Product Description

For five people spread across a southwest town, Christmas Eve is the loneliest time of the year. But hope often comes in unexpected places. Whether its a run-down gas station, a church, or the only house in the neighborhood with no Christmas lights, any place can be a backdrop for small and random acts of kindness. Midnight Clear is a modern-day parable about how small and seemingly insignificant acts of grace can have a profound impact on others.
Includes photos from in front of and behind the scenes on the movie set. The Midnight Clear feature film won the award for best first feature film at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA, named by two festival publications as one of the top 15 festivals in the world. The Midnight Clear short film won a Crystal Heart Award, a Crown Video Silver Award for best short film, and was chosen as the opening night film at the San Diego Film Festival. Movie features lead actor Stephen Baldwin and is based on a short story written by Jerry B. Jenkins.

Product Details

• Published on: 2007-10-05
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .1 pounds
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
Most Christmas novellas are as gentle as snow falling in a well-contained snow globe: everything is muted and soft around the edges. But this story by Jenkins (Left Behind), a novelization of the December DVD release Midnight Clear starring Stephen Baldwin, takes on some darker themes than the usual holiday fare: one character is a realistically-portrayed alcoholic, another a young mother whose husband is brain damaged after a devastating car accident, and another an old woman carefully cleaning her house on Christmas Eve to prepare for her planned holiday suicide. The other two characters are a depressed gas station owner and a disillusioned youth pastor, both of whom are wondering why life is so stultifying and hard. Jenkins is not a lyrical writer, and many of the story's transitions are abrupt and more suitable for a screenplay than a novel. But these are surprisingly genuine characters, and the novel doesn't have a contrived ending. Though the characters discover the hope of Christmas in the ordinary kindnesses they render each other, their difficult circumstances don't change overnight. The simple story, refreshingly devoid of treacle, becomes all the more hopeful because of the characters' earlier despair.
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From AudioFile
Narrator Loren Lester captures the despair of five strangers who spend Christmas Eve alone in this modern-day parable. With bittersweet pathos Lester portrays Lefty, who has lost his apartment, his job, and his visitation rights with his children. Evie, estranged from her grown children, is depicted with a textured characterization of sorrow and desperation as she plans her suicide. Lester's performance of Mary and her son, Jacob, whose husband/father is institutionalized because of a car accident, is especially polished. These lives, and one more, intersect when the youth pastor, Mitch, who struggles with his own crisis of faith, takes the youth group caroling. The story closes with hope, the carol "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear," and a surprising twist. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
Dallas Jenkins produced the $2 million independent 'Hometown Legend' at the age of twenty-five and supervised every aspect of the production, from the completion of the script to the distribution. His latest short film, Midnight Clear, starring Stephen Baldwin, won a Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival and was the opening night selection of the San Diego Film Festival.

Jerry B. Jenkins, former Vice President for Publishing and currently Writer-at-Large for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, is the author of more than 150 books. Sixteen of his books have reached the New York Times best-seller list (seven in the number one spot) and have also appeared on the USA Today, Publisher's Weekly and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists.