Like Harper Lee, her friend Truman Capote had a book or two that he drafted and then abandoned, this one being the one he never meant to be published.  As with Ms. Lee, someone decided to publish Capote's unfinished business anyway.  It's  short  and quickly  over, so little time to fret over it.

I greatly enjoyed it.  There isn't much plot or character development, but that man knew how to put a beautiful sentence together.  The ending is one I didn't see coming and left me wondering what will happen next, until I realized I knew without a doubt.

Excepțională!! Cartea a vibrat in mintea mea pe măsură ce o citeam rămânându-i ecoul mult după ce am terminat lectura. Mai profundă decât Mic dejun la Tiffany, am sorbit-o cat de repede am putut.

Grady, o adolescentă bogată, rebelă și neconvențională, face parte dintr-un triunghi amoros idilic. Soarta protagonistei se dovedește a fi nefastă din cauza alegerilor ei nesăbuite.

“ În general, lumea o privea, unii o priveau pentru ca sugera genul de tânără atrăgătoare căreia ti-ar face plăcere să-i fii prezentat la o petrecere, alții pentru ca știau ca este Grady McNeil, fiica unui om important. Și mai erau câțiva, puțini, ale căror priviri erau reținute dintr-o altă rațiune: pentru ca, sub aerul ei de voință și de farmec privilegiat, intuiau ca e o fata căreia urma să i se întâmple ceva.”

Rămas până după moartea autorului la stadiul de manuscris, cartea este o capodoperă!

Δείτε επίσης και στο Chill and read

Το «Καλοκαιρινό Ταξίδι» είναι ένα από τα πρώτα δείγματα γραφής του Τρούμαν Καπότε που όμως έμελλε να είναι και το τελευταίο του που εκδόθηκε. Εκτός αν βρεθούν κι άλλα χειρόγραφα καταχωνιασμένα σε κάποιο συρτάρι. Ο διάσημος συγγραφέας έγραψε ένα βιβλίο ενηλικίωσης με ηρωίδα μια κοπέλα της κοινωνίας που γνώριζε καλά.

Καλοκαίρι στη Νέα Υόρκη και η οικογένεια Μακ Νιλ ετοιμάζεται για ένα ταξίδι στην Ευρώπη. Ευκαιρία να δουν σε τι κατάσταση έχει αφήσει ο πόλεμος το σπίτι τους στη Νίκαια. Βέβαια, η μεγάλη κόρη Μακ Νιλ δε θα ακολουθήσει τους γονείς της. Θα περάσει το καλοκαίρι με το σύζυγο και τα παιδιά τους στο Ανατολικό Χάμπτον. Όμως φέτος, ούτε η μικρή κόρη Μακ Νιλ θα ακολουθήσει τους γονείς της στην Ευρώπη. Θέλει να περάσει το τελευταίο καλοκαίρι πριν το ντεμπούτο της στη Νέα Υόρκη. Όχι ότι σκέφτεται σοβαρά να κάνει το ντεμπούτο της, αλλά είναι καλύτερα να το λύσουν αυτό το θέμα με τη μητέρα της, όταν οι γονείς Μακ Νιλ επιστρέψουν από την Ευρώπη.

Η Γκρέιντι θα περάσει το καλοκαίρι της στο τεράστιο αλλά τόσο γνώριμο διαμέρισμα της οικογένειας Μακ Νιλ με θέα το πάρκο. Θα έρθει αντιμέτωπη με παιδικές φιλίες που ωριμάζουν, μια αρκετά περίεργη και άστατη ερωτική σχέση και το γεγονός πως έχει γεννηθεί, μεγαλώσει και θα συνεχίσει να υπάρχει μέσα σε ένα περιβάλλον ασφάλειας και σιγουριάς για το μέλλον. Αυτό που της εξασφάλισε ο πατέρας της και το όνομα αλλά και η περιουσία που δημιούργησε.

Σίγουρα δεν είναι το πιο ώριμο έργο του. Δεν είναι κάτι παραπάνω από ένα πρώτο δείγμα γραφής που βρέθηκε σε τέσσερα τετράδια και που οι επιμελητές της έκδοσής του φρόντισαν όλο αυτό να βγάζει νόημα, αφήνοντας το κείμενο όσο πιο παρθένο γινόταν. Αν η επιμέλεια ήταν πιο διεξοδική, θα κατέληγε ένα κείμενο ξένο στα γραπτά του Καπότε και κανείς δε θα το ήθελε αυτό. Μέσα από αυτό το πρίσμα μπορεί κανείς να δει και να αντιληφθεί πως μπορεί να μην πρόκειται για το καλύτερό του βιβλίο, έχει όμως τη φωνή του, ίσως αυτή την πιο πρωτόγονη φωνή του, που δεν την έχει διορθώσει ούτε καν ο ίδιος.

Η ιστορία που θέλει να πει έχει το ενδιαφέρον της. Είναι τα χρόνια μετά τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο. Είναι η κοινωνία στην οποία ανήκει η ηρωίδα του, αυτή με την οποία συνδιαλέγεται αργότερα και ο ίδιος και φτάνει να τη γνωρίζει καλά. Οι άνθρωποι που τους ανήκει η Νέα Υόρκη, αν όχι ο κόσμος όλος. Μια κλεφτή ματιά στη ζωή τους στην εποχή για την οποία γράφει ο Καπότε, πολύ φοβάμαι πως δεν απέχει πολύ από μια σημερινή ματιά. Και είναι όλα αυτά που θέλει να πει μιας και ο ίδιος δεν απέχει και τόσο πολύ από την ηλικία της ηρωίδας του όταν γράφει αυτή τη νουβέλα. Δεν ξέρω αν η απόφαση να εκδοθεί το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είχε να κάνει καθαρά με το κέρδος ή αν ήταν μια απόπειρα να διαβάσουμε ένα «φρέσκο» γραπτό του συγγραφέα είκοσι χρόνια μετά το θάνατό του.

His first book. It seems a bit unfinished.

"Non si lasciano le persone, si lascia solo se stessi"

Grady McNeil, diciassettenne, è la bella figlia di un facoltoso newyorkese. Clyde è un ventitreenne un po’ frivolo di famiglia modesta, veterano di guerra senza un soldo che lavora in un parcheggio. I due si incontrano, si scoprono e quasi per gioco si innamorano. E quando Grady riesce a rimanere a New York da sola tutta l'estate i due si godono, senza più i limiti imposti dai genitori perbenisti, la loro storia d’amore. Mentre Clyde si ritrova in un lussuoso appartamento con una ragazza intelligente e sveglia, Grady scopre la genuinità di Clyde, che proviene da un ambiente in cui i sentimenti valgono più del conto in banca.

Con lui Grady trascorre l’estate, anche se "era sempre stata consapevole che lui non poteva essere cucito nella trama concreta del suo futuro. Anzi, forse era proprio per questo che aveva scelto di innamorarsi di lui: quella storia doveva essere il fuoco dell’anno prima, destinato a riflettersi sulla neve che presto sarebbe caduta".

Impossibile non collegare Grady con Holly, la protagonista di “Colazione da Tiffany”, di cui possiede alcuni tratti caratteriali, quali l’amore per la trasgressione e la ribellione alle regole.

Grady a un certo punto dice ”che non le è nemmeno venuto in mente di domandarsi se sposerà Clyde,” perché pensa che questo genere di cose riguardi la gente adulta: "Il matrimonio era una cosa che poteva verificarsi solo molto più avanti, quando sarebbe cominciata la vita grigia e seria, perché per lei, ne era assolutamente sicura, la vita vera non era ancora iniziata; in quel momento, invece, vedendosi triste e pallida nello specchio, si rese conto che era già cominciata da un pezzo".

Capote, che ha scritto questo romanzo all’età di diciannove anni, ha la capacità di prendere un soggetto complesso, indagarlo e descriverlo con una prosa perfetta, mettendo in luce i lati più nascosti dell’animo umano con semplicità, senza drammatizzare e giudicare. Grady è la protagonista indiscussa della vicenda, essendo esempio di immaturità, incoscienza ed infelicità.

"la maggior parte della vita è così noiosa che non vale nemmeno la pena di parlarne, e ciò è vero a qualsiasi età".

E’ il primo romanzo di Capote, ma nonostante metta già in mostra le capacità dello scrittore, non è certamente il suo romanzo migliore. È un romanzo romantico, triste e amaro con un finale duro, anche se un po’ troppo rapido.

Two decades after Capote's death, along came Summer Crossing, his unpublished first novel, written when he was barely out of his teens. It was supposedly left behind in his abandoned Brooklyn flat after the huge success of In Cold Blood. In the afterward of this book there is uncertainty as to whether he wanted it published at all. In 2005 after Philip Seymour Hoffman portrayed Capote quite brilliantly, there was a surge in reading him again, so it's unsurprising that the deceased author's publishers decided to cash in. It bothers me somewhat when unfinished drafts are published after the writer is no longer here, unless of course a forgotten masterpiece is unleashed upon the world. Sadly, this short novel is far from being that, but there are flashes of the marvelous writer he turned out to be.
His prose here and there is glorious, and the seventeen-year-old central character of Grady McNeil feels like a lighter drawn version of Holly Golightly: dazzling in the eyes of those around her, but spiraling into a mode of self-destruction.

Grady is inebriated by a great freedom as well as by booze, after her parents travel abroad to check out their villa on the Riviera, leading Grady on a path to every parent's worst nightmare: a teenager gone wild. After hanging out with childhood friend Peter Bell (who wishes he could marry her) she falls for someone who is clearly of a completely different class, a poor Jewish car-park attendant from Brooklyn named Clyde, who also happens to be a homophobic macho war veteran. And it's here that Capote really struggles as to how to portray Clyde, who is a world from the likes of Grady and Peter. There is a moment when one is trying to seduce the other in her parent's swanky Fifth Avenue apartment but it all comes across as rather unsexy in the end. Over the course of the summer we meet family and lower-class friends of Clyde, who can be seen as caricatures, revealing Capote's disdain for the class which he sprang from. One thing Capote does excel on though, is his sensuous evocations of New York at the time, with the wonders of Broadway, the clubs, the parties, the feeling this really is a city that never sleeps.

As a first try at fiction, overall, it wasn't bad at all. But if Breakfast at Tiffany's is a lively cocktail you would want to drink again and again, then Summer Crossing would be something more along the lines of a weak sparkling wine: bubbly, sharp, but not memorable on the palate.

En tule muistamaan tästä postyymistä teoksesta mitään enää ensi viikolla. Ymmärrän, että Capoten tuntijoille kiinnostava, mutta kaltaisilleni ei tarjoa paljoakaan hullaannuttavaa. On nuoruus ja nuoren sydämen oikut, on luokkia ja niihin liittyvää, mutta ei kuitenkaan mitään poikkeuksellista.

Whilst Truman Capote’s Summer Crossing was the first novel which the author penned, it was discovered posthumously, and was first published in 2005. The executors of his will were in two minds about whether it should be made readily available to the public, and I for one am so glad that it was. I feel privileged to be able to read Capote’s work in all of its forms, but there is something about Summer Crossing almost being hidden from public eyes which makes me all the more thankful to have been able to engross myself into the story.

Summer Crossing is set in post-World War II New York. The focus is upon a seventeen-year-old girl, ‘a young carefree socialite’ named Grady McNeil. Her parents go off to England – thus taking the ‘summer crossing’ of the novel’s title – and leave her alone in their Fifth Avenue penthouse for the summer. The blurb succinctly described how this impacts upon Grady’s life: ‘Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she’s been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her’.

Even before I began to read, I was expecting to find a heroine like Breakfast at Tiffany's quirky Holly Golightly. There are similarities between Grady and Holly, of course, but Grady is also something wholly original – she is a distinct character in her own right, who has been built to perfection and comes to life before the very eyes. She is a vivid creation, and one who dances around in the mind for weeks after the final page of her tale is closed. Capote launches into her family dynamic immediately, and so much is learnt about the characters in just the first few pages in consequence. The friction which exists between Grady’s parents, and her elder sister Apple, has been perfectly portrayed – so much so that we are aware of it straight away. The social and gender inequalities which he points out as the plot gathers speed help to ground Grady’s story in place and time. Capote’s understanding of the human psyche comes across as intelligently as is possible on the page.

I adore the premise of Summer Crossing, and would have been thrilled to come across it if it had been by another author. The mere fact that it was penned by Truman Capote, however, put it on something of a pedestal to me, and I was so excited to see how such an intriguing storyline would work when coupled with his beautiful and distinctive writing in its earliest stages. The Modern Library edition’s blurb calls it a ‘precocious, confident first novel’; to an extent it is, but upon reading it, it feels like so much more. Whilst it is slim – the edition which I read ran to only 126 pages – it touches upon so many themes, and its plot is constructed of a weight of layers, each of which comes together beautifully upon its conclusion.

As I invariably am, I was struck by Capote’s writing throughout Summer Crossing; his descriptions particularly hold such beauty: ‘whose green estimating eyes were like scraps of sea’, ‘bones of fish-spine delicacy’, ‘dream-trapped faces’, ‘joyful dark’, and ‘evening effigies embalmed and floating in the caramel-sweet air’ are just a few examples. The way in which Capote uses words is masterful; he builds scenes in such a stunning manner, and ensures that everything he describes is as vivid as it can possibly be. For a debut novel, Summer Crossing feels incredibly polished, and wonderfully wrought. I was swept away into the story from the very first page. It is fascinating to see how Capote has developed as a writer from these beginnings, but this novel is just as strong, surprising and well-plotted as his later work.

"Toward midafternoon, as the heat closed in like a hand over a murder victim's mouth, …"

I did not like the story, which isn't to say I disliked it; I thought it was barely OK. There were, however, certain aspects of the story I did dislike. Particularly, the ephebophilic relationship between Grady of 17 years and Clyde of well over 20. Capote writes with a good deal of style, in fact, I think he gets a bit carried away with "Toward midafternoon, as the heat closed in like a hand over a murder victim's mouth, …" and "Naomi, scholarly and bourgeois as a napkin ring, …."

I wouldn't recommend Summer Crossing just for itself, but you like/are interested in an early Capote work, you'll likely find this interesting.

A frivolous novel about very little.

I adored this book. It may not be as polished as many of his later works, and some of the characters not half as developed, but it's a nice little novella to read on a warm, sunny afternoon, and there are some moments within it that are simply magical, written so beautifully that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

Although some may argue that there are not nearly enough of these moments to make reading the book worthwhile, I would argue that its rough and ready nature is what makes it so alluring.

Grady McNeil is something a bit different by way of a heroine, and she seems to have very little knowledge of what she wants and what she needs, but she is enticing enough for the reader to be completely absorbed in her world.

The ending is confusing, and not quite in keeping with the rest of the novel, but maybe this could be because Mr. Capote had no idea where to take it, and so he just allowed it to reach a rather literal dead end.

We will never know, but although hardly his best work, there's something abit magical in every page of this book.

Skip it.