Christmas Memory

Tender and bittersweet, these stories by Truman Capote, the author of Breakfast at Tiffany"'s,are a captivating tribute to the Christmas season"'We set about choosing a tree. ""It should be,"" muses my friend, ""twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can"'t steal the star."""'Selected from across Truman Capote"'s writing life, these Christmas stories range from nostalgic, semi-autobiographical portraits of childhood to more unsettling tales of darkness beneath the festive glitter. ""It should be,"" muses my friend, ""twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can"'t steal the star.In the Deep South of Capote"'s youth, a young boy, Buddy, and his beloved maiden "'aunt"' Sook forage for pecans and whiskey to bake into fruitcakes, make kites - too broke to buy gifts - and rise before dawn to prepare feasts for a ragged assembly of guests; while in other stories, a lonely woman has a troubling encounter in wintry New York and an unlikely festive miracle, of sorts, occurs at a local drugstore. Brimming with feeling, these sparkling tales convey both the wonder and the chill of Christmas time.