Besides the Grass Harp there are other stories in this collection:

A Tree or the Night
Children on Their Birthdays
Shut a Final Door
Master Misery
Jug of Silver
Miriam
The Headless Hawk
My Side of the Matter

The thing about Truman Capote is he captures this atmosphere that swirls around my family. In my mother's side the lines that had members who raised me in my youth came from the south, the deep south, the south that talks more Suth'un when it is angry. . .that kinda Suth'un. . . so when I read TC, I'm back in my youth, sitting on a floor, watchin' grown ups (defined as anyone over 7).

His characters make sense to me, and don't trouble me, regardless of flaws, incompleteness or wrong-headedness. They are who they are. We all carry our hurts, usually our whole lives long, hugging them close like beloved teddy bears. Characters who work around self-imposed obstacles are as common as an old shoe. Fictions (dreams) v reality considerations abound, and as it is not a question on which I myself am ready to confidently land an answer, there's a patience waiting in between the words of this story for me.

Still, that said, Of all the stories, Grass Harp was my favorite. Collin, the Talbos, Catherine Creek, the Judge, Ida and her tribe of 15. . .the town. All of it. But most of all that old Grass Harp out beyond the cemetery, telling our stories. . . .

This collection of Capote short stories and a novella are set in either the rural south or N.Y.C. They were written between the late 40's and early 50's. Some of the characters are children, some misfits, some quirky but all interesting.

The novella, The Grass Harp, was one of my favorites. It was tender, warm and funny, probably the only short story or novella I have read that was humorous. The people and their relationships, the sleepy small town and the events of a 50's country town seemed so real. It had all the southern charm and simplicity of yesteryear, much like Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Rebellion and control were themes in the novella and a few other stories such as Master Misery, where the title character steals dreams,"steals them like he would steal your dolls or the chicken wings off your plate". These themes are also evident in A Tree of Night and Children on Their Birthdays.

Capote's stories seem to be taken from his own life. I don't think the authorship of these stories could be mistaken for anyone else. There is something particularly appealing about that.

Between the deceptively simple language and the rich characters, I loved this book. It made me think a lot about what it means to be a big city writer who left her heart in a small town.

This book offers Truman Capote’s novella The Grass Harp and his A Tree of Night and Other Stories . The novella is an endearing, sentimental homage to friendship and to being true to oneself. But it was the collection of eight short stories which were especially intriguing. Several were deeply disturbing ― if not horrifying ― explorations of fear, alienation, loneliness, our subliminal motivations, and our darker natures. Powerful descriptions, beautiful prose.

This review is only about The Grass Harp - I reviewed A Tree of Night separately …

Let me start this review with a sigh …. My God, this was a beautiful story …

Collin, the narrator, goes to live with his spinster cousins, Verena and Dolly, after both his parents have died … he grows up particularly attached to Dolly, a sweet but nervous woman who many call “slow,” and Dolly’s best friend Catherine, an African-American woman who lives in a shed in the garden … Verena is a harsh woman who owns several properties around town and is fixated on all the money she earns through dogged determination …

After a violent argument between herself and Verena, Dolly runs away with Catherine and Collin to a treehouse hidden in the forest near the cemetery … Verena calls the sheriff and the reverend to force Dolly and her companions to leave the treehouse and return home, but they prove unsuccessful … afterward, the group in the treehouse is joined by Judge Charlie Cool, who falls in love with Dolly, and Riley Henderson, a teenage boy whom Collin emulates …

This is a novella, only about 112 pages long, but it creates such an impact with its colorful characters and timeless, undulating plot … I was so fixated while reading it that my mom said I missed a rainstorm, which in the desert of Arizona is a big deal around here! But I was enthralled with Dolly’s growth from a timid, soft spoken old woman to a more confident woman who could finally make major decisions on how she chose to live her life …

I might have to read this book again right now … it’s that good …

You know, I realized I just can't get enough of Truman Capote. Wish he had written forever! His short stories are so poignant that it brings you to tears. A master of writing he makes you feel his characters so intensely. I loved "Master Misery" with such great lines as: "Dreams are the mind of the soul", "She is the recent victim of a major theft; poor baby, she has had her soul stolen" and "if one disappears from the world, then the world should stop" (something I have selfishly said many times!) Luckily for us still on this fragile planet, Capote may have gone, but his words will never dissappear, thank God!

I discovered Truman Capote with In Cold Blood. Then I gobbled up everything else I could find in the library. This is the book that first brought him fame, and introduced me to southern fiction. While he didn't "invent a genre" here, as he did with In Cold Blood, his voice was diaphanous and faintly perfumed, like Tennessee Williams in the pre-cocktail morning. In fact, I think Capote and Williams created that iconic atmosphere of humid sadness in a rocking chair, and the young misfit in a faded lace dress and sensible shoes. I don't like thinking about Capote in his later years, when he became a character in his own life, having all of the frailties but none of the vulnerabilities of the people he wrote about. But this book, and to a certain extent, Music for Chameleons as well, show him at his best: sensitive, imaginative and in control of his story, at least for a little while.

The Grass Harp is a lovely coming-of-age story about a teenager growing up with two older spinster women. Verena is a businesswoman while her sister Dolly maintains the house with her friend Catherine. Collin comes to live with them when his own parents die. He's particularly friends with Dolly. When she gets into a spat with Verena over the patent medicine she and Catherine make for dropsy, Dolly, Catherine, and Collin decamp to a treehouse at the edge of town.
The writing is wonderful, descriptive, and full of charming Southern characters. I didn't read the short stories included yet though I may get back to them. It's a very enjoyable read.

Când am auzit întâia oară de harfa de iarbă? Mult înainte de venirea acelei toamne timpurii când am locuit într-un salcâm. Fireşte, Dolly mi-a pomenit de ea, căci cine altcineva ar fi ştiut s-o numească astfel, o harfă de iarbă?
tDacă la ieşirea din oraş o apuci pe drumul care duce spre biserică, ajungi curând lângă un deal ce străluceşte ca o văpaie, plin de dale funerare, albe ca oasele, şi de flori cafenii, ofilite. E cimitirul baptist. Neamurile noastre, cei din familiile Talbo şi Fenwick, sunt îngropate acolo. Mama zace alături de tata, iar mormintele rudelor, douăzeci, sau poate mai multe, îi înconjoară ca rădăcinile târâtoare ale unui arbore de piatră. La poalele dealului se întinde un câmp acoperit cu iarbă indiană înaltă, care îşi schimbă culoarea o dată cu anotimpul. Duceţi-vă să-l vedeţi toamna, pe la sfârşitul lui septembrie, înroşit în lumina asfinţitului, când umbre stacojii ca para focului tremură deasupră-i şi când vânturile toamnei, mângâindu-i iarba veştejită, iscă atunci o melodie ca un suspin omenesc, o harfă de şoapte.
tDincolo de câmpie începe bezna din River Woods. Sunt sigur că adunam rădăcini prin pădure, într-o zi de septembrie, când Dolly mi-a spus:
t— O auzi? E harfa de iarbă. Ea spune întotdeauna o poveste, ştie poveştile tuturor oamenilor de pe deal, ale tuturor acelora care au trăit vreodată pe lumea asta, iar când o să murim o să spună şi povestea noastră.
tDupă moartea mamei, tata, care era comis-voiajor, m-a trimis să stau cu verişoarele lui, surorile Verena şi Dolly Talbo, două doamne necăsătorite. Mai înainte nu mi se îngăduise să calc la ele în casă. Pentru motive rămase neclare tuturor, Verena nu vorbea cu tata. Poate că i-a cerut să-l împrumute cu nişte bani, iar ea l-a refuzat, sau poate că l-a împrumutat şi el nu i-a mai dat niciodată banii înapoi. În orice caz, cearta trebuie să fi pornit din pricina banilor, fiindcă nimic altceva nu avea mai mare însemnătate pentru ei, şi mai ales pentru Verena, care era persoana cea mai înstărită din orăşel. Drugstore-ul, magazinul de confecţii, o staţie de benzină, o băcănie, o clădire cu birouri de închiriat, toate îi aparţineau, iar venitul obţinut de pe urma lor nu făcuse din ea o femeie cheltuitoare.

I have never read any of Truman Capote's books so figured it was about time. It was a free ebook so why not! Glad I did because his satire gave me many good laughs! His stories were both touching and funny. The Grass Harp was full of quirky characters, which I loved reading about and the short story Children on their Birthdays, whose characters I did not love so much, did however have me rolling on the floor in laughter at the end even though it was technically a rather sad ending...I love satire and a good laugh

This was my first introduction to Capote and has assured me I need not waste my time on any more. While I think he has good powers of description, I was baffled by his short stories—all seeming to turn on a moment when the main character feels some kind of inexplicable compulsion, or cannot speak/move, or makes decisions from a feverish/drunken haze (without being either drunk or fevered). Bizarre. Feel like I didn’t fully grasp the point of some of the short stories because they were so deeply rooted in a nihilistic, early postmodern type of outlook which makes all things subjective and temporary and unreal.

The only value I saw in the collection was The Grass Harp, for the thought that one must love small things truly before one loves big things deeply: "We are speaking of love. A leaf, a handful of seed— begin with these, learn a little what it is to love. First, a leaf, a fall of rain, then some one to receive what a leaf has taught you, what a fall of rain has ripened. No easy process, understand; it could take a lifetime, it has mine, and still I've never mastered it—I only know how true it is: that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life."

Everything else, I did not enjoy or subscribe to in the least.

Capote can write. He knows how to create atmosphere and characters. This short book is so well written, I like it a lot.