Muses Are Heard [Paperback]

Truman Capote (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (January 1956)
• ISBN-10: 0394701488
• ISBN-13: 978-0394701486
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,647,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capote's "first" non-fiction masterwork, September 16, 2001

By 

"ivan1138" (Tallahassee,FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Muses Are Heard: An Account (Hardcover)

Long before "In Cold Blood," Capote mastered the form of the non-fiction novel with this stunning little work. This story follows Truman to Russia on the first cultural exchange between our two countires - a touring company of "Porgy and Bess." This book is much lighter in tone and premise than "In Cold Blood." Capote is in perfect pitch here. If "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is one of your favorites, as it is most assuredly one of mine, you will adore this book. Don't miss it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Capote's nonfiction comic masterpiece, July 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Muses Are Heard: An Account (Hardcover)

This short book originally appeared in two parts in The New Yorker during the mid-1950s. A masterpiece of reportage, it reads like a comic novel as Capote tells delightfully the true story of an American theatre company's travels to the Soviet Union during the cold war to perform the musical "Porgy and Bess." With Truman and his perfect prose as our guide, every satirical detail is vivid, every personal eccentricity is slyly chronicled, and the portrait of a freezing cold Russia is humane and indelible. We finish the book not only charmed and amused but also feeling that we were there. The book is a rare pleasure, and predates the author's more famous "nonfiction novel" ("In Cold Blood") by a decade. Incidentally, over the years "The Muses Are Heard" has also been reprinted in several larger Capote anthologies: "Selected Writings," "The Dogs Bark" and "A Capote Reader."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great "forgotten" gems of the 20th Century American literature., January 30, 2006

By 

I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muses Are Heard (Paperback)

In 1956 Truman Capote wrote an account of a trip he took to Russia with the wife of Ira Gershwin and a touring company of "Porgy and Bess." A more motely crew of diplomats and thespians had never made their way behind the iron curtain, in fact this was the first cultural exchange between the two super powers.

"Oh what a circus, oh what a show...." I know those lyrics aren't from "Porgy and Bess." However, they are apropos of the events documented in this savagely witty travelogue, and though adjectives such as "amusing," "delightful" and "whimsical" spring to mind, they seem altogether inadequate to describe this unique work of comedic reportage. Capote was a true American original, and "The Muses Are Heard" finds him at the very height of his literary powers.

Over the past year we've seen the publication of Capote's letters, a compilation of his short stories and a brilliant film about the trials and tribulations he faced while writing "In Cold Blood." Virtually all of Capote's major works have been reprinted in handsome volumes by either Random House or The Modern Library, save for this one book. What could possibly be the hold up? This wonderfully funny work of non-fiction gets my vote as the most neglected work by an American master and deserves rediscovery and a new printing.