Midnight Clear

September 17, 2007
Most Christmas novellas are as gentle as snow falling in a well-contained snow globe: everything is muted and soft around the edges. But this story by Jenkins (Left Behind), a novelization of the December DVD release Midnight Clear starring Stephen Baldwin, takes on some darker themes than the usual holiday fare: one character is a realistically-portrayed alcoholic, another a young mother whose husband is brain damaged after a devastating car accident, and another an old woman carefully cleaning her house on Christmas Eve to prepare for her planned holiday suicide. The other two characters are a depressed gas station owner and a disillusioned youth pastor, both of whom are wondering why life is so stultifying and hard. Jenkins is not a lyrical writer, and many of the story's transitions are abrupt and more suitable for a screenplay than a novel. But these are surprisingly genuine characters, and the novel doesn't have a contrived ending. Though the characters discover the hope of Christmas in the ordinary kindnesses they render each other, their difficult circumstances don't change overnight. The simple story, refreshingly devoid of treacle, becomes all the more hopeful because of the characters' earlier despair.

Narrator Loren Lester captures the despair of five strangers who spend Christmas Eve alone in this modern-day parable. With bittersweet pathos Lester portrays Lefty, who has lost his apartment, his job, and his visitation rights with his children. Evie, estranged from her grown children, is depicted with a textured characterization of sorrow and desperation as she plans her suicide. Lester's performance of Mary and her son, Jacob, whose husband/father is institutionalized because of a car accident, is especially polished. These lives, and one more, intersect when the youth pastor, Mitch, who struggles with his own crisis of faith, takes the youth group caroling. The story closes with hope, the carol "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear," and a surprising twist. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine