I read this story most Christmases, it’s the one constant festive tradition I have. The story of the young boy Buddy and his child-like but elderly relative Sook is drawn from Capote’s own itinerant childhood. Sook and Buddy are impoverished and under the thumb of other, strict family members but manage to keep some wonder in their lives. It is a gem of the form.
“Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar.”
First published in Mademoiselle in 1956. Available here. Collected in A Christmas Memory, Penguin Classics, 2020
A Personal Anthology 