In the following essay about Truman Capote's short stories, Nance analyzes "A Christinas Memory" as a "fiction of nostalgia."

"A Christmas Memory" is Truman Capote's non-fiction short story. In 1956, the year it was published, Capote was in the midst of a major change in literary direction. Five years had passed since his short fiction had drifted into the shallows of "House of Flowers," and his vital fictional development had shifted to the short novel. During the next three years he made disappointing experiments with drama (The Grass Harp) and musical comedy (House of Flowers), and went on a cinematic lark (Beat the Devil) in Italy. Then, deciding that he had been wasting his time, he began preparing seriously for the nonfiction novel with some "finger exercises," the most important of which was The Muses Are Heard (1956), his report on the Russian tour of an all-Negro production of...