of a dead end family in the depression? I can't. It was painful at times to hear him trying to rise to the demands of the text - like imitating the baying of the Bumpess's hounddogs.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Well, we all know it was a product of a movie in that the short stories contained in this volume were taken from other texts that the movie was based on.

Any additional comments?

The producers of this audiobook thought it crafty to include sound effects alongside the narration. This was a big mistake. It doesn't work. It makes it difficult to listen to at times because it seems like there is a TV or a radio on somewhere in the room and it becomes distracting. The sounds are too literal and too cute at times. I think most readers would prefer to hear only the reader and nothing else. We are all smart enough to imagine the sounds we are meant to hear as the text is revealed to us.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A Fun Listen

Got this for a holiday car trip, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It took a while to get used to the narrator (whom I am not convinced was the best choice), but it was as charming as the movie, and maybe even more so.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

hilarious, loved it

whoever wrote the screenplay for the movie should have gotten at least a nomination for adaptation, not to mention Darren McGavin should have for acting. that being said, this is a wonderful collection of related stories that were reworked into the film. each episode in this collection is a lengthier treatment of the major ideas in the film: the leg lamp, the BB gun, etc., and there are moments that had me laughing out loud although i knew what to expect, but my favorite at the moment is the Bumpus's hounds, a much longer and over the top exaggeration of a neighborly conflict, and i had to stop for a minute i was laughing so hard. & at times Cavett sounds a bit like McGavin when speaking. if you like the daydreamy shenanigans of Calvin & Hobbes then you'll enjoy these childhood reminiscences.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Feels Familiar

There were definately some liberties taken by Hollywood in the adaptation. Missing one of the best parts in the movie, the tongue on the flagpole. Dick Cavett is a little monotone. Sure wish Jean could have read this as he narrated the movie.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Make it a Christmas Tradition

This is a great listen. It is not the movie, but the performance by Dick Cavett is destined to be a legend in "kiddom." The subtle sound effects add a dimension to this that will delight both young and old. The book is a group of short stories that cover several types of special occasions; the "dogs stealing the holiday meal" incident is much funny in the book. Jean Shepherd is a superb writer. At 3 hours it makes a great Christmas Eve listen. Turn off the TV and the lights and listen while your own family Holiday magic surrounds you.

The book is a group of short stories so you don't have to listen to them all and you don't have to listen to them in order. The "Red Rider BB Gun Story," is first.

I found this gave me a greater appreciation for the film because the essence of each story is wove into one story in the film. I use it when teaching adaptation in my screenwriting classes because it's so well done.

Listen to a sample and I know you'll want to download it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • WK
  • 01-07-13

Many laughs for Christmas.

Would you listen to A Christmas Story again? Why?

Perhaps next Chritmas would be a good time to hear it again.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ralphie is the central character, of course; but the "old man" steals a lot of scenes.

Have you listened to any of Dick Cavett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I had not heard Cavett before on Audible. He did a good job, but Jean Shepherd's narration in the movie is hard to beat.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but I like to spread Audible books out over a few days.

Any additional comments?

It's hard to stop smiling (or laughing out loud) from start to finish.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just like an old friend!

What did you love best about A Christmas Story?

I absolutely love this story. When I was a kid my older sister took me to see the movie in our down town single screen movie theater. Like most of what is in the book, that theater as well as the down town is gone and moved to the mall, but the memories remain. This will be my generations

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the movie, by any means

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

For many people, Christmas isn't Christmas unless you sit down to watch the "A Christmas Story" on TBS on Christmas Eve. We all know the classic lines: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." "Oh, fuuuddgge!" "He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny!" "I triple-DOG dare ya!" You might be surprised that only one of these phrases actually came from this book.

The book, like the movie, is the quintessential look at life in Depression-era Upper Midwest America. Back before the internet invaded our lives, back before satellite/cable TV, heck, even before black-and-white-rabbit-ears TV, the primary means of entertainment was radio, which people listened to every evening: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and Red Ryder. I don't have to explain the overwhelming desire that Ralphy has for the Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle, all because of this radio show.

It might surprise many that the book has little in common with the Christmas movie. The book moves through five interrelated stories, starting with the BB gun story, and progressing through the months after Christmas, ending with the Bumpus Hounds stealing the EASTER ham and the family going to the "Chop Suey place" for their Easter dinner. Kind of a letdown. Shepherd wrote the screenplay to the movie, and he incorporated the stories of the secret decoder ring, the leg lamp, the bully, the Bumpus hounds, and of course, the Red Ryder BB gun, into a coherent and sensible script. I'm glad he wrote it this way; it makes for a much better Christmas tradition and taste of Americana.

The narration by Dick Cavett was pretty good, but there were instances in which his voice was simply overwhelmed by the sound effects. Yes, sound effects. Christmas carols, jingling bells, hounds baying, the kitchen sink gurgling, all of it got in the way. At first, it was cute, but as the book progressed, the sound effects guy got carried away.

I really only recommend this book (and narration) for those that are interested in where the classic Christmas movie originated. This is one of those very rare cases in which I can say, the movie is better than the book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Hysterical!

Ripping good tales of 1950's childhood and growing up!

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2 people found this helpful