cover image The Holiday Season

The Holiday Season

Michael Knight, . . Grove, $18 (195pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-1857-8

In “The Holiday Season,” the stronger of the two novellas with which Knight follows up Goodnight, Nobody , everyman narrator Frank Posey reminisces about the first winter of the new millennium. His father, Jeff, still struggling to regain a sense of normalcy after the death of his wife, refuses to spend Thanksgiving at the picture-perfect home of Frank’s elder brother, Ted. As the story progresses from Thanksgiving dinner to Christmastime, Frank humorously struggles with his sense of self while attempting to mediate between the two men, both of whom who consider him a disappointment. The collection then segues to the second novella and New Year’s Eve, where a series of interrelated characters ruminate movingly on love and loss. (Nov.)