Jon Hassler's first short story to be published in 19 years is not your
typical touchy-feely holiday tale, and that's just fine with Afton Press
publisher Patricia Condon Johnston.
``We think the story's tone is a plus,'' Johnston says. ``That's why
we went with a cover that doesn't have a trace of red, green or
glitter.''
Underground Christmas is about Jay, a middle-aged professor from
Rookery, the fictional northern Minnesota town where Hassler's novels Rookery
Blues and The Dean's List take place. Rookery, the story
explains, ``lies . . . between Paul Bunyan State Forest and oblivion.''
When the story begins, Jay is at St. Andrew's College and Abbey
(which sounds a lot like St. John's University in Collegeville, where
Hassler is a professor emeritus). Jay is tired and angry. His wife
divorced him to move in with a female lover, and his son is in treatment
after nearly killing himself with drugs and alcohol.
On Christmas Eve, Jay is having a drink with a couple of seminarians
and a monk in the abbey's former root cellar (hence the story's title).
He bites his tongue when a young seminarian asks what to do about being
tempted by a curvy secretary. But he explodes when he learns, on
Christmas morning, that his friend in the seminary is going to postpone
being ordained so that he can go out into the world and experience what
it's like to drive a car, go to a shopping center and earn a good
living.
``Listen to me, you dope,'' Jay rages. ``You don't need to know that
stuff. If you leave now, you'll never come back, I'm certain of that.
You'll never be a priest. You're a little too earnest when you talk
about money, your eyes glow with desire when you mention the shopping
centers you pretend to despise.'' He is so vociferous he makes the man
cry.
On Christmas Day, Jay drives to his son's treatment center in
Rookery, joining other divorced or estranged fathers who are traveling
``in hopes that a beloved child somewhere will love us in return.''
His son, Bob, is doing well in treatment, but Jay thinks Bob is not
the son he knew. Finally, Bob blurts out that his dad looks awful and
asks why he's so angry. Jay longs to confide in his son about his
feelings: ``It behooves me to explain myself, and yet `fear' is such an
embarrassing little word to utter in connection with oneself. I need to
tell him, since he brought it up, that ever since my life fell apart
last summer, I've been waiting for the next thing to go wrong. I've been
walking tentatively, afraid that a misstep will cause the rest of the
floor to give way.''
In the end, Bob and Jay find closeness by playing pool, as they did
when Bob was a child. The pool table is in the basement, and the two
share an underground Christmas.
Hassler has written 11 novels, including Staggerford,
Simon's Night and The Love Hunter, several of which he has adapted for the
stage. A 1988 television version of his novel A Green Journey
starred Angela Lansbury.
