4.5/5

I forget sometimes how much I enjoy Capote's writing style, it's just utterly transportive. I have always adored 'Buddy' and Sook and reading them after such a long time without thinking of them was a joy. They're the people I treasure most out of all the ones that Capote has brought to life on the pages. This collection of short stories was wonderful and nostalgic, even to someone born way after the time that Capote waxes about. I think this new edition is a delightful addition to my shelf of timeless classics. Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

A small collection of short stories but being Truman Capote you need to take your time to read them. The writing is typically, for him, evocative, describing the relationship between 2 cousins one young and one older through the eye of the 7 year old, this brings a delightful innocence and wonder, like when the young boy spots a toy airplane big enough to sit in! These are not sugary Christmas tales, again, as you might expect, in one we see the boy travel by bus across America on his own to visit his father for Christmas. Serious emotions are shown and reflected upon, from an adult writing through the eye of a seven year old. A serious, thoughtful addition to the Christmas book selection.

With thanks to Ne

What an unexpected delight this volume of short stories was! I only knew Capote from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood and had no idea he could write with such tenderness and empathy. The most moving story here is the title story A Christmas Memory which was first published in 1956. It’s definitely a classic of Christmas literature. It tells of 7-year-old orphaned buddy and his elderly cousin who looks after him and who makes sure that he has a magical Christmas. The other stories are further recollections of Capote’s childhood in Alabama and are also really good – but it’s the Christmas story that will stay in my mind. This new edition has been issued by Penguin Classics – there are earlier editions, some just of the one story - so make sure the edition you read/buy is the complete collection.

Of rural Christmases in 1950s Deep South America.

Capote's memories of Christmases past, are presented in this new edition from Penguin Classics. The author draws characters and atmosphere with the barest of words, His stories are sometimes warm, sometimes chilling, they are never saccharine.

They gave me nostalgia (anemoia) for a time and place I never knew.

A lovely collection.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Classics for this ARC.

These short stories fit together like a matryoshka doll.to create the landscape of a community and an enduring friendship. Every carefully chosen word takes us deeper into the place and the inhabitants, nostalgic and evocative of a bygone world. A delightful indulgence.

I have enjoyed Truman Capote’s books in the past, namely ‘In Cold Blood’, which is very different to this collection. Here, Capote writes about memories of events, such as Christmases and a tragic story regarding an intriguing character, Miss Bobbit, bringing to life and evoking the mid-20th Century years in which he was writing.

Even though I enjoyed the collection, the format of the NetGalley copy made it a little hard to follow - some appear to not have titles and I like a clickable contents page, too! But I digress. The aforementioned ‘Miss Bobbit’ is the stand-out story for me, in that it draws so beautifully on her characteristics and the almost ‘foreign’ nature of her behaviour at the time. It has a tragic ending which leaves one feeling bereft but not overly sentimental - all part of Capote’s skills as a writer.

One of the final stories is extremely evocative with its description of Christmas and the ‘perfect’ winter weather we associate with the season but don’t often get, depending on where you live, of course: ‘... in bed snuggled under... quilts... kindling for the fireplace... smoky clouds’ [of breath].

This is a lovely re-issue of some old favourites. Not quite as consistently seasonal as I’d hoped but quality writing, nevertheless.

This is a collection of six short stories by Truman Capote, some of which are autobiographical and talk of his relationship, as a very young boy known as Buddy, with his cousin in her sixties named Sook or ‘my friend’ as he calls her. The first three short stories (A Christmas Memory 1956, The Thanksgiving Visitor 1967, One Christmas 1982) have a Christmas theme and a sense of poignancy about them as Capote writes about his childhood experiences that were quite tough and sad in many respects. I rather enjoyed these and liked the slightly quirky and whimsical style of writing. It was perhaps not a conventional childhood but an interesting one nevertheless. I’d love to know more of the other members of the household who were very much in background in these stories.

The last three short stories (Master Misery 1949, Christmas on Their Birthdays 1948, Jug of Silver 1945) border on dark and creepy at times and I would hope are not autobiographical. Their inclusion in a collection titled ‘A Christmas Memory’ is a little odd.

However, I did enjoy all the stories and Truman Capote has got a unique style of writing with his pithy phrases and summing up of characters and situations. I loved it when Sook woke up one morning and announced “It’s fruit cake weather! Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat”. There follows days of activity sourcing ingredients to make 30 fruit cakes to give to friends and acquaintances for Christmas. I enjoyed the book but it is possibly not the best choice if you are seeking a traditional Christmas themed book.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is not my first rodeo with Truman Capote. I read 'In cold blood' and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' years ago, and I liked them both. I didn't know Capote as a short story teller though, until I got his book.

I don't think there's much to add to his writing style, or that it can be argued against his style or his prose, so I'll focus on the content instead.

This is a collection of short stories that take place over December in different years. The first three are specifically Christmassy stories (although perhaps not the type of Christmas you would expect), and they tell the story of Buddy and his friend Sook. It's a beautiful bond and it left me wanting to know more about Sook's story. I'm not sure how much of these stories are actually a reflection of Capote's own childhood, but based on other reviews it does seem to be auto-biographical to some extent, which adds an extra layer of beauty to them, now that I've read them. Perhaps I would have seen even more into them if I had known it in advance.

The last three stories are not related to Buddy and Sook anymore, and not related to each other either. They take place in December, but they're not Christmas stories, so that's something a reader should probably be warned about. In them we meet, (1) Sylvia and Master Misery, a mysterious man that buys people's dreams (this is quite a dark story); (2) Miss Bobbit, a child that definitely leaves an impression on the reader; and (3) Appleseed and Middy, a pair of siblings that will leave you wanting to know "how did he do it?"

Not your typical jolly Christmas, but beautifull prose and stories. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy short stories.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

I must confess that this is my first encounter with Capote's writing. I found these stories affecting and thought-provoking, particularly the first three which focus on a child and his eccentric older cousin, with whom he shares a very close relationship. Capote evidently has a skill at developing characters, keeping them quirky yet believable and opening a window into small town life and its oddities in that era of America's past. I definitely intend to check out more of his writing and will probably return to this collection, definitely in the case of the title story.

We all know Truman Capote the American novelist probably most famous for creating "breakfast at Tiffanys" But I didn't know he had wrote this Christmas book.

How could anyone read this without a sense of nostalgia? Even if you never lived in a place with a fireplace or a wood stove or made any kind of christmas food, you can imagine what it must have been like for little Truman Capote, for this is his Christmas and his elderly relative who is making her annual fruitcakes.

The black stove, stoked with coal and firewood, glows like a lighted pumpkin. Eggbeaters whirl, spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar, vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting, nose-tingling odors saturate the kitchen, suffuse the house, drift out to the world on puffs of chimney smoke. In four days our work is done.”

She is sixty-something, he is seven and they are the best of pals. It reminds me when I watched My Grandma teaching me how to make christmas puddings.
We’re told there are others in the household, but we don't see them in this gorgeous little story of scrimping and saving all year for the money to buy the ingredients.

“Lovely dimes, the liveliest coin, the one that really jingles. Nickels and quarters, worn smooth as creek pebbles. But mostly a hateful heap of bitter-odored pennies.”

I loved his descriptions of the coming of winter and trekking with her through the frozen woods as they prepared for Christmas. It’s a bittersweet story, and “Sook”, as he actually called the real woman, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, made such an impact that it obviously remained with him forever.

Even if Capote's Christmas is not your Christmas, and neither was it my Christmas, because in truth all of our Christmases are a little bit different from each other's, Capote captures what excitement flows in our bodies and beats in our hearts at Christmas.

This book was originally published in 1956 and has been reprinted. It holds what must be autobiographical recollection of Truman Capote's rural Alabama boyhood Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin Press UK for the much appreciated ARC.

I knew nothing about Truman Capote bar the name. This is not my usual genre of reading and I didn't love but feel better for having read it.

Truman Capote has always fascinated me and this book is a good example of why. He is one of the best prose stylists the world has ever seen.

Imagine a homespun Christmas, making decorations and gifts, and buying a butcher’s bone for the dog... the perennial disappointment of a seven-year-old gifted socks and a subscription to a religious magazine for children.
Welcome to the opening story in A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote. My first attempt at reading Capote was the seminal true-crime-fictional blend In Cold Blood, and it just wasn't for me. Then I found an old dusty copy of Other Voices, Other Rooms, and it went straight to my favourites shelf.
Capote's unique style is evident here in A Christmas Memory, a collection of short stories that are at once literary and accessible, and with an eye for detail that might normally pass us by,
We meet young Buddy and his co-conspirator cousin, Miss Sook, a maiden spinster who has lost to adulthood none of the childish joy or enthusiasm for the festive season.
With her feisty terrier Queenie, they embark on homespun adventures together in rural Alabama during the Depression, on a mission to find presents to give. In another incarnation in the book, Miss Sook becomes plain Sook, sixty-something, white-haired and just as innocent, whom Buddy is torn from one Christmas to spend it with his absent, wealthier father in New Orleans. Made to wear shoes (‘I was a real country boy’), his proud father hawks him around his associates and several older lady friends, much to Buddy's despair. 'I will never forget,' he recalls, 'my first oyster, it was like a bad dream sliding down my throat.'
During this trip, he discovers the truth about Santa Claus, and the realisation that beloved Sook had lied to him.... except, with a wisdom beyond his years, he realises Sook hasn't lied at all - she is a true believer, and he will have to break the devastating truth to her instead.
It's these insights that Capote slots into his sometimes seemingly narrative-free and rambling tales, which make you stop and thing.
My favourite tale was of a more sinister bent. Typist Sylvia is in New York, sharing an apartment with an old school friend (except they’re not children anymore, that’s the problem) and her husband; an annoying couple who have everything his-and-hers, and nicknames for everything else, even the telephone and the sofa.
Sylvia, disillusioned with life and needing cash to get her own place, has multiple encounters with Mr Revercomb in a tall house on East seventy-eighth Street - a man who buys other people’s dreams.
Festive this is most certainly not: there's a wonderfully macabre scene where holiday-hating Sylvia comes across a mechanical Santa Claus in a store window, rocking 'back and forth in a frenzy of electrical mirth. You could hear beyond the thick glass his squeaky uproarious laughter. The longer she watched, the more evil he seemed'...
These stories are based in winter but only some have a glancing involvement with Christmas, so don’t come to this expecting jolly holidays, twinkling lights and crisp snow - traditional it is not. If, instead, you're looking for a challenge this season, A Christmas Memory is for you.

What a wonderful collection of short stories! There are only 6 stories in this slim volume so they have to be savoured. Most are autobiographical and are moving without being excessively sentimental. The only exception is Master Misery which is much darker than the rest and reminiscent of Poe or Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. With its exception, the stories are suitable for all ages and would be wonderful to read with children.

Capote uses words sparingly but describes people, situations and places often in great detail. His choice of words and the rhythm of his sentences is often beautiful. “Snow-quiet, sleep-silent, only the fun-fire faraway song singing of children; and the room was blue with cold, colder than the cold of fairytales: lie down my heart among the igloo flowers of snow.”

An easy 5 stars from me. I will read this collection over and over.

With this collection being produced for the first time in 2020 I think it fair to say Truman Capote's main aim at no time in his life was to knock up a selection of writings exclusively about Christmas and suchlike holidays. But this is what we get, and with his name attached it is of course very readable. (It turns out that what he did do was present three one-shots as seasonal 'gift books', which make the first half of this volume, and we gain a trio from his first collection of stories too.)

The first piece takes us back to his childhood, a vicarious collection of adults looking after him in lieu of either parent, and the older female friend who saved up all year to get enough money to afford ingredients for a host of fruit cakes for Christmas gifts. We're told she never lied deliberately, which is why her insistence in Santa's existence in the third piece sticks out. This is quite a biting look at the one Christmas he spent with his father, in New Orleans. In between them is an extended play of Thanksgiving drama, which is fine but perhaps tidily wrapped up with redemption (and I don't think her way of thinking at the end correct at all).

'Master Misery' is a very different kettle of fish, a fiction about a young woman in New York, who stumbles from being a secretary in an underwear company to selling her dreams to a bizarre collector who gets them written down for him, for some purpose. I think you can read into it the big city and how it demolishes hope, individuality, personality – but you can't read Christmas on to these pages, despite the time of year it's set and how often a shop display's Santa gets mentioned. The fifth piece is even less seasonal, for it's not Christmas roses the boys of the town wish to deliver to woo the new girl around. And we close with a charming if slightly trivial-seeming story of rivalry between two soda fountain stores; our narrator's family's one gaining the upper hand over the new upstart by having a 'guess the coins in the jug' contest that closes on Christmas Eve with not really surprising results.

These pieces, all in all then, are not major league Capote, but do have a charm about them, a strong flavour of the poverty and small-town childhood he faced as a lad, and however laced with artifice, only gain from his natural, effortless-seeming style. It is not essentially a seasonal book, so this collection of what I assume to be reasonably hard to find pieces would be welcome anywhen.

This is a collection of short stories mostly focusing on the Author’s Alabama Christmas memories as a young boy growing up with distant relatives, especially his much older cousin ‘Sook’ Faulk. The first from 1956 reflects on it being ‘fruitcake weather’ and is one of the sweetest and most moving Christmas stories I have ever read. It evokes so many warm Christmas memories such as ‘Stir up Sunday’, preparing the Christmas cake with my mother. The story is vividly told, it’s very touching with a little hint of sadness. Sook is just wonderful and everyone needs someone like her in their lives to brighten their world and make it magical for a child. I loved it.

The second is written in 1967 and I assume is dedicated to his friend Harper Lee. It’s a memory from 1932 surrounding Odd Henderson, a bully who made his life a misery. Sook teaches him a valuable life lesson at a Thanksgiving dinner and this is another colourful, excellent story. A 1982 story reflects on his desire to spend Christmas with Sook but he has to spend it with his father in New Orleans. It’s a sad and poignant story and again demonstrates how precious Sook is to him but also despite the distance from Truman, his father loves him. Also included is a 1949 story in which Sylvia sells her dreams and although it’s very good it’s a bit depressing and there’s a 1948 story of ten year old Miss Bobbit which is also not especially cheery but is also extremely intriguing. Finally, there’s a 1945 story about Mr Marshall’s Valhalla Drugstore and his ingenious attempt to win back customers from a newly arrived competitor, this is also very good with a little touch of magic!

Overall, it’s absolutely worth reading just for the first three and the last one which are all fantastic five star reads. They are all well written and colourful (well, you’d sort of expect that!!) and they bring Truman’s childhood vividly to life. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin Press UK for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Truman Capote for the book A Christmas Memory. This is my personal review of this book.
A Christmas Memory is a story about Truman Capote childhood memories of the traditions he grew up with.
I am not sure of how I felt about this book. It was not something I normally would read. The story was just OK for me. It did not leave me feeling much of anything.

I enjoyed all these stories and, surprisingly, I think the ones that will stay with me are not the nostalgic, autobiographical tales of Deep South Thanksgivings and Christmasses (though they are charming and atmospheric) but the three darker inclusions in this collection. ‘Master Misery’, in particular, about a creepy collector of people’s dreams and the effect this has on them is excellent. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ was the only thing I knew about the author until I read this book of short stories and now I have had a taste of the range of his writing, I am keen to lay my hands on more. With thanks to Penguin Classics via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This was the first book I've read by this author & I was dubious about it at first, but something compelled me to persevere. I'm so glad I did as this one of those books that encapsulated everything about our childhood Christmas memories, friendships & is an absolute treasure of a book.

Full of charm and nostalgia,this is a lovely book ,that shines brightest for me when home in Alabama with Buddy and Sook.

Capita really did have quite some range to his writing,and this reminds me that I should probably read more of it.