The Happening: A Carol For All Seasons

By John Wahtera

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316917508
• ISBN13: 9780316917506
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A dated Christmas story from the '70s

This is a book set firmly in the '70s. Digby is a struggling artist. He lives in an abandoned building with his pregnant girlfriend and whoever sees fit to stay with them for a while. Near his building are an orphanage and a church, and, as Christmas is approaching, Digby gets the idea to have an event for the community. Not a party, he says, a happening. He enlists the support of the local clergyman, who is eager to do something to bring people back to his church, and even a local revolutionary named Dudley who also goes by the moniker Big Mohammed. However, arranging a happening on the shoestring budgets of a struggling artist and a nearly broke church is not going to be easy. Still, where there's a will, there's a way. "The Happening" is obviously dated, but there is a naive sort of affirmation of the power (mostly secular) of Christmas and the transformative power it has and of the power of a dreamer. I don't think the book is "a real Christmas story that is destined to become a classic" as the dust jacket advertises, but it is an enjoyable holiday read.

A must-read for city ministries and other urban dwellers

I first read this book when I received it in 1981 as a Christmas gift. I loved it then. I re-read it today when I came across it while sorting through my bookshelves on a totally unrelated task. It's just as fresh and funny today as it was over 20 years ago. And its messages of love, acceptance, and the purpose of Art in our lives, are needed now more than ever. I'm surprised that it doesn't appear as a perennial classic in the bookstores, alongside Dickens' Christmas Carol, or other modern works like The Christmas Box, or A Christmas Cup of Tea.