A Christmas Memory

I'm sure this will be enjoyed for years to come by our grand and great -grandchildren .

Truman Capote does an amazing job of telling us three delightful stories of a young boy's favorite Christmas & Thanksgiving memories. Told with the candor and innocence that only a child can hold, you'll fall in love with Buddy and his favorite Aunt Sook. Buddy's love and affection for his dear Aunt Sook are evidenced in how he refers to her throughtout the stories...always calling her "my friend." Buddy & Sook will feel like your friends too! Plagued by a painful childhood and seemingly drawn on Capote's own life, Buddy is the victim of his parent's bitter divorce and custody battle and ends up living with his spinster aunts & hermit like uncle. It is during his time living here, that he recalls some of his most cherished memories. You'll remember the troubles of your youth as well as be amazed at this young boy's insightfulness. A great holiday tradition would be to re-read this book once a year.

"A Christmas Memory" is truly one of the most enduring and heartwarming holiday tales ever to grace the pages of American literature. This soothing bit of classic Americana written by Truman Capote is as warming on a cold winter night as a steaming cup of hot, mulled cider in front of a crackling fire under my grandmother's afghan. The touching and refreshing friendship between Buddy and his "friend" is not only delightful but something to cherish as one teaches the other of the old timeless traditions of the past and the new wonders of the future. Buddy's total acceptance of his "friend" and her somewhat offbeat perspective on life and the changing world around them is what drives this story throughout it's moments of childlike magic to it's ultimate bittersweet conclusion. The belief in love and the bond that can exist between two people of completely different generations and the hope that wherever we go and however many miles may come between us, that bond can never be broken is the foremost message of this precious tale. Given the events of resent months, a story like this helps to heal as well as entertain and is more then just another book to be put away on the shelf. "A Christmas Memory" is a blessed gift to be read again and again, year after year and to be welcomed into home and hearth as a dear, old friend unexpectedly visiting on a chilly Christmas morning.

The three stories in this little book--it's a hardback only slightly bigger than a paperback, and barely 100 pages--are skilfully told and charming; all are based on Capote's southern childhood. "A Christmas Memory" is the most straightforwardly nostalgic, told in the present tense, and covering the Christmas rituals the narrator, a little boy, shares with Miss Sook Faulk, an eccentric little old lady who appears in all three of these tales. The narrator of "One Christmas" is six years old and the child of divorced parents. He travels to New Orleans by bus to spend Christmas with his father, and the story is about his coming to terms with reality, as much as he can. The third story, "The Thanksgiving Visitor", is the tale of how Miss Sook invited the school bully to Thanksgiving dinner one year, and what happened.All three are perfectly formed short stories. The first two are sad, or at least nostalgic; the third, the longest of them, is surprisingly upbeat. Capote was witty, precise and talented, and these three stories are a wonderful showcase for his talents. Recommended.

Before I read the text of Capote's masterpiece, I saw the 1967 television production with Geraldine Page and literally fell in love with it. Long before the short story was adapted by many literature anthologies, I read it aloud to my students between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, I had my freshmen students write letters to Mr. Capote in 1977. We were very surprised to receive a postcard of thanks from him in his distinctive, delicate script. The card is a treasure of mine to this day. Now that I have left the classroom, I take out the story and read it aloud to myself at this time of year. It is a gem. I have yet to read it without tears in my eyes when I finish. No piece of literature has ever affected me quite the way "A Christmas Memory" has. I can't imagine any Southerner reading it and not nderstanding the era and locale and the mystique of "fruitcake weather."

These wonderful stories touch my heart and stir my spirit like no other holiday stories ever have. If you can read these, and NOT recall people in your past who the stories remind you of, laugh or get a tear in your eye, you may need your pulse checked. Not only are they loaded with sentiment, humor, and emotion but Capote's incredible talent and style paint a picture that make these treasures even more precious