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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Trashy, but great fun, September 6, 2005
This dazzlingly scandalous unfinished novel could only have come from the pen of Truman Capote. He pokes fun at world famous celebrities, some of whom P.B. Jones, an aspiring writer of great promise, mixes it up with. In his adventures, Jones also falls under the influence of con men, drug and alcohol abusers and those of ill and near ill repute.
Forced to support himself financially, P.B. Jones must temporarily resort to hustling and other slightly more socially acceptable activities. Jones learns about a low-life, but physically attractive, young woman who marries, then allegedly murders, a naive son of a millionaire, only to get away with the crime because his parents do not want to blacken their name. Jones, himself, is requested to get involved in kidnapping and homicide by a woman who had married into a monied family. One woman, who fancies herself an animal lover, gains some noteriety by shooting a man who kills a white leopard.
Mr. Capote supposedly lost the friendships of a number of prominent people whom he so casually reveals conversations that were never meant to be displayed on the printed page. While some may deplore Mr. Capote's disloyalty to these individuals, it makes for some dishy fun reading about their ex-husbands, their scandalous love affairs, and other such dirty laundry, including badly defiled bed sheets. Such is the down side of fame.
_Answered Prayers_ is oftentimes very funny (the portion starring Dorothy Parker and Tallulah Bankhead is a scream) and sometimes very, very naughty. This book occasionally borders on the pornographic. I doubt very much that if Mr. Capote had completed his supposed magnum opus that the critics would have considered it great art. There is nothing in these pages that suggests any such potential. But as fly on the wall eaves dropping and "fictonalized" reportage (as what one might read in The Star or in Cindy Adams's columns) it is never boring.
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49 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ACID CAPOTE, April 9, 2006
To read this odd book is to get a real look at Truman Capote at the end of his life. Capote was vain, bitchy, narcissistic, but alas the profoundly weird old queen was fascinating. He was truely unique, he made himself a superstar, he willed it so, this man was nakedly ambitious, he makes Trump look like a piker. This book ruined him and probably led to increased alcoholism, that ultimatly caused his death at sixty. When he wrote an excert of this book in a top magazine of the day, he became persona non grata among the brahman class of New York. This was Capote's own personal hell. It shows his arrogance and narcissism that he did not see that a book like this would make these people close ranks and ostracize him, he was stunned that they stopped taking his calls and dropped him from their party lists, they broke his heart and frankly I'm sure the parties were considerable less amusing with Truman gone. In this book you see in Capote a really unhappy man, that relished in the misfortune of others, but having said that I do find his dish very interesting, what does that say about me, lol. I believe that after he became a sensation after the great In Cold Blood, he really was paralized, he knew people expected another book of singular greatness, I think this absolutely destroyed him and he was so desperate that he conceived this ill advised book, it makes you understand why Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger never published a book after their masterpieces, Truman should have looked to his childhood friend Lee as an example, but he could not resist the spotlight and he wanted that feeling of adulation again. I recommend this book, it is not Capote's best work, of course, but it is something of a memoir and you get an unflinching look at this complex man.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unanswered gems, April 10, 2007
Although "Answered Prayers" can be read as dated since most of it's "characters" live in the 1960's and 1970's, there is still marvelous prose and stories that pique the interest. Capote had promised to complete several short stories for this tome, but this collection contains only three. All of them are marvels to read, but the last, "La Cote Basque", is a stinging expose of the New York Socialite clique. Not only does Capote mention real celebrities, but he also exposes the deepest and darkest secrets of high society with a thin veil. It's no wonder he was ostracized from this egregious group. Some of the events he describes are beyond scandalous, yet witty and viciously funny. He somehow manages to bring the `so-called' social deviants to the same level as the most respected socialites, making it clear that money is the only difference.
The Editor's Note is the most intriguing part of the book, as it describes how Capote managed to promise to produce these stories for years without delivering and obtained millions from the publishers, enabling him to live with a high level of social activity. He was a celebrity as well as an author and a clever, if not conniving man. The biggest tragedy is that so many stories will never be read due to his early alcoholic induced death. Still, these three stories are inspired gems.
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