A Christmas Memory
by Truman Capote

“It’s fruitcake weather!” exclaims one of two protagonists in this semi-autobiographical short story. And indeed it is. The narrator is a man recalling his last boyhood Christmas when he lived with extended family in the South, including a slightly dotty older cousin. Buddy and cousin Sook scrounge pecans in the woods and buy bootleg whiskey, accompanied by their faithful terrier, Queenie. They package and send their homemade fruitcakes off to folks they admire, like President Roosevelt. Capote’s language is astonishingly beautiful, and the story is equally sentimental and heartbreaking. I cry every time; nevertheless, I return to it faithfully every December.