Every Christmas season for about the last 30 years I have found time to pull out my thin copy of Truman Capote's extremely touching, bittersweet classic "A Christmas Memory" to re-read. It is a short, simple and beautifully written account of a poor, young and unwanted boy in rural Alabama during the Great Depression, and his special relationship with his elderly distant cousin he called "Sook", and his memory of a wonderful Christmas they created and shared together. Reading this makes the "giving spirit" of Christmas come alive. Click on the word "Christmas" in the title above to read it and warm your heart.
Friday, December 12, 2008
"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote (Click On This Title To Read It)
Every Christmas season for about the last 30 years I have found time to pull out my thin copy of Truman Capote's extremely touching, bittersweet classic "A Christmas Memory" to re-read. It is a short, simple and beautifully written account of a poor, young and unwanted boy in rural Alabama during the Great Depression, and his special relationship with his elderly distant cousin he called "Sook", and his memory of a wonderful Christmas they created and shared together. Reading this makes the "giving spirit" of Christmas come alive. Click on the word "Christmas" in the title above to read it and warm your heart.
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6 comments:
This is my favorite Capote short story. It reminds me so much of how Christmas used to be in the South. I haven't made fruitcake in a while, but I remember my grandmother and mother always made it right after Thanksgiving.
Jan
Always Growing
Jan,
Like you it has been years since I've eaten fruitcake, but the "fragrant" memories of my mother and grandmothers making them with good bourbon and other goodies....seems like by the dozen....after Thanksgiving is a happy flashback.
Jon on 12-22-08
Thank you for steering me back to the story---I forget the sheer MIND of the man, the genius for stringing together words on strings of the REAL and the grim and the fondly remembered. You can just SMELL the drift of yesterday's woodsmoke, with the Winter-long, closed-in bacon grease and Vicks.
The several movies of his life lately, and even Morse's portrayal of him with a smug, flick-you-away-with-a-gesture hauteur---those can't quite disguise the little boy who grew up putting his morning feet onto cold, creaky wood floors and clinging to a musty old woman as his refuge and friend.
I came to the story late, this year, but I've spent my coffee-time re-reading this old favorite.
And I'm struck as well by your own generous spirit of sharing in your blog. I've bookmarked it, and will return often for another taste of Home.
Jon,
Thanks. I've listened to 'A Christmas Memory' and 'The Thanksgiving Visitor' every year at Thanksgiving since, well, I'm sure it's been a dozen years. Celeste Holm reads them both, a book on tape, and it is a part of the ritual for me. How wonderful to find that we have this too in common.
Thanks for sharing with us.. Nice blog..
___________________
Jessica
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Jon - Chimneyville Readers will be presenting this on December 13 & 14 at 6:p.m. at The Cedars in Jackson. Go to www.fondrentheatreworkshop.org for the details.
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