Lazy Sunday # 99: “The Advent Reunion”

Andrew Klavan is an American novelist and screenwriter. Among his screen credits are Clint Eastwood’s “True Crime”, based on his own novel, and the adaptation of Simon Brett’s “A Shock to the System”. He’s been nominated five times for a Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allen Poe Award, winning twice.

Andrew has also achieved a certain amount of notoriety in his personal life. He blogs. He writes essays for the Wall Street Journal and Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times. As a result, a lot of people in show business and the media don’t like Andrew because he challenges much of what Hollywood and the Mainstream Media regularly espouse.

Klavan has often said that he isn’t as bothered by the movies Hollywood makes as much as he is by the ones they don’t make. And he regularly derides his colleagues for not fulfilling what he sees as the Artist’s essential role of “speaking truth to power” – especially when that power shares their own personal position in the political spectrum.

One thing that seems to keep coming up here at the Legion is how quiet Canadian artists are on what goes on in their industry, how easily many are coaxed to group think or “go along to get along” or passively accept the decisions of those who “have your best interests at heart” --- as well as how refreshing it is when somebody finally speaks up.

But in the afterglow of Christmas, let’s set all that aside somewhat, because when it comes to Andrew Klavan, the sonovabitch can really tell a story.

And while on the surface, this is a great tale to while away a lazy Sunday, it’s also an exceptional example of the way the new media allows an Artist the opportunity to deliver his content in his own way while doing it cheaply and yet with a great deal of style. It’s also a story, which, would have been unlikely to find a mass audience by way of any traditional media format.

Please surrender 22 minutes to Andrew Klavan’s Christmas Ghost Story: “The Advent Reunion”.

And then -- Enjoy Your Sunday.

Chapter One:

Chapter Two:

Chapter Three:

Chapter Four:

Chapter Five:

For a taste of Andrew Klavan’s thoughts on the culture, you might want to start here or here.