by Lamb, Wally
Thanks to the many friends and acquaintances who shared their humorous recollections of parochial school, especially Kathy Wyatt, whose memory of a former classmate kick-started my creation of Zhenya Kabakova. And speaking of Zhenya, thanks to the following who helped me with that character’s saucy Russian vernacular: Lukas Casey, Ludmila Casey, Svetlana Lyubisheva, Dima Nigmatulin, and Sveta Nigmatulina. Thanks, too, to Terry Karten for correcting my high school French. Speaking of which, merci bien to Irène Rose, my high school French teacher of some forty years ago, who bears no resemblance to the novel’s flamboyant Madame Frechette but whose positive influence endures.
This novel was fueled by golden crispy shrimp, moo shu chicken, black bean soup, and enchiladas suiza. My thanks to the cooks, servers, and hosts at Mansfield, Connecticut’s Coyote Flaco and Chang’s Garden restaurants, where our writers group meetings are often held.
Finally, a salute to entertainers Annette Funicello, Brenda Lee, and the late, great Dusty Springfield; to songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David (“Wishin’ and Hopin’”), Richard and Robert Sherman (“Tall Paul”), and Johnny Marks (“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”); to cartoonists Gus Edson, Irwin Hasen, and later Bob Oksner (Dondi); and to Orville “Andy” Andrews (a.k.a. Ranger Andy), host of The Ranger Station, a live children’s program on what was then WTIC-TV and is now WFSB-Channel 3, a CBS affiliate. As a Cub Scout, I did, in fact, visit the Ranger Station when I was about Felix’s age. But though local legend has it that Felix’s inappropriate joke did indeed get told on the air, it wasn’t I who told it. Scout’s honor.
Suggestion for charitable giving
Readers who wish to donate to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of Annette Funicello or others afflicted with MS may do so in these three ways:
• By website: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/wallylamb
• By mail: National MS Society, P.O. Box 4527, New York, NY 10163
• By phone: 1.800.344.4867
About the Author
WALLY LAMB is the author of three New York Times bestselling novels—The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone—of which two were Oprah’s Book Club selections. Lamb edited Couldn’t Keep It to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for the past ten years. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Christine. The Lambs are the parents of three sons.
www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Credits
Cover illustration © CSA Images
Cover design by Archie Ferguson
Copyright
Wishin’ and Hopin’: A Christmas Story is a work of fiction. References to events, establishments, organizations, locales, and real people living or deceased are intended merely to equip the fiction with a sense of authenticity and shadings of local color. They are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, and places, and all dialogue and incidents portrayed in this book are the product of a wild and warped imagination: mine. Just ask my sisters, who claim I embellish and exaggerate, which of course I never do.—WL
WISHIN’ AND HOPIN’. Copyright © 2009 by Wally Lamb. All rights reserved under International and PanAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition October 2009 ISBN 9780061968167
Version 06072013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com