Truman Capote, Enfant Terrible

This is a critical biography of Truman Capote's career from his early beginnings in rural Alabama to his death in Beverly Hills. Coverage includes the writing and staging of The Grass Harp, and its later adaptation as a Hollywood film, and the story behind "House of Flowers," from a travel sketch to a Broadway musical. But the thrust of the book, and its greatest strength, is its depiction of Capote as a virtuoso, able to command a large popular audience and also to impress connoisseurs of literature. As Robert Emmet Long shows, Capote abounded in the seeming contradictions and multiple personalities within himself that ultimately led to his destruction. His career incorporated both a beguiling comic sense and a dark sense of the failure of love and aspiration.

Shedrick Pittman-Hassett - Library Journal

Prolific critic Long presents a concise but compelling journey through the works and life of a unique writer in American literature. He begins with a brief and rather shallow sketch of Capote's early life, highlighting his tragic childhood and the relationships the eccentric author maintained with various members of New York's elite. Long draws heavily from Capote's unpublished papers and from Gerald Clarke's Capote: A Biography. This brief sketch, however, sets the stage for a compelling analysis of the effect of the author's tragic life on the gothic nature of his prose. Long brilliantly places each piece in the context of the author's life and of the culture at the time of its release. The book ends with a retrospective contemplation of Capote's influence and place in American letters. Each chapter represents a cogent and concise snapshot of Capote's genius in a specific period, while the entire book becomes a journey through Capote's life, work, and demons placed within the context of American literary culture. Recommended for most libraries.