The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern

 The short story on which the film It's a Wonderful Life was based.

It's cute, it's feel-good. The protagonist is contemplating suicide because he feels unimportant when a mysterious stranger shows him how much his being alive has changed the lives of others for the best. It's the classic tale of community in small-town America. It's very gentle. There are no grand sweeping passions (I understand that in the film, which I haven't yet seen, there is rather more at stake) and I found it difficult to understand why this ordinary bloke should be contemplating suicide when there was no great tragedy in his life. But I mustn't judge.

But I found the story as a whole rather insipid and pedestrian. Perhaps that's the point.

Selected quotes:

• “I’m stuck here in this mudhole for life, doing the same dull work day after day. Other men are leading exciting lives, but ... I never did anything really useful or interesting, and it looks as if I never will. I might just as well be dead."
• "The place you grew up in was the one spot on earth where you could really feel at home."
• "You had the greatest gift of all conferred upon you—the gift of life, of being a part of this world and taking a part in it."

November 2022, 64 pages (in the print edition, I'm told; I read it on kindle and it seemed shorter than that). 

I've now watched the film 'It's a Wonderful Life' and a stage version of the radio play based on the film. These are both so much better! For a start, they introduce many extra characters, including a bona fide villain. Perhaps more importantly, the suicide scene with which the novella opens is left until the last quarter of the film; the first three-quarters being a slow explanation of the protagonist and his strengths and weaknesses, and the battle between him and the antagonist (clearly inspired by Scrooge from A Christmas Carol), and, quite late on, the actual incident which drives him to the brink of suicide. By making clear this back-story, it adds to the credibility.

The film, despite sometimes lapsing into sentimental schmaltz, had a strong storyline and the central performance of James Stewart, a fascinating mix of hesitation and leaping-before looking, was perfect.

It was also instructive to watch the radio play which I saw staged at the  Grove Theatre Eastbourne on 3rd December 2022 which showed how you can translate a film with a cast of at least fifty not including the extras into a stage show of five performers and a sound effects man and still create a work of art which has its own identity and can be judged as strong as the film. 

They are both miles better than this book.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God