I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas

Lewis Black is the hugely popular and New York Times bestselling author, stand-up comedian, actor, and playwright. Besides appearing regularly on The Daily Show (in his own segment, "Back in Black"), he has written and starred in a string of successful HBO and Comedy Central specials and one-man Broadway shows. He's won a Grammy, an Emmy, and an American Comedy Award. Born near Washington, D.C., Black graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama.

Vituperative standup comedian Black (Me of Little Faith) delivers a caustic Christmas diatribe. Warning readers to ignore the book if they have a deep attachment to Christmastime, he notes, "This book contains, like the celebration of Christmas, only 2 percent religion. Think of it as the yuletide equivalent of low-fat milk." After recalling how he argued with the editor who urged him to write a Christmas book, Black delivers a full-scale Scrooge-styled screed. With chapters such as "Meditations of a Jewish Santa," "The Hooker at Rockefeller Center," and "The Carol from Hell," he rips into such seasonal traditions as Christmas cards, dinners, toys, advertising ("a primal scream of sales"), shopping ("Why don't you folks wait until the 26th of December when things are the cheapest?"), trees ("something magical about a Christmas tree all dazzled up in lights... almost as breathtaking as a hooker gone wild in spangles"), carols ("A shower is a place for singing, and on Christmas, it's where you should be caroling"), and gifts: "At Chanukah we get nothing. We don't even get stockings." With digressions on the human comedy and his personal life, Black spews forth much invective, but successfully exposes societal truths with riotous ripostes. (Nov.) (c)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.