Reviewer: Alan Chin
Publisher: Da Capo Press (Aug, 2000)
Pages: 233
“I am a homosexual. I am a drug addict. I am a genius.”
—Truman Capote
Between July, 1982 and August 1984, writer Lawrence Grobel
recorded many interview sessions with Truman Capote for what they both agreed
would be the definitive in-depth interview with the great writer. This book is
the remarkable result of those conversations. As startling, candid, and
controversial as the man himself, these interviews have become a key part of
the Capote legacy.
I have always been enchanted by Capote’s stories, and
reading this book I became mesmerized by the man behind those stories. He had a
genius that elevated talk to art, and gossip to literature. He bedazzles with
brilliant insight, and also reveals a condescending pettiness toward many of
his contemporaries.
I found Truman’s revelations about himself both candid and
illuminating when talking about his childhood, early fame, his sexuality, and
his battle with drugs and alcohol. The author also has much to say about the
rich and famous, including Jacqueline Onassis, Norman Mailer, Marilyn Monroe,
Lee Harvey Oswald, Elizabeth Taylor to mention a few, and these conversations
about others tend to reveal more about Capote than the people being discussed.
While discussing
In Cold Blood, Capote said, “I came to understand that death is the
central factor of life. And the simple comprehension of this fact alters your
entire perspective…. The experience served to heighten my feeling of the tragic
view of life, which I’ve always held and which accounts for the side of me that
appears extremely frivolous; that part of me is always standing in ta darkened
hallway, mocking tragedy and death. That’s why I love champagne and stay at the
Ritz.”
This is a must read for anyone who enjoys Truman Capote’s
stories.
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