A Joyous Season

by Patrick Dennis

An outrageously funny and razor-sharp look at family and marriage by the bestselling author of "Auntie Mame."

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Christmas, Literary Fiction, American, Childrens, Classics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Edward Everett Tanner III spent the last years of his life as a butler, in spite of having been one of the most popular novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. A bisexual, he had a wife and family, but also pursued relationships with men on the side.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this novel this weekend. Imagine Holden Caulfield with a sense of humor. And just SO MUCH of my childhood is in it. It's also laugh-out-loud funny: a fantastic send-up of old money New York in the 1960s. Every character is a gem -- especially the two kids, including ten-year-old narrator, Kerry.

[V. Briceland · Rating 5 out of 5]

The divorce of popular author Pat Tanner and his wife Louise in the early nineteen-sixties was something of a surprise to their friends; though it was no secret (least of all to Louise) that he was gay and had been in extensive psychiatric care because of the stress of it, the pair were amicable and naturally suited to each other's idiosyncrasies.

It was very much a disappointment to the pair's young son and daughter, however. It was for them that Tanner, under his pseudonym of Patrick Dennis, dedicated and wrote The Joyous Season. A hilarious, sharp, and beautiful jewelry-box of a novel, it addresses the follies of adulthood and divorce from a child's point of view.

Structurally, The Joyous Season shares much in common with Tanner's The Loving Couple, one of the novels he wrote under the pseudonym of Virginia Rowans—a husband and wife quarrel over trivial matters, find themselves railroaded by close-minded in-laws into divorce, take up with social climbers, and (barely) escape with their sanities intact. Along the way, in a fireworks scene in a summer home, there are echoes the climax of another Rowans novel, House Party. And as in Little Me, The Joyous Season features a naive and somewhat unreliable narrator.

But by telling the tale with the voice of ten-year-old Kerrington, whose understanding of the adult world is both untested yet often startlingly on point, the book achieves a true sweetness unparalleled by any other Patrick Dennis novel, while still remaining sharp, incisive, and devastatingly critical of adult absurdity—including the author's own.

The Joyous Season is definitely among the very best of the Patrick Dennis canon.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Dennis is mostly known these days for the sparkling Auntie Mame, but I think my very favorite of his novels is actually this one, which is about a family whose mother and father decide to divorce, from the point of view of the children. It's narrated by Kerry, who introduces himself like this: "My name is Kerry, which is short for Kerrington, for cripes sake, spelled with a K and an E and not with a C and an A and is a very big name somewhere back in Gran's family. Like I told you, I'm ten years old -- practically eleven. I go to St. Barnaby's School because I have to be kept off the streets until I'm sixteen."

Like all of Dennis's books, The Joyous Season is frequently hilarious, yet the subject matter and choice of narrator give the book more emotional substance than most of his others. Kerry is precocious and funny, yet frequently naive and obviously much affected by his parents' breakup; he has an adversarial, yet protective relationship to his show-offy little sister Missy which is an important emotional keynote of the story. Many of the other characters are more caricature than character, but Kerry grounds the book in a reality that makes it touching as well as hilarious.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cross between Catcher in the Rye, Parent Trap, and the Eloise books, this is one of the most hilarious novels ever. It's certainly the funniest novel I've ever read. Set in 1960's Manhattan, narrated by a VERY precocious and smart-mouthed (but good-hearted) 10-year-old, this book is a delight from start to finish. His take on the antics of the adults in his and his eccentric little sister's lives during his mother and father's break up and ultimate
reconciliation commences during a disastrous family Christmas.
For Cripes Sake.

https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite of Patrick Dennis' novels. It's a scream and a marvel of hilarious character development. The funny novel should never go out of vogue and neither should Dennis' work!

[Amy Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book by the author of Auntie Mame when I was about 12 years old. I pick it up and re-read it at least once a year. Simply hilarious.

[Antoinette · Rating 3 out of 5]

" Daddy always said that Christmas is a joyous season when suicides and holdups and shoplifting and like reach a new high and that the best place to spend the whole thing is a Moslem country. Mom says he is right about that, if about nothing else. After last Christmas, I guess I kind of agree".

Something happens on that last Christmas to prove it is not a joyous season. Kerry, the ten year old son, is our narrator, as he and his sister Missy deal with the fallout of that auspicious day. The book is hilarious at first, but this hilarity started to become tedious and wear on me as it lost its appeal.
Overall, not an overly Christmas book, but a book about family and coping with change. Patrick Dennis definitely has a biting humour to his storytelling, but it did feel like one slapstick routine after another. So many people loved this book, but it just didn't mesmerize me. I gave it 3 stars as it is still a readable book.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually, when folks say they guessed the ending early on, I didn't; here, however, I did.

My main issue with the story was that I didn't find it consistently funny, but in parts sad. Also, I could not buy Kerry as ten at all. At best, he sounded more like late teens, or an adult looking back trying to channel a young Kerry of the time. The occasional comments on adult male ... endowments was way off as well. I found the parents the most realistic characters, with the others being largely overdone. Growing up in the New York suburbs in a slightly less rarified atmosphere not long after the book was published, I was able to relate to his world well enough.

So, I'd recommend it less as a comedy than a "period piece" instead.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christmas 2021: Nice-ish

Despite the title and festive red and green cover, this is not remotely a Christmas story; a few key events take place at Christmas to kick things off. The divorce of a wealthy couple from old New York society is told from the point of view of their son Kerrington (Kerry). His simultaneously naive and overly wise observations form the basis of the novel as his parents navigate their separation, the interference of various eccentric family members, and predatory social climbers eager to become their new spouses.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had discovered it around the same time I fell in love with Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade as a kid. As an adult, it's hard to buy narrator Kerry and his sister Missy as 10- and 6-year olds respectively. This kept me at a remove and much of the humor didn't connect for me, although I did laugh out loud a few times and that is always a good thing.

[Sherwood Smith]

This book is not even remotely great literature--it shows all Dennis's prejudices--but it's cinematic in pacing, very funny in scenes, but mostly, it gave me intense comfort when my own folks were divorcing. In the story, the parents reunite, and I knew my parents wouldn't (I had begun to perceive they never should have married first, in fact they wouldn't have, but for me) but somehow laughing through this story eased the emotional transition to the cold hard fact that there was not even a semblance of a home to go to (especially as LAX condemned our house around that time)--no fallback, ever again.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is so much better with a Patrick Dennis book in hand. Written from the perspectacle [?] of a 10-year-old boy, the book parodies the hilarious, tragic, and downright baffling actions of adults trying to do the right thing for themselves and their children. The humor is so sophisticated--it's impossible to miss the most blatant jokes, but at other times you may blink and miss one more sublte. But Dennis doesn't ever bore, and so even if you're used to skimming over slow parts of other books, you'll want to read every word for fear of passing up a chance to to whoop like a crazy person when you come across phrases such as "hung like a donut."

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Joyous Season" by Patrick Dennis was written the year of my birth, 1964, and the best way to describe it is truly a trip into the past, the past being New York of the 1950s. It's the tale of Kerry, age 10, who tells the story, and his family. His parents get divorced, each finds a new love interest, plans a new wedding, and finally ... well, I won't spoil the ending for you. What stuck out to me was that this book was pretty much the definition of a "period piece." You see women in pink furs, households with "colored" servants, a big emphasis on society and one's place in it that we just don't seem to emphasize (or at least mention out loud) nowadays. Even the writing style took me back ... lots of italicized words and over-the-top, campy humor. It wasn't really my style of book, but it was an interesting look at a bygone time period.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and that's my time to read a least one holiday story. Joyous Season was suggested by a librarian in a list of Bah Humbug Books. Her description that is was not quite that but "a hilarious book about how things can fall apart at the holidays" grabbed my attention. Written by Patrick Dennis of Auntie Mame fame, I figured it was worth a read.

I'm not certain I would consider it a Christmas story even though a large green Christmas ornament graces the cover and the mayhem does begin on Christmas Day. The male narrator, Kerrington, a young man in his early teens is just too funny as he describes the trials and tribulations of the adults around him, including his parents. A nostalgic trip down memory lane of the language and humor of the sixties. Gadzeeks!

[Cynthia Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read! I truly enjoyed The Joyous Season. It was told from the perspective of a very precocious young boy and kept me in stitches. Although I read it during the holidays, it would be delightful at any time. A great gift idea as well.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not one who re reads books very often. However I have read this book more times than any other single book I have ever read.

Those who love Auntie Mame will thoroughly enjoy the adventures of Kerry and Missy (told through Kerry's eyes ) beginning with a horrendous Christmas morning and rolling downhill from there.

Kerry is sharp, witty and just a bit bitchy; his little sister is an absolute hoot and both of them are way smarter than the adults (with exception of the housekeeper)

Basic story: On Christmas Day, events ensue which result in Kerry and Missy's parents decision to separate.

Which of course results in new relationships for each parent, hilarious scenes with the children on their visitations with Dad, cat spitting fights between the two grandmothers who clearly despise one another from way back, all of which give the narrator ample opportunity to smart off about all of them.

The little side story of their mother's pompous older brother H. A. (which Kerry says stands for Horse's A**) and his romantic conquests is hilarious.

Everything culminates around the potential remarriages of the parents and I will not reveal more here. Just read it, please.

I dearly wish this book would be made into a movie just for the physical humor alone; but the characters would all be great fun for any actor to portray. I have spent many an hour casting the production in my head.

Maybe before I die.

[Carla Hostetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the author of the timeless Auntie Mame, this book by Patrick Dennis shows it age taking place in NYC during a time where wives met their husbands with cocktails each evening and called them darling. Told from the very precocious viewpoint of a boy named Kerry,we witness the breakup of his parents after a particularly awful Christmas Day full of hilarious disasters. When his dad punches out the obnoxious uncle, the mother screams for a divorce and is egged on by her mother and brother. Dad moves out, and Kerry enters the world of child of nearly divorced parents with each trying to outdo the other and stints of psychotherapy to ease the blow. Both father and mother fall into the clutches of social climbing lovers. Sounds grim, but there are some great funny moments. The story drags in the middle when the children are sent to West Haddock (East Egg?) to spend a dreary summer with their very proper grandmother after leaving the much more Auntie Mameish custory of their other granny who doesn't want to be called by that name. The ending is predictable, the send up of New York society dated,and the boy who says Jeepers sometimes a little too self-aware, which doesn't mean there aren't some laugh out loud scenes to be enjoyed.

[Bonnieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For Cripes Sakes..." is just one of 11 year old Kerry's favorite phrases as he tells us the story of six months in the life of his family in 1960s NYC. Written by the author of Auntie Mame, Dennis' book is a joy to read and a model of good story-telling. This is my second reading and I still laughed out loud many times throughout this wandering through upper class NYC through the eyes of this bright, funny, observant young man. The family is wealthy and incredibly dysfunctional; characters include Kerry's 6 year old sister, Missy, and his mother and dad. The journey includes divorce, potential new step-parents, wealthy, old-money grandmother, alcoholic uncle, a gad-about second grandmother, and Lulu, their ‘nurse’. “We need a nurse like need a case of mumps”, Kerry informs the reader almost immediately. Misused words and one liners abound, i.e., “Gran is so religious that she might be Catholic if she didn’t keep saying that Catholics are common.”…and “Everybody’s always talking about how terrible divorce is for kids, but let me tell you right her and now that the most terrible part is trying to cheer up the people who are trying to cheer you up…”

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Dennis, the author of Auntie Mame, is sooooo out of fashion and it is a shame. With a plethora of books about bad parents and horrid childhoods, the Joyous Season allows us to laugh at family dysfunction while acknowledging it at the same time. The Joyous Season follows a wealthy New York family of the old school as they implode. Nannies try to nanny, butlers try to buttle and an adorable little boy, Kerry, tries to keep his parents together while coping with their upper-crust expectations of the "typical New York child". Lots of politically incorrect humor (this is an old book!)and a send-up of New York in the very early 1960's. Names are dropped everywhere (both places and people) so that you feel a nostalgia for the New York most of us never knew. Goes good with Onions in the Stew by Betty MacDonald, Dress your Family in Denim and Corduroy or Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris or The Blessing by Nancy Mitford.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyous Season is just a triumph I am unsure if other words can be used. While I will admit it can be dated it is a perfect satirical piece for the time period. The characters are 3-D and I found myself laughing out loud several times. After my obsession with Auntie Mame (novels, movies, musical) this book sat on a bookshelf for years.
In the novel Karrington (Kerry) and his sister Melissa (Missy) find themselves with two parents at odds one Christmas Morning. Divorce is inevitable and they find themselves shuttled to various family members homes almost immediately either stuffy old Gran, who consistently is sick or Ga-Ga who is a free spirit looking for her next husband or fling. Hilarity ensues on almost every page! Definitely 5 Stars!

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandmother loaned this to me when I was staying with her when I was maybe 10 years old, about the age of the narrator. It's a story of two childrens' suffering through their parents' divorce, but it is really a poke at upper-crust NY society during the 1960's, written from the perspective of a very precocious boy. I laughed until I cried (though I often didn't know why, as it's definitely a book for adults) and have probably reread it a dozen times since then. My original copy is still on my shelf and though a bit worse for wear, an all-time favorite.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘“Do you know how babies get born?”

“Well, sure. Yeah. Kind of.” Well, to level with you, I do and I don’t.’

An utterly charming take on a Parent Trap story featuring Patrick Dennis’s signature wit. Slides back and forth through time like a game of chutes and ladders, with lots of fun kid misunderstandings and a winning protagonist in ten-year-old Kerry and the sister he begrudgingly loves, Missy. A romp on a par with Auntie Mame. Does feature a few old timey slurs that take you out of it for a moment.

[Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVE THIS BOOK!!! I re-read this often. Dennis' humor, sarcasm, and ironic sensibility told through the eyes of a child is hilarious. The fact that the adults seem to think they know what is best for the children when they cannot even get their own lives together makes the lives of these characters even more funny. Even New York City plays an important role in this book and adds its own sense of humor.

[Hol]

Another quip- and cocktail-full novel by the author of Auntie Mame. Although it has no central character as compelling as Mame, willful behavior is flaunted by several charismatic older women (also the narrator’s six-year-old sister Missy, “a real bitch” who likes to wear a crew cut and can knock back a few cocktails herself). I thought the Mame novels had a rather gay sensibility, but this one was on fire.

[corcoran · Rating 5 out of 5]

It proved exceedingly difficult to control (and later upon giving up control, disguise) my giggling aloud on the train while reading this. Dennis's description of the characters created such a perfect picture that it only increased the level of hilarity by the dialogue. A perfect read for the holidays.

[Frosty61 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though written in 1964, this story is still fun and holds up to the years well. The 10 year old narrator is clever and insightful as he relates how he and his sister rolled with the punches when their parents struggled through a separation and divorce, which began on a calamity-filled Christmas Day. The character descriptions are hilarious.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a pre-teen. I found it on the bookshelf in the living room. I think it was an old book when I read it. It remember it being one of the funniest books I ever read. I will have to hunt it up and try reading it again.

[Nathalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many "christmas books" are meant to be uplifting or somehow inspirational... not this one. It is funny and dysfunctional and in the end, very sweet.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes quite hilarious, but at others, just plain tedious.

[Pam Nichols]

I love this book and read it every Christmas season. It's set in NYC in the '60s and told through the voice of a precocious boy. Think "Auntie Mame". Lots of fun and doesn't get old!

[🐴 🍖]

any work that manages a child narrator w/o deliquescing into gooey sentiment automatically gets a lot of cred in my book. consistently funny & vivid as well is just the nutmeg on the eggnog. objectively prob the least accomplished p-denz i've read thus far (kerry's malapropisms are hit or miss; the kids vary in precocity from page to page, beyond the limits of what's plausible; the r-word ableist slur gets a lot of play) but rly this is the warm & tingly xmas read you're looking for, regardless of your level of curmudgeonhood. wanna wassail just thinking about it