Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Teaser Tuesday 12: A Christmas Memory


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share at least two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


A Christmas Memory is an anthology of three short stories by Truman Capote. The first two stories are about Christmases Capote experienced as a young boy, the latter about a family Thanksgiving. My excerpt is from the latter. This was a good book, read in one evening as snow swirled outside. I thought the lines below rather appropriate to this time of year especially.



And when all around us we see people who can't satisfy the plainest needs, I feel ashamed. Oh, not of myself, because who am I, an old nobody who never owned a mite; if I hadn't had a family to pay my way, I'd have starved or been sent to the County Home. The shame I feel is for all of us who have anything extra when other people have nothing.

Sook to Buddy
The Thanksgiving Visitor






13 comments:

Harvee said...

Didn't know he wrote short stories, and about Christmas too. Nice tease. Here's my teaser

Alice Audrey said...

I've read a few Capote short stories before, but not his Holiday stuff.

Heather said...

BBD ~ Capote actually wrote a large number of short stories and essays that were published in numerous national publications.

Alice ~ This was my first time reading some of his shorts. I confess, the only work of his I;d read previously was In Cold Blood (twice!). I also have the anthology Breakfast at Tiffany's in the TBR. Next year... *g*

christine(booktumbling) said...

Such a fitting teaser for this giving time of year. Lovely!

Lorin said...

Perfect pick for a Christmas-time teaser!

Thanks for visiting today!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for visiting me... nice tease,perfect for the season.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Mr. Capote. Thanks for checking out my teaser, and Merry Christmas!

Alice Audrey said...

I've never read Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I love the movie.

Kim said...

This book is more serious than my Teaser, but so true. I will have to check into this sometime -- maybe next year :)

Lisa said...

Good teaser - I understand that bit of guilt you've got, seeing people with nothing.

Here's my teaser at my brand new website!

Yvonne said...

I never read this, but it sounds like the perfect time of year to read it.

Gilion at Rose City Reader said...

Interesting teaser. Maybe a little trite, but interesting to know how his brain worked.

Thanks for visiting Rose City Reader!

Heather said...

RoseCity ~ Trite?? Sorry, but I don't find anything trite about those who have too much sharing with those who have nothing. But then, some of us are less self-centered than others.