"Mollo" a metà.

L'interesse è nullo: la prosa d'autore in questo caso per me non è motivazione sufficiente per il proseguo.

Peccato perché non sono riuscita in questo 50% a trovare qualche argomento di connessione al motivo per il quale ho cominciato a leggerlo, ovvero la citazione di Santa Teresa che mi aveva solleticato.
“Si versano più lacrime per le preghiere esaudite che per quelle non accolte”.

Interessante la prefazione di Nicola La Gioia.

"¿Es posible, no estoy seguro, amar a alguien si lo primero que nos interesa es el provecho que podemos sacar de esa persona? Se podría argumentar que incluso las personas más decentemente emparejadas se vieron atraídas inicialmente por el principio de mutua explotación: sexo, protección, apaciguamiento narcisista; sin embargo, todo eso es trivial, humano: la diferencia entre esto último y la verdadera utilización de otra persona es la misma que hay entre las setas comestibles y las que matan: Monstruos Perfectos."

OMG

Unreadable. Name drop name drop name drop, uninteresting gay drama, gratuitous sexual content. Like Henry Miller but worse. Did Capote even intend on this being published?

Me gustaron mucho las primeras dos historias (mounstruos perfectos y Kate McCloud, de esta última me hubiese gustado que fuera un poco más larga,para saber como es que este gigolo término a su lado. No desapruebo la historia de la côte basque, es buena pero no, siento que le faltó ese algo.
Por otra parte es el segundo libro de Capote que leo, me sonreí porque recordé que me quedé con la misma sensación cuando leí breakfast at Tiffany's, libro en el cual tiene 3 historias,dos de ellas me fascinaron (breakfast y la guitarra de diamantes) y la última fue buena también pero no tanto.
Me temo que seguiré probando con Capote.

Filthy and socially scandalous book about an immoral bisexual so felt quite seen

NON SO COSA MI ASPETTO. SO CHE COSA MI PIACEREBBE ESSERE: UNA PERSONA ADULTA.



Il romanzo che avrebbe dovuto essere il suo capolavoro, la sua ricerca del tempo perduto, per sua esplicita intenzione e dichiarazione all’altezza di quell'illustre precedente.
E invece fu l’opera che lo rovinò, portandolo alla morte, gli amici di un tempo gli si rivoltarono contro, Truman fu ostracizzato e isolato, trasformato in reietto, alcolizzato e tossico (vodka e cocaina essenzialmente).
L’opera che non fu mai completata, oppure sì, ma nessuno lo sa, e nessuno l’ha vista e letta tutta intera.


Per festeggiare il grande successo di “A sangue freddo” Capote organizzo il Black&White Ball all’Hotel Plaza di New York. Era il 28 novembre del 1966. Ho invitato cinquecento persone e mi sono fatto 15 mila nemici fu il commento di Capote.

Preghiere esaudite uscì postumo nel 1987, Capote era morto da tre anni (1924 – 1984), e uscì nella versione che si presume incompleta.
Nel 1975 erano stati pubblicati a puntate sulla rivista Esquire i capitoli che conosciamo e fu come lanciare bombe a grappolo.
Capote era stato messo in guardia da alcuni amici, gli era stato predetto che le persone di cui scriveva si sarebbero riconosciute nelle sue parole e non avrebbero gradito – come puoi pensare che un insetto legga le opere del suo entomologo, gli fu profetizzato: andò avanti, fece uscire i quattro capitoli che conosciamo, e le reazioni furono di rifiuto e respinta totale, gli insetti non gradirono il lavoro del loro entomologo.


Truman Capote mentre accoglie gli invitati alle sua festa.

Capote rimase isolato, rifiutato da quel mondo e quella gente di cui aveva raccontato, nelle cui vite aveva per così dire immerso la penna.
Si affidò sempre più all’alcol e alla cocaina, completando la trasformazione fisica del camaleonte che fu: l’eterno adolescente dalla pelle diafana si trasformò in un buffo nano col testone. Solo la voce rimase identica, stridula, infantile.


Frank Sinatra e una giovanissima Mia Farrow, sua moglie da due anni.

Il protagonista di questo romanzo per capitoli è un gigolo, che vuole fare lo scrittore e intanto si guadagna da vivere facendo il massaggiatore.
Vive di espedienti, e così acquisisce attitudini insolite, tipo leggere alla rovescia (capacità che Capote possedeva, oltre a una memoria prodigiosa, al punto da fidarsi più di questa che degli appunti).
Una carogna, come si autodefinisce l’io narrante, nel quale non è difficile individuare lo stesso Truman: ma anche qualcuno che sa ascoltare e sa entrare in sintonia, dotato di rara empatia verso gente che sembra avere un solo desiderio, frantumare la giornata in tanti pezzi dorati, per la qual cosa l’alcol è viatico di base.


Henry Fonda con la quinta moglie Shirlee Mae Adams.

Purtroppo non è il capolavoro cui mirava il suo autore: è un bel libro, con squarci molto belli, ma non all’altezza di sue opere precedenti.
Direi che in queste pagine l’arte del gossip non s’illumina fino a trasformare sempre il gossip in arte.

PS
Quando Capote morì, a sessant'anni, Gore Vidal, caustico, commentò: Saggia mossa per favorire la sua carriera.


Candice Bergen balla con Truman Capote.


Gianni e Marella Agnelli.

This novel, if it can be called that, is a collection of the three chapters known to be completed out of the seven planned for Capote's Answered Prayers, a roman a clef send up of the jet set high society women he called his closest friends and confidantes. The narrator is P. B. Jones, former orphan raised by nuns and aspiring author turned bisexual prostitute/masseuse to the rich and famous, who's writing his memoir on notepads in a Manhattan YMCA years after his fall from high society. He describes in detail his months-long live-in prostitute arrangement with a thinly veiled Katherine Anne Porter (of all fucking people) whom he sleeps with to get his short story collection Answered Prayers published, cut abruptly short by an invitation to live in France with prostitute to the stars Denny Fouts, whom he drops off in rehab to run off with Kate McCloud and help her concoct a plan to kidnap her own children from her meanie "richest man in Germany" husband/benefactor.

The story is set up in the first two chapters but is cut off by the third chapter, originally intended to be the fifth chapter in the novel. This fifth chapter shows Jones having dinner with his friend Ina Coolbirth (based on real-life socialite Slim Keith) as she delivers him all the latest gossip of their world and says things like:

"That's what I meant when I told Princess Margaret it was too bad she didn't like fags because it meant she would have a very lonely old age. Fags are the only people who are kind to worldly old women; and I adore them, I always have, but I really am not ready to become a full-time fag's moll; I'd rather go dyke."

Included in Ina/Slim's gossip is the story of serial cheater Ann Hopkins (IRL Ann Woodward, wife of National Bank heir William Woodward) who murders her husband in cold blood and gets off clean after William's mom pays off the police and courts; the hot and hung Sidney Dillon (IRL CBS CEO Bill Paley) who cheats on his wife with an ugly wife of a former Governor and is almost found out after said Governor's wife intentionally menstruates on the bed to stain the sheets for Dillon's wife to find; the story of JFK's dad (no pseudonym here) sleeping with Ina Coolbirth/Slim Keith right after she had turned 18 in the Kennedy home with his wife and all his children in the house. Jones looks around the room and sees Jackie Kennedy dining with her sister, Ann Hopkins at another table making a public display of "atoning" by dining with a priest, and Gloria Vanderbilt and Carol Matthau gossiping together about their old friend's affair with J. D. Salinger. It's fucking hilarious. One-liner after one-liner.

The Mesdames [Gloria Vanderbilt] Cooper and [Carol] Matthau, having heard their fill, self-consciously prepared to depart.
Mrs. Cooper said: "D-darling, there's the most m-m-marvelous auction at Parke Bernet this afternoon—Gothic tapestries."
"What the fuck," asked Mrs. Matthau, "would I do with a Gothic tapestry?"
Mrs. Cooper replied: "I thought they might be amusing for picnics at the beach. You know, spread them on the sands."

The publication of this final chapter in Esquire magazine immediately ostracized Capote from all of these aforementioned socialite besties and is commonly seen as a direct cause of his turn to alcoholism and drug addiction. Ann Woodward committed suicide just days before the story was published presumably because she was shown an advance copy, and her two sons' later suicides were likely related. "I think Truman really hurt my mother," said Anderson Cooper on Capote's depiction of Gloria as a shallow dolt (in one scene, she doesn't recognize her own first husband when she runs into him in public). I can relish in the scandal and hilarity of these remnants of a novel now, but how does one reconcile that with the immense pain and loss caused by its publication? Should I really be concerned with how these now-dead enormously wealthy vain socialites felt by being publicly flayed for their private indiscretions? Why do they have to be made a public spectacle of? Why do I feel the need to sympathize for these violent, cruel, wealthy people of generations past? Why do I feel guilty for sympathizing with them?

I don't know how to answer any of these questions, but I do love that this novel has led me to ask them. The writing is lush and extravagant and I had an absolute ball reading this. Totes recommend.

.Answered Prayers: Truman Capote's unfinished novel of life among the low and high side of life

More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.--St. Teresa of Avila

Capote's Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel began as a series of notes in 1958. It was a project Capote kept under close wraps. It was not until January 5, 1966, Capote approached Random House signing a contract with an advance of $25,000 with a delivery date of January 1, 1968.

Capote described the novel as a Proustian bildungsroman of a contemporary nature, a kite string of characters drawn from real life. Capote, the great dissembler, had his Random House editor, Joe Fox, believing that as deadlines passed, he was progressing steadily on the book. Why, he was over half done. He described in detail chapters to be included in the book. Random House repeatedly raised advances in exchange for new completion dates. Ultimately, Capote was offered a Million Dollar advance with a completion date in October, 1978. The calendar's page was flipped and no novel produced, nor any advance paid.

n  n
Joe Fox, Random House Editor

Only three chapters of "Answered Prayers" are definitely known to exist. Random House in conjunction with the Truman Capote Literary Trust decided the three chapters possessed enough structure to be published. And published it was in 1987.

However, that was not the first appearance of the infamous three chapters. Capote struck a deal with Esquire Magazine to publish the three chapters. Fox and Capote argued endlessly over that amount of pre-publication exposure. However, Capote, ever assured of how to promote his own material insisted. It would be his downfall in New York High Society.

n  n

Capote dressed as an assassin on the May, 1976, issue of Esquire

SYNOPSIS, Chapter One, "Unspoiled Monsters"

Our protagonist is P.B. Jones, Capote's stand in. However, Capote was inclined to call him his evil twin. With his parents and stepfather dead, Capote viewed himself now as a true orphan. He portrayed himself as being born in a theater, abandoned by his mother, and raised by nuns in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jones learned the art of massage from a professional masseur and described himself as a Hershey Bar whore who would do anything for a piece of chocolate. Jones traveled to New York and successfully published a first novel titled, guess what, "Answered Prayers."

Jonesey, as he came to be called by his growing circle of friends, was sought out as a lover by the famous and infamous. He became an employee of the Self Agency, a service that provided sexual favors to men and women. Jonesey assured his employer he would do anything but "catch" as he suffered from hemorrhoids. Jonesey had no problem whether the client was male or female. His first client was a Mr. Watson. Watson first wanted Jonesey to walk his English Bull Dog in Central Park before retiring to bed for more recreational pursuits.

Although Capote never revealed the identity of Mr. Watson, Tennessee Williams disclosed his own identity by claiming that Capote was a Goddamned liar and he didn't even have an English Bulldog. Capote never said he did.

n  n

Perhaps Williams borrowed the dog

Another client,was Alice Lee Langham, actually Katherine Anne Porter. Capote based the sections on the exploitation of Ms. Porter by another writer Bill Goyen whom Capote's biographer Gerald Clarke described as a writer of mediocre talent but whose reputation was boosted by his attachment to Ms. Porter.

Quite differently from his other works, Capote is frankly sexual in "Answered Prayers." From his visit with Ms. Langham:

"That's better better and better Billy let me have billy now that's uh, uh, uh, it that's it only slower slower and slower now hard hard hit it hard ay ay los cohones let me hear them ring now slower slower dradraaaaagdrag it out now hit hard hard ay ay daddy Jesus Jesus goddamdaddyamighty come with me Billy come! Come!

How can I when the lady won't let me concentrate on areas more provocative than her roaring roiling undisciplined persona?"

n  n
Katherine Anne Porter

Jonesey is then offered his first trip to Europe complete with ticket on the Queen Mary by Denham Fout, who was known as "the best kept boy in the world." Denham frightened Jonesey because of his addiction to drugs which ultimately snared Capote.

n  n

The Best Kept Boy in the World

Ironically Fouts died taking a cure for his addiction. He suffered a heart attack at age thirty six. His death was further undignified by the fact that he spun off this mortal coil while perched on the John.

Capote closes out "Unspoiled Monsters" in a spirit of disaffection for the life he has led.

Synopsis: Kate McCloud

Of all his heroines, perhaps Kate McCloud was closest to Capote's heart. Older than Holly Golightly, Kate is a wild thing that cannot be held. Capote originally modeled her on Pamela Churchill, a well known socialite. However as his chapter grew he adapted Cappy Badrutt, an infamous gold digger of the sixties and seventies.

n  n

Capote's Kate McCloud, Cappy Badrutt

"Kate! McCloud! My love, my anguish, my Gotterdammmerung, my very own Death in Venice: inevitable, perilous as the asp at Cleopatra's breast."n

Jonesey is first introduced to Kate as a masseur. She drops her thin negligee and lies naked on the massage table. As Jonesey goes about his work he has to excuse himself for a quick trip to the john to relieve himself. When he returns, Kate' coyly asks, "Feeling better?" And it is in this chapter we learn that the perfect way to maintain a firm jaw line is to suck cock.

Jonesey is not unaware of Kate's faults. He exclaims, "Christ, if Kate had as many pricks sticking out of her as she's had stuck inside her, she'd look like a porcupine."

"Kate McCloud" turns into something of a suspense thriller when Jonesey becomes her bodyguard to kidnap her child being withheld from her by a German Count named Jaeger. The chapter ends on a whimper, leaving the reader to wonder what happened to the concluding chapter.

Synopsis: La Cote Basque

This chapter is a piece totally set inside La Cote Basque, operating from the 1950s to its closing in 2004. Upon its closing, the New York Times described it as the former high temple for high society with a yen for French cuisine.

n  n

60 55th Avenue, New York, New York

Capote blew the lid off high society with the final installment of "Answered Prayers." While having lunch with "Lady Ina Coolbirth," actually longtime friend Slim Keith, who had been stood up for lunch by the Duchess of Windsor, Capote is treated to all the secrets of the rich and famous in the room, from a philandering husband who has sex with a menstruating woman while his wife is away and finds there are no clean sheets to pointing out a possible murderess who killed her husband with a shotgun, alleging she believed he was a burglar.

n  n

Secrets are best kept from Slim Keith

Upon the release of the chapter, the alleged murderess committed suicide by taking an overdose of Seconal. Capote was on the outs. He was ostracized.

In Clarke's biography, he attributes to Capote the following:

All a writer has for material is what he knows. At least, that's all I've got--what I know.

But at night, when he had been drinking, he would break into tears. "I didn't mean to hurt anybody. I didn't know the story would cause such a fuss."

Yes, in truth, more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.

There remains an unsolved mystery surrounding "Answered Prayers." What happened to the rest of it? The theories are plentiful. It's locked in a safety deposit box waiting to be discovered. Capote destroyed it. Capote never completed it after the furor resulting from the publications of the excerpts in Esquire. A lover stole it out of revenge. It is a question that may never be answered. Perhaps it is an unanswered prayer.

"Is it—I'm not certain—possible to love someone if your first interest is the use you can make out of him? Doesn't the gainful motive, and the guilt accruing to it, halt the progression of other emotions? It can be argued that even the most decently coupled people were initially magnetized by the mutual-exploitation principle—sex, shelter, appeased ego; but still that is trivial, human: the difference between that and truly usinganother person is the difference between edible mushrooms and the kind that kill: Unspoiled Monsters." (22-23)

Only the third and final part of what is now known as Answered Prayers was published in Truman Capote's lifetime. La Côte Basque came out in Esquire magazine in 1965, and instantly turned Capote—a celebrity through the success of his writing—into a social pariah. It is not hard to see why. Capote envisioned Answered Prayers as his magnum opus—a towering chronicle in the vein, if not the spirit, of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Unlike other great sagas, this was to be a roman-à-clef; yet the veil was hardly there, and the persons depicted, if not actually by name, knew precisely who they were. Capote's society friends were shocked, then, to find themselves and their dirty secrets so blatantly exposed. Whether or not Capote miscalculated the implosive effect that La Côte Basque would have, the full novel never materialized. There is some speculation about its existence in the first place—perhaps Capote never completed the other chapters (although some claim to have had other chapters read to them by Capote). What is left, or what was made, of the sprawling chronicle that Capote envisioned is published here as Answered Prayers (with the exception, I have since learned, of some previously unseen manuscript pages. In short, the incomplete novel, which includes two chapters prior to the one published in Esquire—Unspoiled Monsters and Kate McCloud—raises more questions than it can answer. It is a lively, living, messy work, at times endearing in its honesty. There is brilliant storytelling with some cruder attempts at shock thrown in. All in all, it is unforgettable. The story of Kate McCloud is especially great and haunting; it stands on its own among the many sub-stories told throughout Answered Prayers. I won't rate the overall work; it wasn't finished by Capote, and wasn't meant to be judged as it now stands.

By now, you all know I'm obsessed with Truman Capote.

So lets talk about his infamous unfinished novel, Answered Prayers.

For years, the publication date for this book kept getting pushed back. There are so many theories surrounding why this book was never finished. Personally, I don't think he ever intended to finish writing it. He even makes jokes in the very first chapter that he may never get around to finishing it. But regardless of how many stories were lost, or destroyed, or whatever may have happened, Answered Prayers contains three fantastic stories.

Answered Prayers follows a fictionalized version of Capote, as P.B. Jones. This character seems to be hellbent on writing a novel that exposes all the secrets of his closest friends. It's filled with sex, alcohol, and socialite drama. "Unspoiled Monsters" dove headfirst into the sex fueled "service station" that made Jones start selling his body. "Kate McCloud" was basically Holly Golightly 2.0. The depression, the anxiety, the worldview. But it embraced the queer undertones in a not so subtle way, quite the opposite in n  Breakfast at Tiffany'sn. But "La Cote Basque" really brought the gossip to the table. Lady Ina wasn't afraid to tell Jones the goings-on in their upper-crust circle.

Now, I'm well aware that this book fractured many of Capote's friendships, but I don't believe that's why he stopped writing the book. I think the drugs and alcohol, mixed with blatant honesty about his life caused him to stop writing. I really think this was it for him. His life's work became an illusion of truth.

Tons of Truman Capote book reviews can be found at A Reader's Diary!

A veces me pregunto si a día de hoy alguien podría sacar un libro parecido con los mamoneos actuales, pero me acuerdo de que estamos en plena movida del rodaje de 'Don't Worry Darling', y se me pasa: por supuesto que se podría sacar, pero a ver quién coño quiere volver a ser condenadx al ostracismo.

Varias frases que me han parecido imprescindibles para la trama:

«Yo sabía que era un hijo de puta, pero me perdonaba a mí mismo, ya que al fin y al cabo, era un hijo de puta nato, un joven con talento que sólo estaba comprometido con su talento».

[En mitad de una conversación con Colette]: «Consérvelo [un pisapapeles] como un recuerdo de que ser duradero y perfecto, ser de hecho un adulto, es ser un objeto, un altar, una figura en una vidriera de colores: una cosa apreciable. Sin embargo, es mucho mejor estornudar y sentirse humano».