Book Title:  Midnight Clear

Authors: Jerry B. Jenkins and Dallas Jenkins

Publishing Company:  Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Year:  2007

# of Pages: 174

ISBN #:  13:  978-1-4143-1659-8

ISBN#:  10: 1-4143-1659-3

$9.99 USA 

4 Stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

Midnight Clear, a work by father and son, Jerry B. Jenkins and Dallas Jenkins, has had an interesting evolution for a novel.  It began as a short story by Jerry and was adapted into a short film by Dallas.  The short film expanded to a feature length film, with screenwriter Wes Halula (Read The Review).  The novel is based on the feature film.  It includes 16 pages of color photographs from the film. 

Ordinarily, I am unhappy with books based on movies.  I think the natural order of things requires that movies should be based on books.  Too often, a book based on a film is nothing more than the screenplay with the filming directions removed and a few sentences added here and there.  Without seeing the movie beforehand, the story doesn't really make sense.  But Midnight Clear, the novel, is an exception.   

Jerry B. Jenkins approached this book with extensive background as a best-selling author of the “Left Behind” series.  Dallas Jenkins, as the director of both the short and the feature film, has assisted.  Together, they not only know the characters, but know how to set the scenes in which they are presented.  The result is a novel that can stand alone and present its message just as the film has done. 

The message?  Clarence the Angel in It's a Wonderful Life said it best:  “Each life touches so many others.”  Midnight Clear finds five lonely people facing a difficult Christmas Eve and, through simple interactions, they change each other's lives for the better.   

Mitch is a youth minister assigned to take his youth group caroling to shut-ins.  Mitch knows the singing will be terrible, the people will be more annoyed than gladdened, and this is just one more example of his feeling that there is no purpose in his work.  He also faces the day haunted by the events of one year ago, when he and his best friend, Rick, were in a car accident that left Rick brain damaged. 

Rick's wife, Mary, has spent the year caring for her young son, Jacob, visiting Rick, and feeling hurt and abandoned by the church and the friends who have not reached out to Rick.  Mary finds herself often wondering why “when someone suffers a tragedy they have to work so hard to keep everyone else from feeling awkward.”  She and Jacob have a difficult Christmas Eve visit with Rick who has been medicated to such an extent he is completely unresponsive.  As she tries to leave town to spend Christmas with her parents, her car develops problems, and she and Jacob spend the evening at a convenience store where Kirk, the store owner, attempts to fix the car. 

Kirk is trapped in a business that never rose to his initial expectations, working Christmas Eve because an employee called in “sick” and because, he realizes, there is nothing better to do.  The day passing by with only a few customers demonstrates how unnecessary his life is until Mary's arrival. 

Lefty, the focus of the original short story and short film, has lost his job, his marriage, his home, and, possibly, the right to see his children.  The bottle that usually provides all the answers isn't enough on Christmas Eve, and he plans to end his life. 

That plan is shared by Eva, a senior citizen, looking back on a life that has been unhappy, spending Christmas Eve alone, not even knowing where her three children are.  She spends the day putting her house in order and planning the concoction of pills that will bring an end to it all. 

The novel moves from character to character, presenting each person's story from his or her viewpoint and showing how chance meetings and actions that seem to have no purpose behind them can make a powerful difference. As Mark, the pastor in Mitch's church observes, “Not every act of service is a joyride. . . Sometimes you do the right thing because it's the right thing.”   

These are characters in unhappy situations who do not realize a magical happy ending as the story unfolds.  But as Mary observes, “disaster prevention was never promised as a benefit of her faith.”  Fortunately, the acts of others can help us through life's disasters.  Isn't it through such acts that God demonstrates His faithfulness?