Capote: A Biography
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the man who authored In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, as well as with nearly everyone who knew him, this absorbing, definitive biography follows Truman Capote from his eccentric childhood in Alabama to the heights of New York society. Featuring many photographs, this book also candidly recounts a gifted and celebrated writer's descent into the life of alcohol and drugs that would ultimately… Product details and pricing info |
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25 Customer Reviews Posted
- I've read better
- This has to be the second worst book that I've read in along time. His flings and the details that the writer goes into aren't always that interesting. The writer does name names and some are a shock and make you think. However, saying that the book could of been pared down at least 75 pages by omitting some details of his love life I didn't care to know.
- 2007-12-26, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Tragic Triumphant Truman
- After seeing the two movies about Truman Capote's writing of "In Cold Blood" ('Capote' and 'Infamous'), I wanted to first read the letters he'd written during this period which helped me to understand what really went on sans the Hollywood-izing of the story. But the letters were even better - juicier and more colourful than any Hollywood version; and I was compelled to read most of the rest of them from other periods in his life.
Then I read some of his short stories (starting with the haunting "Miriam") and his first novel. But nothing could have prepared me for the story Gerald Clarke told of his friend, Truman. It's an American success story and yet one of the worst tragedies I've ever read. What a colourful man! I was amazed at every word, every thought he recorded, especially when he was instructing a young writer:
"One cannot be taught to write. One can only learn to write by writing - and reading. Reading good books written by real artists - until you understand why they are good."
"One only really learns from what one enjoys."
"Good writing isn't (necessarily) fancy writing."
He always said to write what you know and called his character depictions 'portraits.' "A writer ought to have all his colors, all his abilities available on the same palette for mingling..." Reading Clarke's biography together with Truman's letters gave me a renewed passion for literature.
Truman always turned the drab fantastic:
"In the falling quiet there was no sky or earth, only snow lifting in the wind, frosting the window glass chilling the rooms, deadening and hushing the city."
And I realized he was one of the ultimate mystic artists:
They said of Truman: "A mediumistic voice speaks through him in the most impeccable of accents."
"In times of terror or immense distress, there are moments when the mind waits, as though for a revelation, while a skein of calm is woven over thought; it is like a sleep, or a supernatural trance; and during this lull one is aware of a force of quiet reasoning..."
Every writer needs to read Capote, who always unabashedly revealed every aspect of himself to the world - his struggles, his pain, his triumphs and tragedies. It was obvious how difficult writing was for him; it took all the energy he could muster to stay focused on a project.
"It is as though one were a secretary transcribing the words of a voice from a cloud. The difficulty is maintaining contact with this spectral dictator."
All this from a self-taught, self-made southern boy who came from worse than a broken home. He got his first job at 17 at the New Yorker where he made his mark and wrote for periodicals and women's magazines at a time when they published fiction; and he attended the writers' colony - Yaddo in Syracuse, NY - and learned from the older men in his life who became his lovers.
Truman was a world traveler, moving in two distinct circles of people: the rich and famous with whom he hobnobbed and sailed the seas; and a small group of a few of his close friends, who were more honest with him and allowed him to just be himself. He made friends of enemies and enemies of friends - through his writing and his paradoxical ways; and his tortured love life and terrible struggles with addictions are detailed quite vividly here.
The biography was obviously a very difficult undertaking for Gerald Clarke and, like Truman's writing of "In Cold Blood," stretched on for many years more than he'd planned. The story of Truman's life up to "In Cold Blood" was exciting, amazing and a marvelous success story. The chapters of his life after completing his masterpiece and up to his death were the rest of the story of a slow, agonizing downward spiral on the road to a terrible end. But Truman led an astonishing life full of interesting events, travels, and people of extraordinary renown and it's best to try to remember the man's art - though most believe he squandered away a good part of his life and talent - for there would have been a huge void in the world without him. - 2007-10-20, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Stunning Insight
- This Biography of Truman Capote by Gerald Clarke is breathtaking in its' inisght into the man and his deamons. Capote was a genius to say the least but was human in his hurts and disappointments in life. People obviously used him over and over again. As a gay man who wanted to be accepted he was terribly vulnerable and thrown away like garbage by many of his so called friends. Lee Radziwall called him a "Fag" which hurt him deeply. Many gay people have used alchohol to just make it through life. Mr.Capote was not alone. This is truly a remarkable inside look into a tortured life.
- 2007-10-15, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Details of Truman Capote
- Although the large size of this book may concern you, it's a quick read. Truman Capote's life is painted in great detail.
- 2007-05-10, 4 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Wonderful, Wonderful.....
- I would like to congratulate the author of this book. Mr. Clarke, you are a wonderful writer. I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting from the beginning to the end. Thank you. Oh by the way, I saw the movie as well. Forget the movie! The movie only concentrates on just one aspect of the book. Book has so many interesting facts. Read the book! Read the Book!
- 2007-03-13, 3 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
