Fruitcake Weather: Queer/Disabled Community in Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory"

Abstract

This essay argues for a politically-inflected re-evaluation of Truman Capote’s classic holiday story “A Christmas Memory.”  It proposes, in contrast to prevailing readings of the tale as a de-politicized, nostalgic children’s story, that the text makes a compelling case for politically engaged, resistant community building by its disabled and queer characters, an important action rooted in the shared political interests of queer and disabled people.

Keywords: intellectual disability, sexuality, community action, nostalgia, literary criticism