Especially liked the rich-people-having-affairs stories hahah, but also appreciated the change of scenery with the shorts in the American countryside

Что всплывает в голове при имени Трумен Капоте, ну конечно же всеми известная книга «завтрак у Тиффани», а если быть точнее фильм и незабываемая Одри Хепбёрн, я часто задавалась вопросом , актриса ли «сотворила» писателя и вознесла фильм на пьедестал или же, история Капоте была столь превосходной? Прочитав «дороги ведущие в Эдем»- ощущение, что благодаря Одри, большинству так полюбился фильм, но была ли любима книга , если бы не Одри. Я знаю, что его произведения признаны литературной классикой, знаю, что по мотивам его книг снято более 20 фильмов. Мне кажется нужно быть большим любителем Трумена Капоте, чтобы наслаждаться прочитанным, возможно я отношусь так скептически к данной книге, после не являюсь поклонницей коротких рассказов, не люблю недосказанность и много пустоты. В данном случае, было и то и другое....
What emerges in the head gives u name of Truman Capote, well, of course, is the well-known book "breakfast at Tiffany's," and to be more precise the film and the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn, I often wondered if the actress "created" the writer and lifted the film on a pedestal, Or was the book of Capote was so excellent? After reading the "roads leading to Eden" - I had many thanks to Audrey, most people were so fond of the film, but would be the book so loved, if not for Audrey. I think You need to be a big fan of Truman Capote to enjoy what I've read, maybe I'm so skeptical about this book, after all I'm not a fan of short stories, I do not like understatement and a lot of emptiness. In this case, there was both.

4.5 stars

It was a real pleasure to read it. Read one Story, read them all, find the connections between them... A great puzzle waiting to be assambled by the Reader... An open window into TC's World...

Todos los cuentos de Capote son muy recomendables. Mi preferido es "Una guitarra de diamantes". Creo que es un cuento muy bueno.

just dandy

Es una maravilla cada cuento. Capote demuestra su versatilidad y talento en diferentes estilos los cuales terminan dejándote con sensaciones extrañamente satisfactorias. Creo que es el mejor cuentista que he leído y el tinte autobiográfico en los últimos relatos, así como la conexión entre ellos es simplemente perfecto.

Un excelente recopilatorio de cuentos que te dejarán en estado meditabundo. Sin duda, ha sido una delicia de lectura.

A great collection of stories. Observational, character driven, brilliant in style and tone. But I am a fan so I would probably be thrilled to read his grocery list had he written one. I re-read this collection once a year if for nothing else than the one of the best Christmas short stories, A Christmas Memory.

"A mensagem que me mandam limita-se a confirmar a notícia que uma qualquer recôndita veia dentro de mim já tinha recebido, essa notícia que amputa uma parte insubstituível de mim mesmo, deixando-a tão irremediavelmente perdida como um papagaio de papel cuja guita se partiu. É por isso que, nesta manhã de Dezembro, nesta manhã muito particular, ao atravessar o campus de uma escola, os meus olhos não largam o céu. Perscruto as alturas como se estivesse à espera de ver um par de papagaios perdidos - do feitio de corações- voando numa pressa a caminho do Céu."
Truman Capote, «Uma recordação de Natal» (1956)

I read this collection back in 2015 and made a note to return them at a later date free from my dislike of the Capote I came to know via TV as a teenager. I've just attempted to reread these stories and although I've read a sample from throughout the anthology I just couldn't read them all. Why? well the story 'Mojave' from 1975 (recommended and praised by Reynolds Price in his introduction) is symptomatic of everything that bores me in Capote's writing. There is superabundance of brand names and itemisation of de luxe objects, a sable coats with sable linning, lacquered floors, brass bookshelves 'a notion borrowed from Billy Baldwin' (seriously who remembered, or cared, about this absurd denizen of the best dressed list and 'walker' to rich and ugly women ten years after this story was published and both he and Capote were dead?). I am not horny-son-of-the-soil or the working class so my objection to all flim-flam is not ideological just aesthetic. They add nothing to the story only but plenty to our understanding of the vacuity of Capote.

Other stories like 'Children on their Birthdays' although early (1948) seem disturebingly misogynistic and the fact that details from this story reappear in 'Mojave' and 'A Diamond Guitar' suggests not ongoing motiffs but the collapse of his little talent as he mined his early work through laziness.

For me there is nothing in this collection that comes anywhere close to matching the power of stories like 'The Mystery of the Del Rio' by Tennessee Williams. Indeed if it was a choice of losing all of Capote's short stories or those Williams I would unhesitatingly discard Capote's.

One final observation. Capote introduces 'Hispanic' characters into a number of his stories but they never rise above the level of 'wetback sexual stud cliche' (how much light that throws on Capote's more intimate personal taste in the hustlers he employed I don't know) so it is interesting that in the USA his 'nonfiction' novel 'In Cold Blood' has spawned 'true crime' literature. It is Mexican and Spanish writers like Robert Bolano and Javier Cercas (and many others) who have used his technique to create great literature. I can't help feeling that this a cosmic joke on the little has been.

I've dropped a star and also shelved this as 'Disappointing' and 'a-waste-of-time' because there are so many other great writers and works waiting to be read.

My original review:

There are some splendid stories here but having grown up with the then living Capote as, so it seemed at times, almost a nightly visitor on the television chat shows in all his drunk and drug sodden glory (never mind his appearance in the execrable film 'Murder by Death') it is a struggle for me to appreciate him purely as a writer (OK I'll be honest he mortified me as a teenage closet case with fears that he represented what I was and even after I crawled out of the closet and abandoned my fears I still found him tiresome, bitchy and annoying).

But he did write some beautiful stories - though I honestly prefer Tennessee Williams, a much more beautiful person and writer whose stories have moved me to tears - Capote's don't do that for me.

One day I will sit down and read these again and maybe then I can approach them free of my prejudices against the author.

Truman Capote's writing is perfect. Not the least bit pretentious. He brings out the disappointments people and situations can bring, but he does so with such a quick and clever wit that you don't feel awful after reading. I would have been one of his fag hags.