I travel Capote's world mostly for the words. Yes, there is plot, characterization, mood, beginnings, middles, and ends (although some of those ends are quite abrupt). If his world is, at times, wistful, sometimes silly, sometimes fantastical, often cold, then, all the better because they are made that way through his exquisite use of words--the simpler the better.

This is why I read Capote: "...a field of high Indian grass that changes color with the seasons: go to see it in the fall, late September, when it has gone red as sunset, when scarlet shadows like firelight breeze over it and the autumn winds strum on its dry leaves sighing human music, a harp of voices."

"She was one of those people who can disguise themselves as an object in the room, a shadow in the corner, whose presence is a delicate happening. ...Pulled and guided by the gravity of Verena's planet, we rotated separately in the outer spaces of the house."

"...the kitchen was warm as a cow's tongue."

"...Alaska--well, it was fun for an old man sitting alone listening to the noise of a clock."

"...like two children lost in a witch-ruled forest..."

"...Big Eddie Stover was legally born a bastard; the other two made the grade on their own."

"...drugstore slander..."

"...he was a fat cigar of a man..."

Yes, I know. Without context the quotes probably don't stand well on their own. But, for context you have to read the collection. And, you won't be disappointed.

THE GRASS HARP by Truman Capote -- Capote's short novel is an example of his wonderfully descriptive and elegant use of language, his strong characters, and an engaging, entertaining plot developed over an economy of words. Colling is the young boy who narrates, and there are two elderly sisters, Aunt Dolly and her African American friend Catherine. They and their friend Judge Cool leave their homes and take up residence in a tree house. The towns people find this difficult to accept and unheard of and force them to finally give up their new residence. This is a story about the characters searching for and finding their own identities and their search for and finding love. A good Capote read.

Truman Capote is a strong writer and the first story in this series of short stories starts very sweetly about three endearing misfits — an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies—who one day take up residence in a tree house ... but overshadowing everything is sadness for missed opportunities and fractions within the family. It ends sadly and, rather sadly, most of these stories are pretty dark when you get around to it. Not what I expected and not the best for the holidays.

capote really wrote in cold blood and said “alright that’s enough interesting writing for my career”

The Grass Harp and other stories

I liked the author's writing style but have to be honest that I didn't understand the point of the short stories that followed "The Grass Harp." There was no ending to them really and they were weird. If I was in a writing class and had to write about the stories and what they meant, I'm afraid I'd fail the class! I'll definitely read more books by Capote just to see what they're like.

How much is the reader’s state of mind a valid component in the review of a book? It must play some part. For me, the older I get, the harder it is to dismiss my own presence in the experience of reading an author’s work. This was beautifully written; there were many moments when I paused to appreciate Capote’s craft. Glimpses of the joy that comes from exposure to art. And yet.... I found this hard going. There was just too much southern ‘gentility’ for my taste. And by southern gentility I mean sexism, and racism, and classism. The stories set outside of the south were a little better, and perhaps I would have appreciated them more if I’d taken a break after The Grass Harp.
So I’m left unsure of how I feel, or how to rate this book. 3 feels like an insult to his talent, 4 feels like a dismissal of just how turned-off I often felt.

I'm inclined to give this collection of stories only 2 stars, because I trudged through it unwillingly and was mostly bored. Of a 100-page novella and 8 short stories, I only cared for one story, "My Side of the Matter." It was really funny and made sense to me. The other stories were either confusing, pointless, or both. "The Grass Harp" would have worked as a short story, but its 100 pages adds so much needless rambling that it becomes pointless. I'll bump the collection up to 3 stars because my overall impression is of a good writer, perhaps not at his very best here.

Perhaps the favorite southern fiction book I've read so far. So beautifully descriptive. Everything - the pacing, the characters, the style. It's just such a vivid book. One of those in which you experience sensory images long after turning the last page.

Capote understood the child trying to adjust to living with and understanding two single bewildering aunts he's been thrust upon. And he wrote that child's viewpoint of those aunts and their house so well.

Recommended as a summer read - with the windows open & the insects singing.

A few years back, I thoroughly enjoyed Breakfast at Tiffany's, but fell in love with the accompanying short story A Christmas Memory: an exquisite tale of plutonic love - and heartbreaking friendship - between an elderly woman and a young boy.

The Grass Harp reads much like a full-length variation, and I couldn't have been more taken in and swept away by its prose, wisdom, and generosity of spirit.

Lovers of Cather's glorious My Antonia will not be disappointed, this is a perfect story, masterly told.

However, I found the short stories here less successful: too full of madness and vitriol for my liking (with the exception of A Tree of Night, Master Misery, and Jug of Silver).

The Grass Harp: 4-stars

After a failed attempt to listen to The Grass Harp on audio, I purchased this book and began again. I am quite glad that I did, since the beauty of the language minus the fake Southern accent is remarkable. I loved the Truman Capote I heard in my own head, with the softness of the accents of my own Aunts Pearl and Maybelle echoing in the words of Miss Dolly.

The audaciousness of the concept of a boy and two old women living in a tree is lost in the genuine delight of the image Capote paints--the defiance of those who are the weaklings in the eyes of everyone else in this town. Dolly is a marvelous character, but Catherine made me smile almost every time she spoke. I could see her, hands on hips, calling Verena “That One”.

Capote achieves a lot in a short time. With less than 100 pages in which to tell a fairly complicated story, he says exactly what needs to be said and wastes not a word. Quite an accomplishment. He also manages to incorporate a real humor and a poignant sense of loneliness into this brief moment in a bunch of fractured, and perhaps wasted, lives.

I intend to read the other stories in this collection, but not right now. Hoping to come back soon and complete the review. Meanwhile, I have rated this book with only The Grass Harp in mind.

n  The Grass Harpn is the major part of this collection of stories by Truman Capote. I liked it best, but I was glad for the lesser stories to compare it to.

Although I never cared for him in his public appearances, there's no doubting he's a great writer. And n  The Grass Harpn exhibits all his gifts with language, characterization, and story telling. But I enjoyed about the book was its contentedness, its generosity of spirit. And it was the contrast with the other stories that brought that out. Capote could tell stories of the most odd Southerners. I have no doubt he me people like the ones he writes about, but I didn't enjoy reading about most of them.

There is something so magical and so full of charm within the early works of Truman Capote. The ripened urban specifics of Answered Prayers and In Cold Blood, and to a lesser extent Breakfast at Tiffany's, pale somewhat in comparison to Other Voices, Other Rooms, Summer Crossing, many of Truman's early short fiction, and ... The Grass Harp. The Grass Harp, after this first reading, is certainly my favorite story of Truman Capote's. It was full of that charm and magic and hearkened back to the poignant pleasantness of A Christmas Memory.
Truman's early life is on full display, as it was in A Christmas Memory and Other Voices, Other Rooms; that of a young boy abandoned by his parents in the South to live with mysterious family members.
The Grass Harp is a short book, a brief read like Summer Crossing. The story isn't without its action and drama, but it is largely a sweet story, sugary in its nostalgic description. And Capote's renowned prose is on full display, dashed with color and texture and light.
An astounding story.