Aunque a veces los relatos quedan algos deslavazados y es difícil seguir el hilo (debido a que solo se han encontrado tres capítulos no correlativos y también al "name dropping" constante), me ha parecido muy entretenido. Tiene mucha frescura, mala leche, puntos divertidos y es como un muñeca rusa de referencias e historias.

Obviously it’s unfinished, I don’t care and that has no bearing on my rating for the most part. I would be curious to see how he would’ve continued this novel. It reads a bit like a more crude, adult-ier version of The Catcher in the Rye….I don’t care for the plot or characters or main man. I do however really enjoy Capote’s writing. It’s rich and luxurious and playful and damn good.

La última novela inconclusa de Truman Capote, la fue escribiendo durante muchos años mientras el alcoholismo lo devoraba y minaba su salud física y mental. Naturalmente no es su mejor trabajo; pero no por eso dejaría de leerla.

Διαβάστε και την ελληνική κριτική στις βιβλιοαλχημείες.

«[...] there's nothing like [cocksucking] for firming the jawline.» p. 6
«[...] slide up honey and suck my that's it that's it let me hold your billy» p. 18
«"The only women I've got any use for are Mrs. Fist and her five daughters," There's much to be said for Mrs. Fist - she is hygienic, never makes scenes, costs nothing, is utterly loyal and always at hand when needed.» p. 19

Yeap, these are some random quotes from the beginning of this novel written by the author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote.

An unfinished, all over the place novel.
Truman Capote after spending a lot of time researching and interviewing people in order to prepare his nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, with his good friend Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird felt so drained that after publishing the book in 1966 he didn't manage to finish and publish another novel until his death in 1984. That's almost 20 years of nothingness.

He wrote some short stories and essays but that was all. The three chapters that comprise this unfinished novel were originally published as independent short stories in Esquire magazine, between 1965 and 1976.

There's isn't actually any plot. There's one main hero, a bisexual gigolo who wants also to be a writer, some kind of Capote's alter ego.
Many of the characters in this book are rich socialites, based on Capote's friends. By writing about and exposing their secret lives and scandals he eventually lost contact with most of them. Friends like Jackie Onassis, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams and more.

By the late sixties he was already in a maelström of drugs and alcohol abuse, a condition from which he never actually recovered.

You can feel it in this book. The narrator is spiteful and whiny. There's a lot of name dropping upon name dropping, people who were famous in the fifties and sixties and are now forgotten, buried under heaps of oblivion.

An unfinished book of 180 pages that has more characters and subplots than a 1080 book like The Lord of the Rings is easily forgettable.

BUT

I bought this book mainly as a collector. A hardback first US edition (1987) of Truman Capote's unfinished novel in mint condition. I'm glad I bought it for just €1. I'm glad I read it. I'm glad it's part of my collection. And that's it. It's not a book I will recommend. It's not a book that I liked. It's a book that I forgot 89% of what I've read from it 5 months later. I'm glad I read it. I'm glad I don't have to read it again.

Enjoyed reading it but it really was too little, too late. Camp, malicious, gossipy, meandering, this work only hints at the opus that it might have been.

It's an unfinished novel, so I can't be too harsh, but I'm not sure I understood what it was even about or what the controversy that surrounded it was about either. The whole thing is meant to scandalize the reader with details of gay prostitutes and people publicly urinating on others, or celebrities talking about who slashes their wrists, but there's no point. Just meant to shock without purpose. And not written well. After seeing Capote, it made me wonder if the author was just a deeply troubled person, desperate for attention at any cost.

Incomplete, but still often magnificent; hilarious, scabrous, beyond candid and often as accomplished as sentence writing gets.

Answered Prayers is one of the few works of Capote's I haven't read, this and Music for Chameleons, which is still on my list. If you have never read anything by Capote or have only read In Cold Blood, I'd advise you to steer clear of this one. Start with one of his short stories (may I suggest Children on Their Birthdays? Miriam is also good, very Southern Gothic, as is A Christmas Memory- that one made me ugly cry) or perhaps Breakfast at Tiffany's or Other Voices Other Rooms. This work is only really for the already established Capote fans, those who wouldn't mind much the unfinished nature of the work. And I admit, it's not his best. It's obvious the book was written by Capote at the end, something that made this a little hard to read at some places. Hate to say it, but Capote is the warning story to all young hopeful authors, one of the brightest stars in the literary world at one time, until the publication of his magnum opus In Cold Blood and then his subsequent downfall into self-destructive alcoholism. Nowadays, few know him as anything other than the In Cold Blood guy, with Breakfast at Tiffany's sustaining itself in popular conscious only due to Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly- how many know it even was a novella in the first place? But enough about the tragedy of Capote. What of the work here? Answered Prayers started out strong, very strong. I was invested in the character of PB Jones, a character who is causally unlikable and a bit deluded and just self-aware enough to understand that he is both deluded and unlikable. There was some very darkly humorous passages that got me laughing and the descriptions and Capote's way of setting up scenes were so vivid I could perfectly picture everything going on as if it was playing on a movie reel in my head (for some reason, I pictured it in Wes Anderson's film style, don't really know why). So if it had just been Unspoiled Monsters, this would be an easy 5 star book. Unfortunately, the book declined as it went on. The second chapter, whose name I'm blanking on for some reason, wasn't my favorite, as I wasn't too invested in the relationship between PB Jones and Kate McCloud. However, in that chapter's favor, it at least followed Unspoiled Monsters nicely. The last chapter, the infamous Cote Basque, was the weakest in my opinion. I wasn't that invested in what was going on and I wished it had more of a connection to the first two chapters. Alas, if only this book was completed. As it stands, Answered Prayers is interesting only to those who are familiar with him and his works, since, like most books by famous authors, it is heavily autobiographical (PB Jones is a fairly obvious author surrogate, and interestingly enough, one that says that Capote was at least a little self-aware by the writing of Answered Prayers and wasn't entirely a victim of his own narcissism). Answered Prayers is a shadow of what it could have been.

Read more like this review on my blog, http://www.bookwormbasics.blogspot.com

Me ha parecido súper aburrido. Lo mismo si conociera la gente de la que habla me resultaría más interesante pero al no hacerlo es solo un compendio de historias no hiladas entre sí donde se cuentan las vidas de gente, en mi opinión, nada interesante.
Eso sí, no creo que esté mal escrito pero la temática y el hecho de que esté inacabado hacen que para mí no merezca la pena a menos que conozcas bien la alta sociedad europea y estadounidense de la época.

Capote'nin ölmeden önce yazmaya başladığı, not defterlerinden derlenmiş, yarım kalan romanı.
Eşcinseller, biseksüeller, entellektüel çevreler, genelevler, sosyete partileri... tamamı Tanca'nın adı kötü anılan bi' barında Capote'nin alkolden ve uyuşturucudan pelteleşmiş hafızasında canlanır.

Capote, kendisinin de bi' dönem arasında bulunduğu cemiyet hayatının yüz kızartıcı gerçeklerini, tüm çıplaklığıyla ifşa ettiği bu notlarının ilk bölümlerini New York Times gazetesinde yayımlattıktan sonra magazin objektiflerine birlikte pozlar verdiği sosyeteden dışlanmış.

Roman üç bölümden oluşuyor. Sadece Capote'nin not defterlerinden derlenen bi' yarım-roman olmasından dolayı tamamı için bi' romanı roman yapacak konu bütünlüğünün olmamasına, yarıda kalan bi'çok karaktere rağmen Capote'nin sözcük duyarlılığına ve keskin zekâsına yeniden hayran olunabilecek bi' kitap diyebilirim.-yarım boy farkla.

Greta Garbo için şöyle diyor: "aklıma gelmişken, onu geçen gece Gunthers'de gördüm ve söylemem lazım ki bütün yapı, hava koşullarından epey yıpranmış bi' görünüm almış; kuru, cereyanlı, terk edilmiş bi' tapınak, Angkor cangılında kaybolup gitmiş gibi; yaşamın çoğunu hep kendini severek, hem de pek fazla sevmeden..."

«Mais lágrimas são choradas por súplicas atendidas do que por aquelas que não o são». Súplicas Atendidas, de Truman Capote, traz como aviso estes versos de Santa Teresa. Esta foi a obra derradeira de Truman Capote, a obra megalómana tantas vezes anunciada, ansiada por uns, temida por outros, e nunca concluída. Truman Capote tinha uma visão aguçada que transformava em palavras afiadas, contundentes flechas que iam certeiras ao cerne do alvo, que feriam e aliviavam. Este foi o romance que foi «considerado o mais famoso romance não publicado da literatura norte-americana».


Seria publicado em 1986, dois anos após a morte de Truman Capote, mais de 20 anos depois de A Sangue Frio, a obra com que atingira já a imortalidade, o romance de não-ficção, ou de jornalismo literário, narrativa literária feita de maneira jornalística, narrando factos reais. Mas poderá isso realmente ser possível, poderá um escritor escrever não-ficção? Não é isso a antítese da escrita literária? Para escrever não-ficção não teria um escritor que deixar de o ser? E um escritor consegue não o ser? Truman afirma que sim, os escritores de não-ficção afirmam que sim. Mas todas as palavras dos escritores são isso mesmo: ficção. Não são verdade nem mentira, são ficção.

Súplicas Atendidas, obra que devia ser a derradeira - ironia do destino - não seria a última obra de Truman Capote a ser publicada. Em 2006, Travessia de Verão, talvez o primeiro romance escrito por Truman Capote, resgatado pelo porteiro do prédio onde morava, e que ele abandonara numa caixa com diversos documentos, à beira do passeio do pequeno apartamento em Brooklyn, que ia deixar depois de ter conseguido melhores perspectivas financeiras, com a publicação de A Sangue Frio, que aquelas com que até então vivera.

Terão as súplicas de Truman sido atendidas? Sim, se consideramos que Súplicas Atendidas contribuiu sobremaneira para a queda, o falhanço, o abandono, a solidão, a depressão: foram estas as lágrimas que Truman teve que chorar. Truman Capote pretendia que Súplicas Atendidas fosse o equivalente a Em Busca do Tempo Perdido, de Marcel Proust, e seria um estudo do mundo dos ricos, da aristocracia da Europa e do Leste dos Estados Unidos, os mesmo ricos para quem Trumam organizava festas, e que o chamavam ao seu convívio. Os mesmos que o foram abandonando à sua solidão e depressão. Antes ou depois de ele próprio se ter abandonado?

O prazo de entrega foi sendo sucessivamente protelado; inversamente o adiantamento foi sendo sucessivamente aumentado. Em 1980 o valor a ser pago adiantadamente tinha subido para um milhão de dólares, a serem pagos aquando da entrega do livro. Nunca foi entregue. Publicado postumamente, Súplicas Atendidas entrou para a galeria dos grandes romances incompletos; grande romance em potência, demasiado incompleto para aquilo que foi sendo prometido. Era a obra derradeira, a a obra final, a magnum opus de Truman. Acabou - ironia dos destino - por nem ser a derradeira, nem a maior. A derradeira seria publicada 20 anos depois, a maior já havia sido publicada 20 anos antes.

Wanted to read this since it figures prominently in the last book I read, 'The Swans of Fifth Avenue'. Being unfinished, it suffers from being a bit disjointed, but still has enough to warrant the quick read.