“As I Die Laughing” is like “A Christmas Story” with a Southern Drawl, Y’all
And a firecracker cannon instead of a BB gun
AS I DIE LAUGHING has been likened by reviewers to works by a bevy of great American authors, including O. Henry, Willie Morris, William Faulkner, and Mark Twain. Yes, Mark Twain. Really.
The author — that would be me — is deeply flattered. Humbled.
But the popular entertainment that my memoir most resembles is in fact a movie, A CHRISTMAS STORY, which was cobbled together from several stories from Jean Shepherd’s collection In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.
AS I DIE LAUGHING does not have sequence in which a boy gets his tongue stuck to a frigid flagpole. Nor does it have hounds that make off with a Thanksgiving turkey or a lamp shaped like a woman’s shapely leg.
It DOES have:
- A boy who gets his head stuck in the empty headlight socket of an old bus
- A hound that eats grits ‘n gravy and rivals the Mississippi Delta in fertility
- A cow that slurps down a woman’s wedding ring
- A field-tested firecracker cannon
- A preacher who burns down a notorious roadhouse
- Naked thievery, literally
- A massive house fire
- A burning man
- A lovers’ lane shootout
Here’s what one reviewer, poet Susan Lilley, had to say:
“For those who grew up in the South, Noel Holston’s rich collection of true tales will bring a stab of pleasure and recognition on every page. Plus a few rueful cringes. For those who have not, this portrait of a developing artistic sensibility amid the nuances and assumptions of a deep southern community in mid-century America will be a revelation. Holston delves into the places and people that formed his early view of the world: family, adventure chums, well-known characters around town, like the fiery preacher who is ousted from his church and ends up running a canine college and pet cemetery. Male experience in pre-feminist times is explored with wit and disarming self-effacing frankness. A locally infamous girl who looks like “a cross between Doris Day and Mae West” pursues our intimidated narrator like a huntress chasing her prey. Holston takes us into the local movie houses and drive-ins, churches, make-out spots, and along the way we see innocence giving way to knowledge. And lord, it’s a fun ride.”
Make someone you love’s Christmas story merrier with a copy of As I Die Laughing, now in stock on Amazon:
