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.
The Modern Library, 0-679-60237-2 |
