Hank Stuever
Hank Stuever ventures into the heart of…lightness? Researching his book on Christmas he spends three holiday seasons in Frisco Texas, the home of glitter, country, Jay-szus, more glitter, mega-churches and mega-malls. Stuever follows Tammie, a professional Christmas decorator, trolls the malls daily, befriends a single mom and her daughter at dawn on black Friday and visits the YouTube Christmas light sensations – the Trykoskis. The crushing desire to provide the biggest, best, and most overblown Christmas is like a car accident. You just can’t stop looking at the lives of these people. They want so much to provide perfection and nearly destroy themselves in the attempt. Often darkly funny, Stuever takes a good look at some cogs in the Christmas machine. A wonderful, if mildly disturbing, book.