I bought Season's Greetings without knowing anything about it, and it has become one of my favourite novels. Published in 1942, it was in great shape with a crisp clean dust jacket, and on the flyleaf in beautiful cursive is the inscription To Marie, From Jessie, Xmas 1943 and the name Marie Hay, Nanton, Alberta.
Author Herbert Clyde Lewis was a reporter in the 30's, wrote three novels, as well as screen stories for Hollywood in the early 40's, the most famous of which is the screenplay for The Fifth Avenue Story which was nominated for an Academy Award (losing out to Miracle on 34th Street.)
That is one of my favourite old Christmas movies, in which a hobo and his dog move into a wealthy mansion each winter when the owners are in Florida. One Christmas, the family discovers him there and play along under assumed identities as well!
Lewis was also a New York journalist and his love/hate relationship with the city is a major theme of Season's Greetings. We are introduced to five residents of a brownstone in Greenwich Village on Christmas Eve, each of whom have a heavy problem on their shoulders, and none of whom really know each other. It will all turn out alright in the end, no?
Mr. Kittredge is now 50 and can't find anything to live for. You'd think there would be something, but there was really nothing. He works as Santa at a large department store and eats the same lunch and dinner every day - an egg, milk toast and butter. He spends his day inwardly laughing with derision at other people, gloating that after he gets paid tonight, he can afford to have a truly great Prime Rib dinner, before buying a rifle and killing himself.
Betty Carson also works at the department store. She was in love with Joe Henderson but has discovered since he went away to look for work that she is pregnant. They aren't yet married. She turns to Mr. Kitteredge ~ Would he pick her up from the doctor's at nine o'clock that evening. She should not go home alone after the operation.
Hans Metzger is a Polish refugee from Germany. He has no money, schedules his time so he can sleep most of it away, and wanders the streets looking to join a conversation or find a friend. He meets Mary Traber in a bar, an alcoholic and released convict who is lower than he is. He would rather be alone.
Mrs. Cadgersmith, at 70, is very much alone. Her three grandchildren live in the city, but are apathetic and self centred, they never visit or call. She feels sure she is going to die, somehow soon, and pays one last visit to each that night. She would knit you a sweater at the drop of a hat, if you asked. Trouble was, nobody ever did.
And the owner of the building Flora Fanjoy, who has saved up a pretty bundle in the bank by watching every penny closely. She made it all on her own, and remains on her own.
Things are about to change at the brownstone, as Flora has fallen down the stairs and lays paralyzed. Joe Henderson returns and urges Betty to not have the operation, but she rebuffs him, and Mr. Kittredge (as well as Hans) wander the streets without finding a proper dinner.
This all seems very bleak for a Christmas story, but it is strangely compelling. I was thinking it would be more like It's A Wonderful Life, and was surprised at the dark themes, but then I guess Wonderful Life also showed the darker side when he hadn't been born. I mean, his girlfriend Mary was forced to end up a Librarian!
In between the characters, there are chapters about the city, the people, the hustle, the crowds, the joys, the triumphs, the sad, the lonely. He paints a picture of the city as a whole and the loneliness that comes from living so closely together. Much of this novel paints it as pathetic and crushing. At the halfway mark I was wondering when things were going to turn for the better - even when Joe returns things continue downhill, so determined is Betty.
However, such sadness is only made more satisfying at the three-quarter mark by a turn in fortunes. Resolutions appear and connections are made. It seems a simple story of characters but is surprising moving. I've told you much about the novel, as it seems to be disappearing. I haven't seen other copies online for sale, and the one or two mentions I did see agree it is a great read, however bleak in the beginning.
It's the kind of book where the characters stay with you long after you finish. By the end, I was really affected by Mr. Kittredge. The closing lines of the novel also stay with me - haunting and memorable even now as I recall them.
A very unusual book, and more so considering it was written in 1942. If you find it, and are interested in books about the Human condition, I recommend it. Well written and certainly memorable.
1942 / Hardcover / 408 Pages
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