A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays

A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays
by David Valdes Greenwood

A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays
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Book Summary Information

Author: David Valdes Greenwood
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-10-29
ISBN: 0738211222
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Da Capo Press

Book Reviews of A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays

Book Review: What a WONDERFUL book---one of the best memoirs I've ever read
Summary: 5 Stars

I would have loved this book even if it wasn't so well written, as the author grew up in Maine and is exactly my age, so it was like a trip down memory lane to read about his childhood--exciting trips to LaVerderies to get Christmas presents, the feeling of going to the big city when you are really going to a small Maine city, the extra sunny day when I too went inside from playing in the Maine summer to see Nixon resign, picking a Christmas tree from the woods and trying so hard to find the perfect one among the imperfect Maine scrubby forest trees, the transition from the huge colored bulbs to smaller ones that gradually took place, the feeling of a Christmas pageant in a small church, Grants Christmas albums---WOW!

This memoir is told all in Christmases, little samples of the author's life growing up fairly poor in Norridgewock, Maine, half Cuban and therefore half an outsider (although the fact that the other half was an old Maine family probably made it easier).

I know too the feeling of leaving home young and never really going home, and how the guilt when you do visit can be quite overwhelming. This book evokes the time and place so well that it brought me to tears several times. A real triumph.

Summary of A Little Fruitcake: A Childhood in Holidays

Ah, the sweet memories of Christmas. Gifts under the tree. Cookies for Santa. And, of course, the annual fruitcake.

For young David Valdes Greenwood, the indomitable “little fruitcake” at the center of these tales, nothing is sweeter than the promise of the holidays. A modern-day Tiny Tim, he holds fast to his ideal of what Christmas should be, despite the huge odds against him: Sub-zero Maine winters. A host of eccentric relatives. And his constant foil: a frugal, God-fearing Grammy who seems determined to bring an end to all his fun. A book that’s “fa-la-la-licious” (Louisville Courier Journal) and filled with funny, charming Yuletide memories (from building a Lego? manger to hunting for the perfect Christmas tree), A Little Fruitcake will inspire even the biggest Grinches around.

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