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mrskatiefitz's review against another edition
5.0
This was my first time reading anything by Truman Capote, and I really enjoyed all three stories. I think A Christmas Memory is the strongest, as it felt the most emotional and really drove home the bittersweet nature of Buddy's relationship with Sook and the inevitability of its demise as Buddy ages and Sook does not (at least mentally.) But A Christmas Memory becomes an even more compelling story in light of reading the other two. Whereas A Christmas Memory is more poetic and impressionistic, both One Christmas and The Thanksgiving Visitor include exposition that makes it easier to understand exactly what is happening in A Christmas Memory. These are not necessarily the most uplifting holiday stories, but they do produce feelings of yearning and nostalgia that are definitely appropriate to the season. I plan to read more Capote now that I've had a taste of his style.
iceangel9's review
5.0
This charming series of three semi-autobiographical tales will charm every reader. A Christmas Memory speaks to Capote's love for his "friend" with whom he spends Christmas making fruit cakes. One Christmas tells of Capote's Christmas in New Orleans with the father he hardly knew. The Thanksgiving Visitor tells of the school bully who his "friend" invites to the family's Thanksgiving feast and the fiasco that ensues. A must read selection of short stories that will touch the heart and make you laugh and cry.
ayami's review against another edition
4.0
Capote knows how to tell a story. The three heart-warming stories found in this collection are simply perfect for the festive season.
expendablemudge's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 5 perfect stars
I am second to none in my admiration for [a:Truman Capote|431149|Truman Capote|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419249359p2/431149.jpg]'s major work, [b:In Cold Blood|168642|In Cold Blood|Truman Capote|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424931136s/168642.jpg|1940709], but it isn't a feel-good read or an uplifting one. This story is both.
It is perfectly constructed. It leads the reader from room to room, place to place, experience to memory, without ever breaking the literary fourth wall. Yes, it's a memory, in French this form would be called a récit; but it's never Narrated By A Future Self. Seldom does a wide-ranging reader come across so perfect an example of a memory told as a story as ordinarily authors use this technique in order to comment on either the nature of or the facts within a memory.
Capote tells his adult readers what happened on one happy day and leaves them to it.
There is always an element of summary in any memory, in any récit (brief, streamlined novelish things that they are); here it is the outgrowth of listening to the man Capote's story instead of Capote Making A Point.
This is a favorite reading experience for me and has stood well the cruel test of time when periodically re-read. If this is your first reading of it, I am glad for you that you have found your way here. I hope to see you in our company again soon.
I am second to none in my admiration for [a:Truman Capote|431149|Truman Capote|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419249359p2/431149.jpg]'s major work, [b:In Cold Blood|168642|In Cold Blood|Truman Capote|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424931136s/168642.jpg|1940709], but it isn't a feel-good read or an uplifting one. This story is both.
It is perfectly constructed. It leads the reader from room to room, place to place, experience to memory, without ever breaking the literary fourth wall. Yes, it's a memory, in French this form would be called a récit; but it's never Narrated By A Future Self. Seldom does a wide-ranging reader come across so perfect an example of a memory told as a story as ordinarily authors use this technique in order to comment on either the nature of or the facts within a memory.
Capote tells his adult readers what happened on one happy day and leaves them to it.
There is always an element of summary in any memory, in any récit (brief, streamlined novelish things that they are); here it is the outgrowth of listening to the man Capote's story instead of Capote Making A Point.
This is a favorite reading experience for me and has stood well the cruel test of time when periodically re-read. If this is your first reading of it, I am glad for you that you have found your way here. I hope to see you in our company again soon.
raehink's review
5.0
Truman’s childhood memories of Christmas and Thanksgiving are full of southern atmosphere, quirky characters, and life lessons. A delightful read.
book_beat's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read — and feels like an annual “must read” for the Christmas season.
“‘You know what I’ve always thought?’ she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but a point beyond. ‘I’ve always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don’t know it’s getting dark. And it’s been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I’ll wager it never happens. I’ll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are’ — her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone — ‘just what they’ve always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.”
“‘You know what I’ve always thought?’ she asks in a tone of discovery, and not smiling at me but a point beyond. ‘I’ve always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don’t know it’s getting dark. And it’s been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I’ll wager it never happens. I’ll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are’ — her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone — ‘just what they’ve always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.”
kerrianne's review against another edition
5.0
This is my very first introduction to Capote*, and I honestly think this might be one of the best introductions to any writer I likely should have read ages ago but just hadn't yet. (Thanks, Leah!)
The first short story in this trifecta of holiday-themed stories ("A Christmas Memory") is so beautiful it made me cry. It somehow reminded me of both of my grandmothers—who are two exceptionally different women—while also reminding me of all my favorite parts of the time I've spent in the South.
I'm going to be thinking about this line for a long time: "As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
*I of course knew Truman Capote existed, and was a well-known writer (I know the premise of In True Blood, vaguely), but...that's pretty much where my Capote knowledge began and ended before this book. I had no idea he was once besties with Harper Lee, wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's, and was apparently fired from The New Yorker for offending Robert Frost—a tidbit of random trivia that fills me with tangible delight.
[Five stars for a trifecta of pocket-sized stories I'm soon going to own, and that I'm looking forward to adding to my annual December (re-)reading list.]
The first short story in this trifecta of holiday-themed stories ("A Christmas Memory") is so beautiful it made me cry. It somehow reminded me of both of my grandmothers—who are two exceptionally different women—while also reminding me of all my favorite parts of the time I've spent in the South.
I'm going to be thinking about this line for a long time: "As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
*I of course knew Truman Capote existed, and was a well-known writer (I know the premise of In True Blood, vaguely), but...that's pretty much where my Capote knowledge began and ended before this book. I had no idea he was once besties with Harper Lee, wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's, and was apparently fired from The New Yorker for offending Robert Frost—a tidbit of random trivia that fills me with tangible delight.
[Five stars for a trifecta of pocket-sized stories I'm soon going to own, and that I'm looking forward to adding to my annual December (re-)reading list.]
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