Detailed item info | Synopsis | A varied collection of notes and comments by various friends and acquaintances of Truman Capote that explore all aspects of his complicated personality. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
| | Size | | Length: | 512 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in. | | Width: | 6.0 in. | | Thickness: | 1.0 in. | | Weight: | 20.8 oz. |
| | Publisher's Note | He was the most social of writers, and at the height of his career, he was the very nexus of the glamorous worlds of the arts, politics and society, a position best exemplified by his still legendary Black and White Ball. Truman truly knew everyone, and now the people who knew him best tell his remarkable story to bestselling author and literary lion, George Plimpton.Using the oral-biography style that made his Edie (edited with Jean Stein) a bestseller, George Plimpton has blended the voices of Capotes friends, lovers, and colleagues into a captivating and narrative. Here we see the entire span of Capotes life, from his Southern childhood, to his early days in New York; his first literary success with the publication of Other Voices, Other Rooms; his highly active love life; the groundbreaking excitement of In Cold Blood, the first "nonfiction novel"; his years as a jet-setter; and his final days of flagging inspiration, alcoholism, and isolation. All his famous friends and enemies are here: C.Z. Guest, Katharine Graham, Lauren Bacall, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Huston, William F. Buckley, Jr., and dozens of others.Full of wonderful stories, startlingly intimate and altogether fascinating, this is the most entertaining account of Truman Capote's life yet, as only the incomparable George Plimpton could have done it.
In the tradition of his smash bestseller "Edie", Plimpton brings the endlessly intriguing Truman Capote to life via a dizzying cast of oral biographers, including Lauren Bacall, Katherine Graham, Gore Vidal, and William F. Buckley, Jr. Photos.
| | Industry reviews | "The mythic and the authentic Capote have found their Boswell in George Plimpton, himself an inventive wizard of pop. In his oral biography...Mr. Plimpton tells the whole story, from Monroeville, Ala., to Sunset Boulevard, in the blended voices of Capote's friends and enemies, hosts and parasites."
Wall Street Journal - Edward Kosner (12/11/1997)
"The book is longish and requires some degree of sober attention, [but] this reader kept moving, in a state of fascination."
New York Times - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (12/15/1997)
"The portrait that emerges is of an increasingly vicious, jealous, competitive, deceptive little bastard, the nasty little girl of American letters....One hundred seventy-four impressive names (a number of them now dead) have been diligently interviewed here, and one can be forgiven for wondering whether anyone with a brain has a kind word for the man."
Salon - William D. Georgiades (12/22/1997)
"[T]hat's pretty much what the book is, gossip. There is little about Capote the writer, and lots about Capote the personality, which is hardly the fault of the editor, since it was Capote himself who traded in the former role for the latter....By the end, after Capote has taken an awfully long time to die, there is a distinct feeling of anticlimax..."
New York Times Book Review - Julia Reed (12/28/1997)
"Less a literary convocation than an A-list gab-fest, this volume is filled over the brim with three things Capote cared deeply about: gossip, name-dropping, and himself....Capote's flamboyant, fascinating life as related by other voice, other views."
Kadrey
"This is a book about parties, and it's full of air kisses, bruised egos, and snazzy outfits. If fabulousness were humidity, then reading even a few pages of this biography would make you damp."
Lawrence
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