Answered Prayers

This book was very disturbing and extremely vulgar. DO NOT READ!

Oh My GOD! This is by far one of the most disturbing, amazingly tragic books that I have ever read. Buy this book and feel the pain and suffering that only Truman Capote can emote in the written word. Damn him for not finishing it, and pity us for being denied the finished work.

First of all, let me say this: I am a Truman Capote fanatic, an absolute Truman Capote maniac. I read "Answered Prayers" when I was in the 11th grade, and I was so angry that he died before he could finish it. I devour Capote's work as though it were an edible delicacy, or as though it were a lunar eclipse, something that is so incredibly rare, something to be cherished by all. I love "Answered Prayers" because it is like a man spilling secrets about his high-class, muckety-muck friends. Damaging secrets, secrets that we all knew they would refute, though we knew they were true. Secrets like Montgomery Clift's homosexuality. This book was rather vulgar, depicting Capote's wilder side, the Capote side that rages like a forest fire, rages unchecked. Read this book, do yourself a favor, read this book.~Steven Harvey

The existing, published chapters of Answered Prayers constitute the most intelligent, edgy and well focused prose in American literature. The stories are dark and intimate, deep confession in the purest American tradition.Capote took hell for writing these chapters. The doors into society he worked all his life to pry open were slammed shut, as his most famous friends read their lives printed in Esquire, where these works were originally published serially. Detractors that say his stories are innacurate should note this reaction from those he depicted.Another chapter originally meant for Answered Prayers is Mojave, published in Music for Chameleons, and is excellent as well.