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Summer Crossing

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Finally we find out why Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow named their daughter "Apple," after the sister of the heroine of Truman Capote's masterful 40s novel SUMMER CROSSING, discovered in a heap of trash by a fellow who moved into Capote's Brooklyn apartment after he vacated for Europe. The Berg Collection at New York's Public Library bought up the manuscript to add to their Capote archive when it presently became available through the trash-seeker's family (together with a whole heap of other manuscripts, letters, family papers, and one complete short story--a lot of unpublished material which makes a trip to the NYPL a must for the Capote fancier). And now his longtime publisher, Random House, has brought out the book to mixed reviews. Well, not everyone gets Truman Capote, and even I, his greatest fan of all times, vacillate like the pingpong of radar between two states of adoration and cold hauteur. Sometimes he writes like the American Proust he said he was, and sometimes he writes like Maya Angelou on one of her greeting cards for Hallmark. Sometimes these disparate effects can be traced within the borders of one sentence. Maybe that's why I like him so much, because he cares about his writing, and yet he really doesn't care about taste.

Some people (like the publishers for example) have said that the heroine of SUMMER CROSSING, Grady McNeil, reminds them of Holly Golightly, that she's an early and inferior sketch for Holly Golightly, who charmed us all in Capote's later BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. If she's an early sketch for anything, she might be in the running for a proto Kate McCloud. McCloud was to be the heroine of Capote's notorious unfinished novel ANSWERED PRAYERS, and we all know what happened there. What's great about her passion in SUMMER CROSSING is the sharply observed contretemps it gets her into. She knows it's ridiculous that she fell for Clyde's seedy charm. Something about his Jewishness got her where she lives, in the shadow of the Holocaust she finds his Jewish identity supersensual, with the darkness and profundity of a DH Lawrence hero. We haven't had this kind of direct equation lately--the Jewish underclass punk as the noble savage, the dangerous temptation to the "heiress of all the ages" whom Grady represents so beautifully. Some of the sex writing still takes one's breath away, it is so stark and unrelenting. Clyde may be an animal, but I'd do him in ten seconds if I were that kind of girl.

From sentence to sentence you haven't read a better book this year, but as a novel, it's a little thin and undeveloped, or maybe it's a little bit confusing and Capote might have considered re-writing it from the POV of Peter Bell, the upperclass twit with the swimmer's bod who considers Grady his property, since they grew up together with the silver spoons. As it stands, Peter's just a sideshow for the main attraction. We see Grady going downhill irrevocably, but we don't believe it. She's too strong to be so weak--and yet that's the chief virtue of this creation.

Like most readers I am reserved, suspect and skeptical of books by famous authors that appear decades after their deaths: these manuscripts which are mysteriously found between the mattresses or squirreled away in a trunk, in a country house where the author once spent a summer vacation. However, "Summer Crossing" is a book that Truman often spoke of.

My understanding is that this was to be his first novel. *"More and more," he wrote, "Summer Crossing seemed to me thin, clever, unfelt. Another language, a secret spititual geography, was burgeoning inside me, taking hold of my nightdream hours as well as my wakeful daydreams." He set it aside and composed "Other Voices, Other Rooms." After the subsequent publication of his story collection "A Tree of Night" and travel essays "Local Color," Truman returned to "Summer Crossing," only to set it aside once again to focus his attention on another short novel "The Grass Harp."

Judging from his own words Capote felt "Summer Crossing" to be unfinished and not at all representational of the standard he aspired to: *"I read it over two or three times, and one day I just decided: I don't really like it. I think it's well written and it's got a lot of style, but I don't really like it. And so I tore it up." Yet, here it is in book form.

I'd love to be able to say Capote was too harsh a critic of his own work. However, it turns out that his assessment was absolute in its accuracy. "Summer Crossing" is a novel not without talent, but without distinction. One fails to hear Capote's voice in this work. It lacks all resonance, and is devoid of those qualities we most treasure in the accomplished and polished works of this author: passion, whimsy, a sense of foreboding and an overriding empathy for his characters. Thus, "Summer Crossong" is a curio best read by those with a special interest in this authors work and history, those not likely to confuse it as a work which legitimately represents his talent.

[*From "Capote: A Biography" by Gerald Clarke pages 79 and 218]

I have to confess, first and foremost, that this is the first Truman Capote novel I can recall reading. I've probably partaken in a few of his short stories (not that any particular ones come to mind), but I wasn't sure that qualified me to read and review SUMMER CROSSING, his latest, first, and "lost" novel.

The four notebooks and 62 pages of notes that comprise the manuscript were found in an assortment of boxes that Capote had left behind in a basement apartment in Brooklyn after catapulting to fame with his novel OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS (1948). The house sitter, instructed to put it all out for the garbage, opted instead to hold onto the boxes, and eventually died. His estate, upon opening boxes of letters and writings belonging to Capote, immediately contacted Sotheby's, who got in touch with Alan U. Schwartz, Capote's attorney. Ultimately, the papers were purchased by the New York Public Library to become part of their Truman Capote Papers and, after much rumination and discussion, was decided that SUMMER CROSSING should be published. There is a very good afterword by Schwartz detailing this account and his relationship with Capote that definitely should be included in the reading.

So here is Capote's first novel, begun in 1943 when he is 29, has been a New Yorker since the age of nine, and presumably is working on what would become his first success, the aforementioned OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS. I will tell you that SUMMER CROSSING can be read in probably a little more than (or a little under) an hour, depending upon the reader. There's nothing particularly "heavy" about the book and, in fact, some of it is rather predictable, but I did find myself going back and reading it a second time. This was done partly to recall details for this review and partly to confirm what I found after my first read --- that the naïve, clumsily written, unedited-in-its-contemporary-form novel I was expecting really was nowhere to be found. Instead, SUMMER CROSSING is a clever, ironic little package that clearly demonstrates Capote had already honed his skills of observing both the upper and lower tiers of New York society.

Grady McNeil is Capote's "heroine." She is an 18-year-old socialite who has just been left "home alone" for an entire summer by her overly wealthy (yes, you really can be too rich), overly uninvolved parents whose transatlantic trip to Europe is the basis for the book's title. In fact, moments before the ship sails, her mother, Lucy McNeil, whose main concern is checking on the house in Cannes to which they've not been since the war and deciding which Parisian couture house she will seek out to design Grady's debutante gown, suddenly realizes what a TERRIBLE idea it is to leave her young, innocent daughter alone and unaccompanied in New York City for three months. Alas, her lack of common sense prevails and off they sail.

After seeing her parents off, and seeing her older sister Apple back off to her married home in the Hamptons (summer home, I'm sure), Grady immediately high-tails it to a graveled parking lot near Broadway where we meet her urgent reason for staying in New York all summer --- Clyde Manzer. Clyde is everything Grady is not. He is not from Manhattan (Brooklyn), not a WASP (Jewish --- to which, upon hearing, Grady replies, after an interminable silence, "And am I supposed to care? I really don't, you know."), and he is not familiar with doormen, society or wealth. His speech is sprinkled with "Hiya's" and "bastards" and "aawwws" and "ain'ts." Grady and Clyde are both rather stereotypical, but as it is all part of Capote's plan, it doesn't matter and is soon forgiven.

Grady has decided that she is in love, is misunderstood by her parents (incidentally, her mother's second child was a stillborn boy whom she named Grady. Seven years later, she gives her second daughter the same name as if to remind herself and her daughter daily of the boy she was cheated of), and doesn't really want all the trappings of a society lifestyle, yet proceeds to play house with Clyde in the McNeil's Fifth Avenue penthouse all summer. She learns to tolerate his loud, mouthy friends and their blowsy girlfriends, and even learns to ignore the fact that, according to Clyde, he is engaged to another girl. Despite the fact that she has realized her childhood friend, Peter Bell, is in love with her and could prove to be her salvation (if she has to marry within her circle, she could do a lot worse than taking on her long-time partner in crime as a mate), Grady continues speeding down a very curvy and possibly dangerous road with Clyde.

Now, as I mentioned before, this is not a long book and has a few surprises in it. I am not going to ruin the book for you by revealing any of them here, so at this point all plot discussion is over.

Capote's characters are a bit too absurd to be totally believable, but then again, this was his first attempt. Grady's supposed naivete, at times hard to swallow, is made up for by her innocent arrogance and her attempts at trying not to be an 18-year-old in love with an older, unsuitable boy. Clyde's hector-macho-camacho exterior is forgiven during the instances when we see that he really is just a 23-year-old unsuitable boy who knows he's not worthy but still feels a semblance of love for his society gal. Clyde's friends --- Mink and Gump, Winifred and more --- all appear instantly annoying but quickly garner sympathy for their childlike view of the world.

There is no doubt in my mind that Capote was a champion observer (which got him into such hot water some decades later) --- for it is the little details of each character, each conversation, each subplot that prevent all from being trite and threadbare. He reminds me much of Dorothy Parker because she too could create a character whom you dislike, know you should despise, and feel a great amount of superiority to, but then they can both throw in one sentence that changes everything and makes you feel bad for all those previous feelings because, really, the poor dear just couldn't help being who she/he was.

I like SUMMER CROSSING very much and already know that there is a third and fourth reading of it in my future as well as first readings of more of Capote's work. Whether you are an established Truman Capote fan/reader or not, put this book on your holiday reading list as it will provide a lovely little interlude between parties, dinners and oh! Just being young and free and lively!


--- Reviewed by Jamie Layton

Truman Streckfus Persons (1924-1984) was born in New Orleans. He moved to New York to live with his mother and her second husband, a Cuban businessman whose name he adopted. We know him as Truman Capote, a man described by Norman Mailer as "the most perfect writer of my generation."

Now, with the critically acclaimed Philip Seymour Hoffman film, Capote, in theaters, there's more reason than ever to take note of a newly published Capote novella.

Capote is best known as the author of In Cold Blood (a riveting recreation of the brutal slaying of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, the police investigation that followed, and the capture, trial, and execution of the two young murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (the story of a bad little good girl called Holly Golightly, whom Time magazine described as "a cross between a grown-up Lolita and a teen-age Auntie Mame . . . alone and afraid in a lot of beds she never made.")

A novella of some thirty thousand words, Summer Crossing is the first of Capote's longer works. He began writing it in 1943, but set it aside when he turned his attention to what would be his stunning literary debut, Other Voices, Other Rooms (a terrifying Gothic novel of the modern South: a mouldering mansion by the edge of a swamp; a ghostly face at a curtained window; a lonely boy seeking the answer to a long-buried secret).

In 1966, with the financial success of In Cold Blood, Capote left his Brooklyn apartment, telling the caretaker to destroy everything left behind. Fortunately, however, the caretaker preserved the manuscript of Summer Crossing, which was buried in the pile of litter left behind by Capote, and which, apparently, he never intended to be published. Now, after almost half a century, this "buried treasure" has been brought to light.

Set in New York just after World War II, Summer Crossing is the story of Grady McNeil, 17, the younger daughter of wealthy financier Lamont McNeil and his wife Lucy. When the McNeils leave for a European tour, Grady stubbornly remains behind in their Fifth Avenue penthouse.

Enjoying her newfound freedom from parental supervision, Grady forgets (if she ever knew) that freedom involves responsibility. Her secret affair with Clyde Manzer, a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant, intensifies. Soon, Grady finds that her once-carefree life has become complicated, with ominous forebodings of disaster.

The novella's strong point is that it sheds light on Truman Capote as a young writer in the years before he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms. It reveals Capote to be a closet poet-philosopher, as indicated by these words from the final chapter: "All this would go on, these waves, these sea-roses shedding sun-dried petals on the sand; if I die, all this will go on, and she resented that it should." And again, "If I died [Grady mused] all this will go on. Shells in the tide, ships far off and going farther."

In an Afterword, Alan Schwartz, trustee of The Truman Capote Literary Trust, points out that while Summer Crossing isn't perfect, it is not without literary merits: "While not a polished work, it fully reflects the emergence of an original writer and a surprisingly proficient writer of prose."

Summer Crossing is a quick, easy read ... and, yes, enjoyable, but compared with Capote's other works it is a diamond in the rough.

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville, Tennessee, is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville publishing house.

This is a work that dives into life with an ability that is breath-taking. Here is the description of a cat house at the Central Park Zoo. "The cat house of a zoo has an ornery smell, an air prowled by sleep, mangy with old breath and dead desires...At feeding time a cat house turns into a thunderous jungle, for the attendant, passing with blood-dyed hands among the cages, is sometimes slow, and his wards, jealous of one who has been fed first, scream down the roof, rattle the steel with roars of longing." The description of a panther and leopard reminds one of Rilke. "Somehow the leopard does not suffer, nor the panther: their swagger makes distinct claims upon the pulse...." And here is a character perfectly depicted, wavering: "for it was impossible to feel, as Grady certainly didn't, threatened by or jealous of her." Try writing a sentence like that at age nineteen.

The plotline of this unfinished work involves a 17 year old New York debutante named Grady who is romantically involved with a 23 year old WW II veteran, Clyde, now working as a parking lot attendant. Also vying for Grady's affections is her old friend, Peter. The story moves very smoothly until the chapter where Grady and Clyde go to visit Clyde's mother. This chapter is surprisingly uninteresting - and at this point the story slowly unravels and falls apart. The ending is abrupt and leaves you wondering what is going to happen to the characters.
This may be Capote's genius in it's infancy, -- but its still genius. The prose is elegant, vivid and breathtaking. Capote didn't ask for this book to be published so we can't judge him too harshly.
This book also contains an explanation from Capote's lawyer about why this recently found work was published.

What does an unsuccessful draft of a fine author's work look like? If that question interests you, read Summer Crossing. If the question doesn't, you can skip this novel.

I doubt if this book would have been published except that the story contains bits and pieces of themes that are powerfully developed in Breakfast at Tiffany's, also by Mr. Capote.

When Truman Capote found his writing voice, it was in writing about his own life and the people he knew.

Summer Crossing comes across, by comparison, as a writing exercise disconnected from his personal experience that has serious problems in its conception and implementation.

So what's the story?

A rich young New York socialite, Grady McNeil, is left inexplicably behind and unchaperoned for the summer while her parents shop their way through Europe. In the best tradition of young people first on their own, Grady soon finds a way to break all the bounds of her former life. She craves the reality of this new life . . . but finds it brings complications she hadn't really expected.

With that set up, one would expect a fine short story . . . but Mr. Capote didn't yet have the skill to turn the premise into a novel. Later, he would.

Should the book have been salvaged and made available? I think so.

Should you read it? Probably not.

In his owns words, Truman Capote never intended to publish "Summer Crossing". He felt it to be unfinished and below his standard of his writing as it was written before his publication career blossomed. Yet the estate of Capote recently decided to publish the book with a few minor changes that were said to be mostly cosmetic. "Summer Crossing" is certainly a flawed draft of a story which seems to show significance in that it demonstrates perhaps the greatest American writer developing his craft.

Grady McNeil, who bears a resemblance to Holly Golightly of "Breakfast at Tiffany's", is noted for a flippant attitude in her young age. Frequently a concern of her mother and sister Apple, the concern becomes justified when Grady engages in relationship with Clyde. Below her in the social ladder, Clyde is an exciting risk for Grady. As the summer passes, Grady's inhibitions erode, leaving her in a seemingly unresolvable situation.

While the title "Summer Crossing" is derived from the mother's summer trip to Europe, the title can also be interpreted as a season crossing of personal borders. Just as the title is ambiguous, the story is an ambiguous reflection of Capote's talents. Capote's ability to find the perfect word or phrase in any situation is quite rough. With Capote's greatest talent in its primitive stages, the writer fails to shine.

This is a very early effort by Capote, and it wasn't published in his lifetime so it should be regarded as unfinished, but you can see hints of his future greatness in his elegant use of language, his ability to evoke a world, and his love of the shocking moment. The plot is very simple: Grady, the 17 year old daughter of a wealthy Park Avenue family, stays in New York while her parents spend the summer in Europe. She's fallen in love with a parking attendant in a city garage and wants to spend the summer enjoying her secret love. But she hasn't thought through the consequences of a liaison with someone from another social class. Events begin to spiral out of control...

The book is short, a novella really, and well worth reading if you are a Capote fan, although it certainly doesn't compare with his mature work.

This is a book for only the most fanatical of Capote completists. You know who you are--the ones who read "Answered Prayers" once a year, praying twenty more long chapters of it will show up in some abandoned storage locker on Long Island someday soon. It is a short novella that Capote wrote early in his life and never published. For good reason. It's too slight, even for something at the beginning of one's career.

It's the story of a 17-year-old girl left alone for the summer in her Fifth Avenue apartment while her rich parents sail to France. But she's not just any girl. She has the sensitivities of a Virginia Woolf heroine, and the narrator has the poetic gifts of Eudora Welty after that sixth glass of persimmon wine. The prose is strictly from the overheated hothouse. The similes and metaphors are impossibly baroque. A sentence is not perfumed enough? Spritz more eau de Decadence on it. The paragraph is too clear? Draw a thick purple veil over it. We are told that a mirror "shot through the dusk arrows of dazzle." Okay.

Page 15 has this passage: "...the sun, shooting summer-tipped arrows, jingled the new-penny color of Grady's cropped hair, and her skinny, nimble face, shaped with bones of fish-spine delicacy, was flushed by the honeyed blowing light." Oh dear! Hand me my smelling salts and guide me to my fainting couch!

In order to prove that he's no follower of Hemingway's minimalism, Capotes goes punctuation crazy. Entire passages are joined by colons and semicolons. Three colons in one sentence? Add another: one more; and a couple of semicolons; two more if possible: too much is never: enough. His literary executor adds in an afterward that they sometimes added commas for clarity. They should have struck out scores of these intrusive colons and semicolons. And then they should have published it as an early short story in a Capote collection, not as a separate novel.