Truman Capote (review)

speak to her. Hank, a survivalist who ignores signs of disintegration in the Summers' relationships, spends most of his time working outdoors. As Darlene tries to teach her children to love and Hank pushes them to learn survival skills, the young Summers develop into three remarkably different characters. The oldest, Butch, resembling his father in his brute strength, watches in silence while the second, physically weak son, Sid, falters under his father's abuse. The only daughter, Tina, withdraws into her room, angry with both parents, who are frightened by her inclination toward learning and her creativity. Just as the novel begins to sink under the weight of the pitiable characters , Pagani forces them out of their passive existence. Darlene leaves her family with a good-bye note that reads, "If I take you back shoot me." Left alone, Hank and the children alter dramatically as they deal with the betrayal of a woman they never imagined would desert them. The shaky family structure crumbles when Hank's aggressive attempt at control fails, and Butch, Sid, and Tina escape in very different , startling ways. Eerie suspense, surprising twists, and Pagani's rich descriptions of the landscape enhance this story, in which the psychological and physical settings mirror one another and the mountain becomes a character in itself—a wilderness that provokes, maddens, and inspires. QO) Truman Capote by George Plimpton Doubleday, 1997, 498 pp., $35 In his "Note to the Reader," George Plimpton states that the aim of this oral biography of Truman Capote is to re-create the atmosphere of a cocktail party: "With a glass in hand (probably a vodka), our reader moves from group to group and listens in. . . ." Indeed, the book itself is not a reconstructed narrative of Capote's life but a collection of anecdotes and remembrances from his friends, personal and business acquaintances, and critics, arranged more or less in chronological order. They trace Capote's odd, parentless childhood in Alabama, his discovery (and self-promotion) as a boy genius, and his precipitous downfall as social outcast and alcoholic. What emerges is the portrait of a man whose gifts were vitiated by his desire to be in the ranks of elite society. Unfortunately, this portrait is marred by Plimpton's "cocktail party" strategy. While the whispery, gossipy tone of the book does seem consistent with Capote's penchant for gossiping about both himself and others, it nevertheless leaves readers who are interested in learning more about Capote's life and work feeling like voyeurs. Much of the information offered by others about Capote and his career is speculative at best. The gravest of these speculations is that Capote was elated to hear that Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, the murderers of In Cold Blood, would be hanged (thus giving Capote a perfect ending to his book). This particular rumor seems odd in light of Capote's vocal opposition to capital punishment following the hangings of Hickock and The Missouri Review · 215 Smith. Plimpton neither refutes nor supports the claim but by its inclusion in the book automatically lends it some credence. A glaring omission is the text of Capote's unfinished manuscript, "Answered Prayers," an excerpt of which was originally published in Esquire magazine. "Answered Prayers ," which Capote had considered his masterpiece, was a thinly veiled portrait of socialites (the "Swans," as he nicknamed them) and their circle. After the excerpt appeared in Esquire, Capote was cast out of this elite group and consequently never finished the manuscript. But because Plimpton doesn't include any excerpts from the story itself, when the incident is discussed, readers feel as if they are at a party where the rest of the guests are in on something they aren't. Since "Answered Prayers" might be one way for Capote to answer his detractors, its omission is peculiar; Plimpton seems to be much more considerate of those who offer rumor and speculation about Capote than of Capote himself. A literary biography certainly shouldn't lionize its subject, and the general consensus is that Capote was petty, vengeful, lonely, and, toward the end of his life, incapacitated by drugs and alcohol. Perhaps Plimpton intends to show that the kind...