Story of a young woman unsure of what she wants in life. She surronds herslef with and assortment of charaters hoping to find that for which she is searching.

Truman Capote has a great imagination. Every story I have read by him has held my interest. I am anxious to read his other novels. Although this novel is a short read, it held my attention very well. Breakfast At Tiffany's is a novel filled with a love interest, a little suspense, and scandalous affairs; it's a little racy for the time this story takes place.
Lulamae Barnes wanted to re-invent herself. She picks a new name, Holly Golightly. I feel she has picked this new name to reflect the persona she wants to project; someone who was always on the go-someone not too easily tied down. She is a little gullible, a little naïve, and also outspoken. Holly Golightly is someone you love intensely for the short while she is in your life and someone you long for long after she has exited. I also feel that everyone could relate to her at some point in her life (all the way from the pain in her childhood, when she felt like she never belonged anywhere or to anyone, to the time she lost her brother, Fred).
Holly was a young woman who had quite a few gentleman callers. She seems to fall for the older men in her life. Holly suffers from this 'father complex.'
My favorite character is the narrator of the story. He is an older gentleman as well. He is in his sixties and a writer. As they developed their friendship, he also developed a fascination with Holly. He reminds her of Fred, so she asks if she can call him Fred, and he graciously accepts. As the two interact as friends, 'Fred' quietly falls in love with her.
I was most disappointed that Holly never quite knew of his love for her. I think that if she had known then maybe she could have had a better life with him.
I rated this novel with five stars because I could not put this story down until I had finished it. I am not an avid reader so that is saying a lot for this story. If I can't wait to finish a book, then I feel the author had captured my heart for the length of time it took me to put it down. It is almost like getting a kiss from a long lost lover.

If you are fan of writer Truman Capote's works, this is a biography that you won't want to miss. Told from the recollections of family and friends of Capote, Southern Years captures Truman's childhood years and gives us a brief glance at his roots and how he came to be who he was as an adult. We also get an interesting glimpse into Truman's friendship with To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee, who was a childhood and lifelong friend.

Most of the book is told from the perspective of Jennings Faulk, Truman Capotes cousin. Long summer days were spent as curious children growing up in Monroeville. Page after page detail the antics and schemes these young ones got into and you can see how many of the children's real life experiences were translated to the pages of both Capote and Harper Lee's novels. We also get a sad peek into some of the turmoil that Capote faced because of his troubled family life. Knowing his history will give you a better appreciation for his writing and will entertain you at the same time. This is an easy, light read and in many ways will bring you back to your own childhood days of playing outside in the summer time.

The stories were told beautifully. Truman was portrayed as a folk hero of Monroeville, kind of like an Anansi or Brer Rabbit. When I first bought the book, I thought it was going to be boring and scholarly, but not so. A movie could be made of the book. The sadness came through strongly. God gave Truman great abilities, but they were even greater, because Truman hurt.

If you are a true fan of Truman Capote like I am, you will truly enjoy reading Truman Capote's Southern Years. Told through the eyes of his cousin, this book gives you a lot of details of his life, both the good and the bad of it. It was both a hilarious look at his life, and a very sad one too. You get a glimpse of the pain that he suffered throughout his life, and while it doesn't go into it in great detail, it gives you a small glimpse into his homosexuality. Take it from me, once you read this book, you will want to read it again, and again.

An infinitely complex novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms is a riveting examination of the often disturbing human heart. One of Capote's most obscure novels, the book is difficult to comprehend as it is read. It takes great effort to move from page to page trying to find the patterns in the ambiguous and suggestive imagery. However, on completing on the novel and thinking about it, one finds that Other Voices, Other Rooms is a gift to literature. Nobody can agree on what Capote was actually insinuating, but what we can all agree on is that when one reflects on the novel as a whole, one is very likely to think about one's life in a different way. A must read for a serious reader.

Never having read a Capote novel or short story before this novel was probably the best way to go. The premise was simple enough: a boy whose beloved mother has died, sets out to live with his estranged father in a rural southern town. The story, however, is not that...ordinary. The mysterious father does not immediately appear, and the young boy is left virtually alone with a mentally imbalanced extended family headed by an aging artist. Capote introduces a Carson McCullers-esque tomboy, a witch doctor, a circus sideshow, and you begin to understand that this novel is about many stories--not just Joel's story. Capote never lets you imagine for a moment that his novel will turn into one of those "feel good" coming of age stories in which, despite setbacks and loopy family arrangements, the young hero or heroine finally "makes it." Our hero moves on in the best way that he can, which is all anybody really can do. I appreciate Capote's sense of reality.

Truman Capote's novel "Other Voices, Other Rooms" opens with the main character, 13-year old Joel Harrison Knox, traveling to the home of his long-estranged father. As the book progresses, Joel becomes more intimately involved with the people of his father's household and of the larger community; there is a stress on oral history as Joel learns their stories. Overall, plot struck me as secondary to character revelation.

The people of Joel's new world are colorful, often pathetic, and sometimes grotesque; at times it really feels like Capote is putting on a human freak show for the thrill-seeking reader. He leads us through a world of decaying old buildings and broken spirits. But Capote always respects the essential humanity of his troubled characters.

There is a pronounced theme of alternative sexuality and/or gender identity throughout the book. Capote establishes this theme early on in his description of the main character. Joel is described as not looking like a "'real' boy": "He was too pretty, too delicate and fair-skinned." "Other Voices" thus has a lot to offer readers with an interest in gender issues as they have been explored in American literature. Capote also does an interesting job of portraying a mixed-race household where the African-American servants are as vividly drawn as the Caucasian family members.

Throughout the book there is some richly descriptive language, as well as intriguing representations of American vernacular English. Although at times "Other Voices" seems more an exercise in style than a fully satisfying narrative, it is for me quite a remarkable coming-of-age story.

"The Scarlet Professor" is the story of a rat. A man who betrayed his closest friends and thereby destroyed their careers and changed the course of their lives. Prof. Newton Arvin, when charged with the possession of homoerotic pictures and magazines, "sang like a canary," as they used to say in ganster movies. This puzzled many of his closest friends, veterans of the McCarthy era who managed NOT to name names during the Communist witchhunts of the '50s. And Arvin had many famous friends. One lover was Truman Capote, who was less than half his age. But the flaw in "The Scarlet Professor" might be that Newton comes across as a rat on every page. He was a whining hypochondriac; he was not attractive physically (at least in photos); he was not magnetic in conversation. So what lure did he have? Barry Werth does not address this. "The Scarlet Letter" is a wonderful book to read right now as a reminder of how poorly pre-1960 America treated homosexuals, communists and the mentally ill. It is also a good argument against those who would broaden police searches and seizures. It presents a nice snapshot of life in a women's college as it used to be lived.

September 2, 1960 isn't exactly a day which will live in infamy. It is however, the day on which Professor Newton Arvin, award winning biographer of Hawthorne, Melville and Whitman, became the most prominent victim of Eisenhower's "pink scare" and the key player in the Smith College homosexual sex scandal. "The Scarlett Professor" is an exhaustive biography of one of the nation's most influential, albeit mostly forgotten, literary critics. A mentor of Carson McCullers and Truman Capote, Arvin taught the classics at Smith for 36 years. Then, caught in a sting spearheaded by the postmaster general, Arvin plead guilty to possession of "pornographic" materials and implicated a number of his associates. Plagued by depression throughout his adult life, Arvin was forced to resign his teaching post and spent his final years in and out of pyschiatric facilities. Barry Werth has adroitly rendered, not only the world of Newton Arvin, but a tragic and, until now, egregiously overlooked episode in our nation's history. An important and impressive book.

Read THE SCARLET PROFESSOR, an engrossing true story
about a college professor embroiled in a sex scandal . . . Newtown Arvin published groundbreaking literary studies in his 37 years at Smith College, and he cultivated friendships with the likes of Lillian Helman and Truman Capote . . . a social radical and closeted homosexual, he somehow survived McCarthyism.

But in September of 1960, his apartment was raided and his
collection of erotica was confiscated . . . it was then that his

troubles began . . . he was brought to trial, and in doing
so, he also named names of other so-called pornographers.

I found this part of the book particularly fascinating, in that
it helped give me a better feel for America's moral fanaticism
during that time period . . . even if you're not a fan of
biographies, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised
if you give this one a chance.

There were many memorable passages; among them:
The following day he [Newton] wrote to her again:
"I realize how good I ought (and must) be to you in
order to make you happy and keep you by me. I wish
that I could be a god and a saint and a knight and a
good companion for your sake." If Arvin was to fail as
a husband, it would not be for want of trying.

[from his journal] Reading of student papers, bluebooks,
etc. a form of torture, though inescapable at best. What
gives the extra turn of the screw is, of course, the
debased English in which most of them are written.
Reading them is a matter of rubbing an iron file over
one's teeth, or holding urine in one's mouth, or having the
racket of a bulldozer in one's ear for an hour or two on
end. Physical tiredness inevitably ensues.

The sudden seizure of his secret history completed the
shattering of Arvin's world. When he saw police returning
with the slender volumes, opening them, flipping through
their limited pages--beginning to decipher the penciled
hieroglyphics that unlocked his innermost life--it was as if
there was nothing left of him to take or preserve. He was
in utter panic, shaking his face fallen.

This book is simply a rehash of information which has already been published. I am a big fan of Marie Rudisill's and loved FRUITCAKE and SOOK'S COOKBOOK. I advise she work on her own and not coauthor with Simmons again--her books with him just don't allow her wit and humanity to show through.

This book has so much detail in such few chapters. This story tells how Truman was first left to stay at Jenny's house..Also featuring the special tree house, the bone fence and the Sunday dinners. All these stories were wonderful. I've never read such interesting, real detail about Truman's life..this book is a must have for every Capote fan. Way to go Marie

THIS BOOK DECRIBES HOW EACH ONE A TRUMAN CAPOTE'S STORIES REFECTS BACK TO HIS CHILDHOOD WHERE HE WAS RAISED IN ALABAMA BY HIS ECCENTRIC AUNT SOOK FAULK..IN THIS BOOK MARIE RUDISILL CLEARLY DETAILS TRUMAN'S LIFE AS A CHILD..IF YOU ARE A TRUMAN CAPOTE FAN, YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK..SIMPLY FANTASTIC

I rated this one four stars because I can't help compare it to my two personal favourites, 'Music For Chameleons' and 'In Cold Blood.'
Nonetheless, this book has all the beautiful Capote observations in it as well. Whenever Capote describes something or someone I am completely amazed. The visuals he brings forth in the readers mind are like no other. This one's a quick read. I was a lil' angry it was short because I wanted more beautiful sentences.

Only reason I'm docking it a star is the typically tiresome bloviations of gadabout dilettante Georgie in the introduction. The presence of Georgie between the same covers as Truman might have some value for bulmics, but to me it's just repulsive. Beloved Truman wrote all too little, and Georgie keeps typing, typing, typing! When will it all end?

The Dogs Bark, Capote's compilation of his travel pieces and personal sketches, was written across twenty plus years. It is necessarily uneven. The brief sketches of varying locales and locals gives the reader the feelling of sitting at a wine tasting rather than an entire feast. Some pieces have tremendous body; still you are only allowed a nip of each. The travel pieces and brief sketches, especially those of persons in the post WWII era, are interesting as a fleeting view of alien people in closed cultures that no longer exist--Europeans in French Tunisia, Capote living in the old Quarter of New Orleans, the cast of the african-american musical "Porgy and Bess" in Soviet Russia, etc. Depending on your personal opinion of Capote's opinion of himself (he is the traveler at the center of the travel pieces, after all), some works are more enjoyable than others. Some readers will find his innumerable digs at the drabness of Soviet life in "The Muses are Heard" wickedly funny; others will be annoyed that he couldn't disengage his own sense of disenchantment to take a more objectively journalistic viewpoint. If you're considering this book, you are more than likely a member of the first camp. The avid Capote reader will find intriguing parallels and connections between the people he encounters in his travels and characters in his fictional works. Others will enjoy the works for their strengths as travel logs--the transparent eyeball of the traveler bringing terra incognita into sharp focus through well-described event and emotion. Skip back and forth through the book; savor the variety.

this book is an interesting form of biography with all the little snippets from a myriad of folks who knew truman capote. it's fun to compare the stories as all these people remember them just a little bit differently. it's gossip-y, sure, but it's also fun (and a little bit sad). i never really knew a lot about capote--except from "Murder by Death" and reading in cold blood-- and although i cant say this book makes me want to read much more of his material, it did give me an interesting insight into who he was, or, at least, how others saw him.

Being a man as into self advertisement as Truman Capote was, this is a book that he would truely love. Even though not everything said about him is positive, the very fact that so many prominant people had opinions about and feelings for this strange Southern refugee would probably warm his heart. I have tried without success to appreciate Capote as a writer. With the exception of In Cold Blood, which is less personal and more accessable than his other fiction, I just don't get it. But Capote the personality, now that is different. Those of us who watched his decline over the years on one TV show after another, to the point where his interviews were incoherent babble, have a guilty fascination with this man. And of course the 'mystery' of the missing final project - the greatest fiction of his life - just adds to the sadness of the story.

If you are interested in Capote at all - as writer or as personality - this book is a great source of insight, anecdote and interesting detail.

Though admitting it makes me seem like a walking example of "what's wrong with readers today," I have read more books *about* Truman Capote than I have read *by* Truman Capote. Not being a fan of "traditional" biographies, I was really looking forward to reading Plimpton's oral biography on this "tiny terror," and I was not disappointed. The book takes you through Capote's life, from his boyhood in Alabama (unlike some of my fellow Alabamians, I am more than happy to claim him as a product of the South) to his sad final hours in California. Say what you will about Capote, but the man "gave good quote," and his friends and enemies interviewed here seem to remember every one of them (and so will you). Whether you're interested in Capote (the writer), Capote (the jet-set sycophant), or Capote (the man who knew how to live life more fully than it was probably meant to be lived), you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

I collect true inspirational stories. One of the disadvantages of shopping "on-line" is you don't always know what you are getting. That was the case with "Southern Christmas: Literary Classics of the Holidays." If you are looking for mostly Southern flavored fiction by Southern autors with a heavy dose of narratives about racial prejudice against blacks,this is for you. Especially nice non-fiction pieces come from Robert E. Lee and Harper Lee punctuate the volume. One page bios of the authors are helpful and interesting. If you want something more traditional and inspirational, save your money.

At last a collection which reveals the many faces of Christmas in the South. Too many anthologies about Christmas show only the sweet and often unrealistic side of Christmas. For those who have both laughed at absurdities and cried at frustrations on this day, this anthology is for you. Twenty-eight of the finest Southern writers allow us entry into their Christmas experinces. Buy this book, you will not be sorry. Contributors inlcude Rick Bragg, Robert E. Lee, Dori Sanders, and Harper Lee.

I saw this book around at bookstores last year but never picked it up until I saw a mention of it recently and decided to order a copy. It is a very nice mix of Christmas stories by Southern authors--most predictible and a few I'd never heard of and was intrigued to discover. My favorite was Lillian Smith's recollection of the chain gang coming over for Christmas dinner. Some authors I'd hoped for are missing, but generally I really enjoyed it and recommend it to others as the holidays draw near.

Nowhere is the waste of Truman Capote's later life and talent more obvious than in these fragments of the novel that, according to the author, was to be his "masterpiece." (Always beware of writers who claim masterpiece status for works they have not actually managed to write.) Far gone on alcohol and drugs at the time, Capote was unable to bring this ambitious work to completion---but based on these bits and pieces,it is difficult to imagine that, had he finished it, the novel would have had much merit other than as a bestseller of the H. Robbins-J. Susann glitzy/trashy variety. Occasional passages of real beauty are undone by frightening lapses in style and taste, unlikely plotting, and silly gossip stories about the once-famous. On a talk show Capote once said he felt that publishing these excerpts was "a form of suicide." He was right. Those who are tantalyzed by what "might have been" in this case are naive: Capote gives us quite enough to show what would have been, and why, most likely, he chose never to finish it. This book has little value as fiction, but will be of great fascination to those who wonder what happened to Capote in his later career.

If the complete novel had ever been published, "Answered Prayers" would have been no doubt Truman Capote's masterpiece. The novel is nothing like "In Cold Blood" or "Other Voices, Other Rooms." The novel is autobiographical and details the lives of socialites and endless parties. Capote was very familiar with this lifestyle. He was a regular on the New York City and L.A. party circuit. All of Capote's escapades can be read about in Gerald Clarke's biography "Capote." "Answered Prayers" was worked on for more than twenty years, and it's ashamed that no more of the book was found after Capote's death in 1984. "Answered Prayers" is Capote's masterpiece.

Capote tells us many stories in Answered Prayers...the story of the Upper East Side lawyer who whores himself to pay his son's way at Exeter, the new wife who murders her husband for fear of losing the money into which she's married, and the hauntingly beautiful Kate McCloud, the toast of St. Moritz, who plots to kidnap her child from her new husband, whom she rightfully suspects is trying to kill her. It is also the story of Capote's dark doppleganger, P.B. Jones, and the self-loathing hue in which he paints his life in episodes of both tremendous scandal and surprising pathos. The greatest story, however, the one with which this fragment tantalizes the reader, is the story of a man and a separate society whose worse fate was to have every prayer they ever offered up answered, in spades. Answered Prayers is the novel Truman Capote never finished, but the one his most ardent fans wish he had finished, above all others.