By Truman CapoteIn Truman Capote's short memoir, he recalls an elderly, childlike cousin whom he calls "my friend", a woman who has never "eaten in a restaurant, traveled more than five miles from home, received or sent a telegram, read anything except funny papers and the Bible" but who "killed with a hoe the biggest rattlesnake ever seen in this county (sixteen rattles)" and likes to "tell ghost stories...talk to herself, take walks in the rain..."
Set in the South during prohibition, "Buddy" and his friend are about to make their annual Christmas fruitcakes. They gather windfall pecans in the woods, then buy spices, dried fruits and bootleg whiskey with money saved from selling hand-picked blackberries and jars of homemade jam. It takes 4 days to make the 31 fruitcakes that will be mailed to special friends (not necessarily neighbors) like President Roosevelt and Rev and Mrs Lucey, Baptist missionaries to Borneo.
Later, they will cut down a tree, make decorations, and create gifts for one another. This is a beautiful story, full of love and caring. I read a version illustrated by Beth Peck; "my friend" was exactly as I'd pictured her.
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