A Capote Reader

This book is de rigeur for all wannabe prose-stylists. In an era when I fell asleep reading the first sentences of my fellow college writers, discovering Capote was like falling in love for the first time -- realizing there IS someone else out there like you, who isn't depraved or in denial (not too much more than the rest of humanity, anyway). He is both intelligent and entertaining, a good liar and also, at times, one of the most honest people I've ever read. His so-called nonfiction is some of the best writing of the 20th century, I don't care if it's really "true" or not -- seriously, people, take the log out of your own eye before you accuse a WRITER of lying. Ha ha! No one can ever know the whole truth, but Capote wrote the truth as he saw and subsequently remembered it. Anyway, just read this. It's good. I promise. Especially lovely are the pieces "The White Rose" and the masterpiece novella "Handcarved Coffins"; the Cecil Beaton piece is fascinating and the essays are really first rate. The interviews with himself are charming.

I think the test of Truman Capote as a writer is the section of this book called 'Portraits', sketches and longer pieces on the famous: actors, writers, photographers, fashion designers etc. These are generally priceless. The long article on Marlon Brando, for example, captures the enigmatic restlessness of this extraordinary actor in a way no writer (and few directors) has ever done, mostly by observation. However, even here, there are passages, such as when Brando is on the phone, and Capote looks out the window and tries to describe local Japanese atmosphere, that are pure phoney baloney, an attempt to inject art into 'mere' reportage that mocks the latter while failing in the former. His portrait of Marilyn Monroe is, again, the best I've ever read when it is merely observation, or a conversation between the auther and a real, believable, very likeable woman, but sheer bunkum when he tries to mythologise her, etherealising her on the beach. At other times, his prose reads like something from Vogue in its arch superficiality. These are genuine problems, but these portraits are highly readable - the piece on Gide and Cocteau is a little comic masterpiece.

Truman Capote could write dark drama and high comic fiction with equal skill. The charisma of his personality translated to the page. His fame eclipsed his actual writing, and diminished the seriousness of his reputation, and I recommend any reader to read this as an introduction to Capote's genius, if they have only heard of him, but haven't read him. "A Jug of Silver" is an especially charming short story. And Capote's interview with one of the Manson family is fascinating, in that it relates a different (than Bugliossi's), and believable theory for why the Manson murders went down. Capote is/was one of America's greatest writers, of any era.

This is a great anthology of the late Truman Capote's work. It includes almost everything he ever wrote. It is a magnificent work. What struck me most was Capote's versatility. He could write beautiful short stories, travel pieces, non fiction, essays, and novellas. I had a difficult time finding this book, but the writing in it is so wonderful that it was definitly worth it. It is a joy to read. Capote's masterful ear for the English language was a wonderful gift that made him one of the greatest writers, and he deserves to have this anthology in print again.