In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd

I know it doesn't happen that often. But I do read long form prose books. I just feel that life is too short to not read comic books and graphic novels. 

This current holiday season marks the return of Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker in the HBO Max movie, A Christmas Story Christmas. I've been a fan of the original since it went to VHS all the way back in like 1984 or something like that. So I really wanted to watch this sequel. Unfortunately, I don't have HBO Max and I don't feel like paying $20 to watch it on streaming. So I settled for the next best thing- I read the book. 

Now the book is not quite like the movie. Then again, how many books really are and vice versa. Here, an older Ralphie returns to his hometown during Christmas to research an article. His first stop is Flick's Bar where he reminisces with his old buddy, now a barkeep, over some beers and holiday cheer. 

Not every story is set during Christmas. Though quite a few stories are set during a major holiday. Ralph's desire for a Red Rider BB-gun, the time his Old Man won a major award and the tyranny of Grover Dill are covered in this book. (Where the frick is Scut Farkus?) Other stories set during non-December holidays include the time the town drunk set off a monstrous Frankensteined firework during the 4th of July, going fishing with Dad and the other men of the town during Independence Day and participating in the town's Thanksgiving Day parade.

I knew way ahead of time that this book wasn't all Christmas related and I still read it to get into the Christmas spirit anyway. It helped that the framing story of Ralph being at Flick's Bar was set at Christmas. Unfortunately, those segments just aren't as good as the main stories themselves. Thankfully, those framing segments are only a couple of pages long.

When Jean Shepherd writes about his childhood during the Depression, it's anything but depressing. These are essays filled with humor, joy and a touch of innocence. But get Shepherd in his modern day setting (which at the time was the early-to-mid 1960s), things aren't as polished and seem kinda trite. It's almost like the author knew he needed to get to the past to get the story going but he at times just didn't know how to get there. So if you can get past those awkward transitions and segues then you are in for some real treats.

Several of the larger stories were published previously in Playboy. Despite this, nothing here is bawdy or salacious. Every story is set during Ralph's childhood and they entertain very well. My favorite story, not used in the 1983 movie, was one in which Ralph found a book in his parents' bedroom and did a book report on it. The book was written in Old English, so he didn't really understand it. But in reality, it was a pretty steamy book. The part where Ralph's teacher questions him on if he really read the book and he lies about how a big kid just randomly gave him the book one day had in me in stitches. So deftly written.

There are a couple of other books out there written by Shepherd about Ralph and I really want to read them. I'm going to wait until after Christmas to get them from Amazon. Hopefully, I'll get a gift card or two. It's worth the wait and hopefully, it won't cost $20 per volume...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.