A Capote Reader (Hardcover)

by Truman Capote (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
"I wish that then and there I had moved to the country. But it was too late, for I had already started my journey to the Earth's interior." Like all of Capote's fiction, Answered Prayers draws heavily on his "real life"; but instead of his Southern childhood, he details here in anecdotal form the "atmosphere of luxurious exhaustion" of the lives of the globe- trotting super-rich. The air of unreality that pervades the book is deliberate; the real acts of extreme people are hard for the imagination to accept. Capote's genius was to enter into those extreme lives as a marginal participant and emerge as an eloquent eyewitness; tragically, he did not emerge intact. Having committed the unpardonable crime of telling how the rich get their money and what they do with their bodies, he was punished with a banishment that contributed to his physical decline. The publication of Answered Prayers in book form is Capote's vindication. Though it adds nothing to the chapters published in Esquire 12 years ago, these fragments of what was never intended as a conventional novel are self-sufficient and forceful. A Capote Reader presents almost everything Capote published with the exception of In Cold Blood in one bargain-priced edition. Few volumes since the Portable Faulkner in 1946 have been better designed to revive a great American author. The short novels are widely read, and Music for Chameleons brought Capote a new audiencebut who today reads his early, sly travel sketches, or The Muses Are Heard, an account of Negro performers in the Soviet Union that is timely and entertaining 30 years after it was written? All the above are contained in this Reader. Dunphy, Capote's lifelong companion, egregiously exploits his name with his "memoir." Capote barely appears in this novelistic treatment of a young priest who may or may not have insinuated himself into Dunphy's life with a mission of "saving" Capote from pills and booze. Uninformative as a memoir, as a Catholic "problem novel" it is trite and overwritten. Rob Schmieder, Boston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
A large volume that includes virtually all of Capote's published work with the exceptions of his Christmas tales, Other Voices, Other Rooms, and In Cold Blood--including several pieces that have never been published in book form.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 722 pages
• Publisher: Random House (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039455647X
• ISBN-13: 978-0394556475
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #936,426 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a wonderful anthology of the work of Truman Capote., August 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Truman Capote Reader (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, February 9, 2000

By A Customer

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.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars Aren't Enough, October 3, 2007

By	Roseywater "Never there when you need me" (Cortonville, USA) - See all my reviews

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.