Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present
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In Tinsel, Hank Stuever turns his unerring eye for the idiosyncrasies of modern life to Frisco, Texas—a suburb at once all-American and completely itself—to tell the story of the nation’s most over-the-top celebration: Christmas. Stuever’s tale begins on the blissful easy-credit dawn of Black Friday, as he jostles for bargains among the crowds at the big-box stores. From there he follows Frisco’s true believers as they navigate through three years of holiday drama. Tammie Parnell is the proprietor of “Two Elves with a Twist,” a company that decks the halls of other people’s McMansions. Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski spend eleven months preparing the visible-from-space, awe-inspiring light display they stage on their lawn each December. And single mother Caroll Cavazos, a devout churchgoer, hopes that the life-affirming moments of the season can transcend her everyday struggles. Tinsel is a humane, revealing, and very funny portrait of one community’s quest to discover a more perfect holiday amidst the frenzied, mega-churchy, shoparific world of Christmas. The Washington Post - Bryan Burrough This is the consummate "Young Writer Discovers Middle America" book (or rediscovers, given that Stuever appears to be from Oklahoma, poor guy). By and large Stuever pulls it off, in part because he eschews (most) condescension and embraces these happy, bustling Christianized Texans for what they really are, not what he thinks they ought to be.
Best Buy (A Prologue) 1Fake Is Okay Here1 Target 112 Town & Kountry 173 It's Bazaar 364 There Glows the Neighborhood 425 Anthropologie 646 Christmas Caroll 787 Unto Us 91The Gap (A Slide Show) 105Manger Babies, Angel Trees & Tiny Tims8 Mary, Did You Know? 1159 Restoration Hardware 13510 Poverty Barn 14911 The Neediest 16412 The Total Moment 17813 Hallmark 199Creche14 Things Remembered 21115 The Pageant 22716 Wrapping 239American Greetings (An Interlude) 257Half Off17 Wal-Mart 26318 The Epiphany Party 278Baby, Please Come Home19 The Container Store 28720 Hot Topic 296Circuit City (Some Endings) 300Acknowledgments 317Sources, Bibliography, and Some Other Stocking Stuffers 321
