Herkes gibi bir sürü hedef koyarak başladığım 2019'da okuduğum ilk kitap yakın zamanda okumayı hiç hedeflemediğim bir kitap oldu ama iyi ki de böyle oldu. Yazarın Soğukkanlılıkla kitabı bu sene okumak istediklerimden. Onun öncesinde yazarın çoğunu gençlik döneminde kadın dergileri için yazdığı tüm öykülerini okumak çok güzel oldu. Aslında işe ilk Capote'nin 1950'lerin sonuna doğru Varlık Yayınları'ndan çıkmış Gece Ağacı isimli öykü kitabıyla başladım. O kitaptaki öyküleri sevince bu kitaba geçtim. Bana göre kitaptaki en güzel öykü Başsız Atmaca idi. Onun dışında sevdiğim öyküler Gümüş Damacana, Gece Ağacı ve Doğum Günlerinde Çocuklar. Kitaptaki 20 öykünün her birine 5 üzerinden not verdim. Ortalama notum 3.81 Capote sevdiyseniz bu öykülere de göz atmanızı tavsiye ederim.

(3.5? how does one rate collections?) i think master misery was my favourite. the atmosphere building, across all these stories, is like nothing else.

What a writer, amazing short stories! My Side of The Matter, Children on Their Birthdays, A Diamond Guitar are peculiar. Author proves himself yet again to be one of the best writers his generation produced.

haunting. many of these stories are whimsical, with a sense of foreboding that makes them incredibly beautiful and sad at the same time. the characters are often interesting in a creepy way: one of his favourite types seems to be young girls aged beyond their physical years, sometimes indecently knowing. other than this, of the works of Truman Capote i've only ever read Breakfast At Tiffany's, which is beautiful.

Es sorprendente que el autor de la objetiva, periodística, casi despiadada reconstrucción de un asesinato múltiple (A Sangre Fría) haya creado una colección de cuentos donde lo mas notable es su sensibilidad e intimidad. Cada cuento, que refleja pequeños momentos, memorias, encuentros, todos casi furtivos, algo etéreos, se cuenta con la delicadeza de un alma, quizá dolida, quizá hasta torturada, pero gentil y delicada. Uno tiene la impresión de ser un testigo involuntario, hasta indeseado, de pedazos de vida a los cuales uno no ha sido invitado, pero que es imposible obviar. Un buen descubrimiento.

If all the stories had been of the same calibre as ‘A Christmas Memory’ this would have been 5 stars. As it is the early pieces are too slight with dialogue as thick as molasses; later stories like ‘Mojave’ are hateful.

This is a hard one to rate because Truman Capote was one troubled guy.
In this collection there are different types of story - gothic-style creepy, humorous, profoundly sad - but common threads of deception, illusion, isolation, chaos; stories of people with no human connection, people being swindled, people at the mercy of their own compulsions or the confusion of their own minds, everyone dysfunctional and alone.

I stopped wondering why I was reading this when I got to A Christmas Memory, a beautiful poignant scrap of autobiography that made all the rest worthwhile. The three or four autobiographical stories in the book were my favourites by a long stretch, and helped explain the tone of the rest of his work.

He is a master story teller but his real strength still seems to be his true crime works. The one thing that held me up with this book was how long it has taken to read--each story needs to truly sink in before I could move on through to the next one which held up my book reading project. But it is very much worth the effort

Truman Capote was one of the great American writers of the 20th Century. It's a shame he didn't better utilize his talent.

This is a fine collection of Capote's short stories. Most have a glossy magazine feel to them, but they are well-crafted and interesting to read. The holiday stories are masterpieces.

Most of these stories I had read previously, in other collected works. Still, there were several new ones, especially several early ones, that I hadn't yet read. Soon, I will have read everything written by Truman Capote. Then I will be sad that I have nothing else to read by Truman Capote. Any suggestions?

A real range of stories, very unique and different yet all similar or connected. Some were tales of lost, troubled individuals told in a style that put me in mind of Catcher in the Rye. Some were tales of relationships and friendship. Some were lacking in tidy little endings that leave you to make up your own mind about what happened. Others neatly tied up with an ending that you didn’t see coming. Plenty of comeuppance, some shocking but all of them an enthralling study of life.

Because these are all or partly autobiographical little threads keep reappearing. Things like same names, same places to find a bogeyman, pop up in the separate stories. A girl in a beaver coat who lives with and older man who cooks nice food for her and a woman fallen on hard times selling her mink coat.
Many other descriptions, characters , names and images recur in the telling of these memories.

Highly recommended reading

I just liked it you see. I especially like all the stories with Southern settings. Not so much for the urban settings. Knowing this is my preference, I plan to read The Grass Harp.