A Christmas Story

The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Film

By: Jean Shepherd

Narrated by: Dick Cavett

Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins

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.

Perfect reading of great stories.

Extremely well done and enjoyable. Great reminder of a simpler time in our crazy word. Truly delightful.

Chapters aren’t synced

The book only shows 3 chapters, each about an hour long. These chapters don’t coincide with the actual book chapters which is annoying and makes the end of chapter option worthless for this book. Apart from that, I enjoyed it. Not quite what I was expecting but fun.

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.

always a great story!

have loved this story for years and still watch it every year. nice to have the Audible version so can play it in bed with the kids!

Random, but fun collection of stories

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but only to those not easily offended by profanity.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The book is a collection of short stories, so there wasn't a grand finale.

What does Dick Cavett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Dick has a gruff voice that takes a little bit of time to start to enjoy -- however, he voice does grow on you. The reading has background sound effect and intro music -- which does help add to the performance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Each of the stories had their own charms. The famous "leg lamp" story and the "Easter ham" are my favorites.

Any additional comments?

The stories are just a random collection of short recollections that have very little to do with Christmas, with the exception of the BB-gun story. I actually like the movie better -- it somehow takes most of these stories and puts them in a related order leading up to the climax of the BB-gun story finale. Also, the movie is family friendly -- but this book is laced with plenty of profanity.

A Christmas Story

This has to be my most favorite Christmas Story ever. The narrator did a fantastic job.

humorous

I wanted to hear the source material for the classics Christmas move. it was a fun story. I liked how much more of the hillbilly neighbors there were. It was a ham in the book and not a turkey. Either way funny stuff.

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.

A Christmas Story

as memorable as the movie. as good as I hoped it would be. dick cavett is one of the better narrarators I've listened to. nice length.

Completely Hilarious

Dick Cavert's is brilliant as the narrator, with his dry wit. I absolutely loved listening while on my commute to & from work with a smile on my face and an occasional yelp of laughter!