Capote: A Biography

Clarke's portrait of Truman was spellbinding. The descriptions of what he was like in his youth and in the early years of his successful career were amazingly vivid. I fell in love with Truman just as everyone did in those days. I was enchanted and then so very sad.

Beautifully written, intimate and intense biography, that I could not put down. Whilst one could feel a justifiably underlying affection for the subject by the author, presented was a balanced view of this iconic American writer. The book appeared extremely well researched. Highly recommended.

Had read the book "In cold Blood" and enjoyed learning the back story. Lost track of news of Capote after and did not know how this book had affected him. It was a very sad and interesting life he lead.

This is a long biography of Capote that covers the writer from birth to death, and appears comprehensive. Mostly it is an easy read about a fascinating character as well as a great author. I can't give it five stars however, since I feel it has problems in several areas. First, the author spends too much time on Capote's childhood. Alright already, he had a weird childhood. So do most people these days! It dragged on for far too long at the expense of more interesting periods where five years could fly by in one (short) chapter. Second, there should have been an introductory chapter on NY high society before the author disclussed Capote's voyage through it. Sort of what Painter did on French high society before describing how Proust entered it. This would have been useful because no one remembers who these people were anymore (and I was an adult at the time in NY) or worse, only remembers them because they were friends or foes, or both, of Capote. So the book is dated in that respect; reading it in 2006 it seems like Capote was conferring social distinction rather that trying to acquire it. Finally the paperback cover was absolutely weird. I know it was a tie in to the movie, but instead of a picture of Capote it was a picture of Seymour Hoffman playing Capote. Bizzare. It would be like having a biography of Lincoln with a picture of Raymond Massey on the cover. Considering Hoffman didn't even mention Capote at the Academy Awards, it was truely strange.

The first part of the book of his background and rise to fame is very interesting. I lost my curiosity about him as his lifestyle and friends and lovers became, surprisingly, rather boring. His crowd were spoiled; I didn't find them interesting.

This is possibly the best biography I have ever read. Gerald Clark made Truman Capote live. I do not admire Truman's writings nor do I admire him as a human. I have read most of his work and admit he is an excellent writer, yet when I finish his books I don't feel satisfied. It is as though I have eaten a big meal and am still hungry. Clarke's biography reads like a novel. The reader is treated to a look inside Capote's head. Capote was a haunted person. His appearance was unusual, it screamed "I am different, look at me", and he played and presented himself as a sight to be remembered. Possibly his cry for attention came from the fact that he was never cherished. Capote felt lonely, unloved and needy as a child and possibly all of his short life. Everybody knows the facts, Capote was a writer, homosexual, and an alcoholic and drug user. He was a big personality and had many many friends in the entertainment, literary and homosexual world. As he destroyed his life with alcohol and drugs he often said he had used up the world---pitiful.

This is possibly the best biography I have ever read. Gerald Clark made Truman Capote live. I do not admire Truman's writings nor do I admire him as a human. I have read most of his work and admit he is an excellent writer, yet when I finish his books I don't feel satisfied. It is as though I have eaten a big meal and am still hungry. Clarke's biography reads like a novel. The reader is treated to a look inside Capote's head. Capote was a haunted person. His appearance was unusual, it screamed "I am different, look at me", and he played and presented himself as a sight to be remembered. Possibly his cry for attention came from the fact that he was never cherished. Capote felt lonely, unloved and needy as a child and possibly all of his short life. Everybody knows the facts, Capote was a writer, homosexual, and an alcoholic and drug user. He was a big personality and had many many friends in the entertainment, literary and homosexual world. As he destroyed his life with alcohol and drugs he often said he had used up the world---pitiful.

This has to be the second worst book that I've read in along time. His flings and the details that the writer goes into aren't always that interesting. The writer does name names and some are a shock and make you think. However, saying that the book could of been pared down at least 75 pages by omitting some details of his love life I didn't care to know.

I don't know why there isn't more attention on this book, or a zillion positive reviews. Yes, it is definitely an enlightening and definitive biography of Truman Capote. It explains so much what drove him, what his demons and strengths were and why his writing is so celebrated.
But more than that, it is one of the best biographies I ever read... and I've been trying to figure out just why that is so.

I love biographies. I love understanding someone else's life (especially a writer's). But I am continually disapointed .. because most of them are either like laundry lists--this happened on this date, that happened on that date--or pushing for one or another view of the subject.
Clarke does not make a "case" for Truman Capote: he walks through his life like a NOVELIST, seeing themes, giving foreshadowing, sharing wisdom and making the various individuals Capote knew come alive. Like a good writer does.

I read this book years ago. I just re-read it on vacation and was moved to make this post. My admiration had not diminished; rather, it had increased. I couldn't help comparing this biography with all the others that I read, that never bring the person alive, that keep a DISTANCE from their life. Clarke did not keep a distance emotionally--but he did keep that writer's objective distance in order to see and write.

Oh--another biography I am reading that DOES reach this satisfying level is Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson. Caro does it differently--and it might SEEM as if his books about Johnson are "laundry lists"--but even though he wrote four or so HUGE VOLUMES about Johnson and Clarke wrote this one medium sized book about Capote, they are similar in that they 1) bring the person totally alive; 2) connect the person to what was going on at that time and date; 3) make the subject's family and friends and schoolmates --and their relationship with the subject--come alive.

I was familiar with Truman Capote's work but not his life. You hear snippets from movies or in other biographies to have a general idea but most of my opinions were formed from his later life. His life was lived during a fascinating era. Media was giving a small glimpse into these elite lives. Now with PR, paparazzi and tabloids we never get a hint of what the lives of the rich and famous are really like. I have not seen the movie, I like to read the book first, but am really looking forward to it. I can very highly recommend this book. Gbash

In this very long and very detailed biography, the author tells all about Truman Capote, a figure who himself was infamous for telling all. A gifted writer of stories, novels, nonfiction, and screenplays, deeply troubled by his terrible upbringing, Capote's undoing was writing thinly-disguised exposes of the society people he befriended during his rise to fame.

The author does a fine job of showing how Capote's early years shaped both his creativity and vivid thinking and his emotional unraveling. He was abandoned by both parents and raised by elderly relatives in Alabama, sent off for a disastrous year in a military school, and then, mercifully, sent to New York when his socially ambitious mother managed to marry a wealthy husband. He was repeatedly abandoned by his parents and valued primarily as a weapon for his mother and father as they fought for control and financial support. Surprisingly, Joe Capote turned out to be a decent man and stepfather who supported Truman financially and emotionally. (That is, until he, too, ran out of money in his later years and came pleading after Truman's wealth.)

Truman struggled with writer's block, and spent much of his time and energy culling favor from the rich and famous women who came his way: Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill, Gloria Vanderbilt. He was socially irresistible: funny and clever, intimate, avid for love. He craved the company and globetrotting lifestyle of the rich and beautiful, and basked in it for many years after the success of In Cold Blood. Clarke shows how Capote's wealth, fame, and great connections vindicated him after his childhood rejection, and also how he developed a propensity for revenge against the rivals and enemies he made in his new glamorous world.

The author does not judge Capote's need to become a plaything of the rich, and details Capote's own financial successes along with the occasional expensive disasters. Capote was a person of excess, a hedonist, but a sympathetic character. Even when many of his high-profile friends abandoned him in the wake of his thinly-disguised tattling in Esquire and other popular magazines, he kept on writing and even became newly prolific in his last, vulnerable years.

It's widely known that Capote spent his last years addicted to pills and alcohol; and the picture of his remaining friends rescuing him time after time, checking him in and out of rehabilitation, is a sad one. But his tragicomic spirit prevailed up to the end, and we are given to believe that he was ready to end his life at 51.

The author knew Capote during the last nine years of his life, interviewing him and hundreds of his friends and associates. It is a chronicle that's oddly parallel to Capote's own experience writing In Cold Blood. Capote started writing about the famous murder of the Clutter family, became closely acquainted not only with the Kansas community but with the two killers as they awaited their fate on Death Row, and ended up on a long, anguished death watch, unable to finish the long-awaited book until the killers' fate was complete. In a similar way, Clarke becomes closely acquainted with Capote and his travails over the final years of his life, and finds that he needs to see how the story ends, and does not complete the book until after Capote's death in a bedroom in the home of Joanne Carson.

Clarke is himself a good writer and knows how to describe the joys and anguish a writer goes through; what constitutes good and bad writing; and the creative process itself. It's a long but engaging book, a great read for anyone interested in Truman Capote.

Capote by Gerald Clarke, is probably one of the more enjoyable biographies of a contemporary individual I have read over the past several dozen years or so. I have read several other "biographies" of this remarkable individual and am in the process of reading others, but this by far is the best of the lot so far.

Gerald Clarke spent quite a number of years on this work and much of it is based on interviews, one on one interview, with Capote himself and of course a plethora of interviews with individuals who knew Capote personally. The author has taken the time to even verify many of the statements Capote made during these sessions and all that the author has written is well footnoted and verifiable...as far as such things can be verified. The author covers the full gambit of the life of a man who can arguably be classified as one of the major literary figures of our generation. Clarke has pulled no punches and even though it is quite apparent that he was a friend and admired his subject, he, the author has been quite brutal when brutality was necessary.

I must disagree with several interviewers here as to the statement that Capote's homosexuality is only lightly addressed in this work. Far from it! It is a central part and a keystone to not only the writing of this biography, but to that of Capote himself. Like Hemingway, it would be impossible in this case to separate the writer from the man or the man from the writer. Capote was indeed a homosexual and this fact is deeply ingrained in most, if not all, of his writing. But of curse this is just one aspect of the fascinating man addressed in this work. To not address his sexual preference would be to ignore a major facet in the man's personality and his writing.

Capote's early and tumultuous child hood, his relationship with his mother, father, friends and other family members are all examined and discussed at length. His rise to literary stardom with very little formal education is a story within itself. The author's handling of Truman's dynamic personality, fanatical drive, the demons that haunted him throughout his life, and those individuals who influenced him are a work of biographical art. Even though this is a rather large work, the author's easy style makes if a very enjoyable work and once the book is started, it is quite difficult to put down.

In addition to his subjects story, Clarke has given us a very rare look into the lives and life style of the very rich, the very powerful and very elite of those times; a glimpse that is indeed rare. He takes us into a world that is completely alien to the vast majority people and while in some ways it is rather sickening, it is never the less fascinating.

Now readers take note; as other reviewers have pointed out, if you are reading this work and expecting to find the same story that is told in a recent movie, you will be disappointed. The movie, which by the way I enjoyed, covers only one aspect of Capote's life...that period in which he was researching and writing "In Cold Blood." This movie most definitely focused on Capote's "dark side" and fails to portray his genius as a writer and indeed, as the very likable, vivacious individual of his youth. No, the movie portrays him during the beginning of his decent into drugs, alcohol and probably mental illness. While the movie is good, it certainly does not give us a look at the author has a whole and in many ways gives us a rather unjust and myopic look into his life.

The only problem I had with this entire work was that I personally have a very difficult time identifying with the New York social scene and the author drops names here and there of what were are apparently very important people whom I have no clue as to who they are and indeed, never heard of many of them. That is just me though and I was able to get around this simply by taking the word of the author that these were in someway important and significant people. My lack of sophistication in these areas could certainly not be held against the work as a whole.

In so very many ways this is truly a tragic tale of an extremely talented writer, his rise and down fall. Despite his many rather annoying quirks, i.e. his insatiable lust for gossip as an example, you cannot help being sympathetic, in particular when you learn of his childhood. In many ways Capote was not a very nice man, but on the other hand he, especially in his youth had many admirable qualities. The author has in his own way stressed this and we actually get a good picture of an extremely complex individual and the biography as a whole gives wonderful insight to both Capote the man and the work of Capote the author.

If you enjoy biographies of contemporary individuals and/or literary figures, then this book is bound to please and I do highly recommend it. Despite its size it is a rather quick read and well worth the time spent.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

A very well written and extensive biography of the celebrated American author. Truman Capote was a very gregarious person and was always the life of any gathering or party (except towards the end of his life). When he traveled (whether to New York or Europe) it was not to take in museums or sites, but to meet the inhabitants - particularly if they were famous, wealthy and/or notorious.

As Mr. Clarke points out Truman Capote had a neglected upbringing - he was abandoned by both his parents and to some extent this could account for his later undoing. At a young age he was pre-determined to be a writer.

Due to Truman Capote's ebullient personality the book makes for an interesting read as we encounter the wide range of individuals who accompanied Truman throughout his life.

He did favour the rich and famous and to some extent this makes for some redundancy in the book. It would also seem that these rich and famous were also lonely and latched onto Truman Capote in their quest for real friendship or maybe he just provided admirable entertainment. Capote did exude warmth and laughter and liked to gossip - so no secrets should have been confided to him, but he was expert at extracting all these hidden parts of their lives (Marlon Brando threatened to kill him after one such session was published).

But these relationships took a toll on Capote and that toll was his writing output. He wrote several short stories and a few novelettes. His only major and lengthy book was `In Cold Blood' which is not a novel, but a significant work nonetheless. Therefore I feel that Truman Capote - compared to Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck - is not the most important American novelist of the last century. Truman Capote was also predisposed to inflate his own greatness, comparing himself to the French writer Marcel Proust - whose literary output far exceeds that of Capote. After reading this biography I consider Truman Capote a second rate writer.

He also branched into play-writing, scripts for films and acting - none of these of any lasting significance. His career is a reflection of the American century.

The author does focus on his literary works and the obsession of `In Cold Blood'. To quote from Nietzsche - `if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you'. This is what happened to Truman after his great investigation of the gruesome murders of the Clutter family. His literary art reached the pinnacle but after publication there was a long slow decline leaving him, at the end of his life, a drunken, pill-popping maniac.

On the subject of `In Cold Blood' I seem to remember reading elsewhere that Truman Capote played down Herb Clutter's domineering personality in order to sustain a sympathetic portrayal of the family. Also there were two older sisters - who I believe inherited by default the estate - I can no longer remember if this was recounted in the book.

The end of Truman's life from the 1970 to 1984 is a dreadful tale and makes for painful reading - considering all of his potential. He could have been criminally convicted on a few occasions, as he was actually hiring detectives to murder his on again - off again partner John O'Shea. Such is the demise of a once celebrated figure.

All in all a wonderful biography.

This is a detailed and long investigative look at Capote's writing and his life; at times his lifestyle overshadows his tremendous writing talent. Clarke does a fine job getting all the facts straight and the book resembles a who's who of the literary and film worlds as Capote quickly escalates among the beautiful people. A short but tragic life captured in telling detail. Probably more information than you may possibly want to know, but at times the story is like watching a fatal car wreck in slow motion.

After seeing the two movies about Truman Capote's writing of "In Cold Blood" ('Capote' and 'Infamous'), I wanted to first read the letters he'd written during this period which helped me to understand what really went on sans the Hollywood-izing of the story. But the letters were even better - juicier and more colourful than any Hollywood version; and I was compelled to read most of the rest of them from other periods in his life.

Then I read some of his short stories (starting with the haunting "Miriam") and his first novel. But nothing could have prepared me for the story Gerald Clarke told of his friend, Truman. It's an American success story and yet one of the worst tragedies I've ever read. What a colourful man! I was amazed at every word, every thought he recorded, especially when he was instructing a young writer:

"One cannot be taught to write. One can only learn to write by writing - and reading. Reading good books written by real artists - until you understand why they are good."

"One only really learns from what one enjoys."

"Good writing isn't (necessarily) fancy writing."

He always said to write what you know and called his character depictions 'portraits.' "A writer ought to have all his colors, all his abilities available on the same palette for mingling..." Reading Clarke's biography together with Truman's letters gave me a renewed passion for literature.

Truman always turned the drab fantastic:

"In the falling quiet there was no sky or earth, only snow lifting in the wind, frosting the window glass chilling the rooms, deadening and hushing the city."

And I realized he was one of the ultimate mystic artists:

They said of Truman: "A mediumistic voice speaks through him in the most impeccable of accents."

"In times of terror or immense distress, there are moments when the mind waits, as though for a revelation, while a skein of calm is woven over thought; it is like a sleep, or a supernatural trance; and during this lull one is aware of a force of quiet reasoning..."

Every writer needs to read Capote, who always unabashedly revealed every aspect of himself to the world - his struggles, his pain, his triumphs and tragedies. It was obvious how difficult writing was for him; it took all the energy he could muster to stay focused on a project.

"It is as though one were a secretary transcribing the words of a voice from a cloud. The difficulty is maintaining contact with this spectral dictator."

All this from a self-taught, self-made southern boy who came from worse than a broken home. He got his first job at 17 at the New Yorker where he made his mark and wrote for periodicals and women's magazines at a time when they published fiction; and he attended the writers' colony - Yaddo in Syracuse, NY - and learned from the older men in his life who became his lovers.

Truman was a world traveler, moving in two distinct circles of people: the rich and famous with whom he hobnobbed and sailed the seas; and a small group of a few of his close friends, who were more honest with him and allowed him to just be himself. He made friends of enemies and enemies of friends - through his writing and his paradoxical ways; and his tortured love life and terrible struggles with addictions are detailed quite vividly here.

The biography was obviously a very difficult undertaking for Gerald Clarke and, like Truman's writing of "In Cold Blood," stretched on for many years more than he'd planned. The story of Truman's life up to "In Cold Blood" was exciting, amazing and a marvelous success story. The chapters of his life after completing his masterpiece and up to his death were the rest of the story of a slow, agonizing downward spiral on the road to a terrible end. But Truman led an astonishing life full of interesting events, travels, and people of extraordinary renown and it's best to try to remember the man's art - though most believe he squandered away a good part of his life and talent - for there would have been a huge void in the world without him.

Give Gerald Clarke, the senior former Time Magazine contributor and author of Capote, a hand for manuevering his ethereal subject, Truman Capote, into a bear-hug, and pinning him decisively on the mat, in this immensely readable and well written expose/biography..I literally laughed out loud on numerous occassions, at bitchy quotes from Capote, particularly when asked about Jacqueline Susann, at that time the author of the best selling book in the world, "Valley Of the Dolls"..Not surprisingly, Capote was confounded and chagrined at the avalanche of her success, moreso when Johnny Carson popped the question on The Tonite Show what Truman thought about it's author Ms. Susann, and Capote snidely weighed in on her noteably dark, exaggerated, masculine features.."Well, to me she rather looks like a truckdriver in drag."..Capote always understood the head-line value of a zinger, and knew the public cherishes the over-the-top one liner long after all else is forgiven, or forgotten!..And Capote traded on his New Orleans bred "queenie" charm to barter his way into a clubby-high society world inhabited by his "swans", the wives of the wealthiest tycoons of that era..Clark debriefs in scholarly detail exactly how Capote trafficked on his wit and wile to move up the ladder, both professionally and personally, despite his miniaturish staure, baby-talk voice, and fey Oscar Wildeian mannerisms, he was a firecracker..And a dead-eye for exquisite, ante-bellum detail, with a musical, melodic ear for phrasings, reminiscent of F.Scott Fitzgerald, except possibly more refined, more psychological..Read this biography, and then see "Capote", the film, the section of this book that deals with "In Cold Blood," the gothic retelling of a senseless slaughter of an upright, God-fearing family in Kansas by two low grade drifters..You will appreciate the movie that much more, and too, realize how multi-talented Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the actor is, to have captured the chameleon qualities of this obvious bounder, and how Truman Capote was for a time the Man of the Moment in American Letters.

This is an excellent biography however the Kindle edition does not contain the index or any of the many wonderful photographs from the printed editions. I felt that this detracted substantially from the value. As far as I can tell, no mention was made in the description of the book of this omission and I feel this was very deceptive. If a Kindle book is different from the print edition that fact should be stated clearly.

This book is a two edged sword for me. On the one hand, it is well written, and I feel that the author ( for the most part) has an unbiased view of Mr. Capote, although his criticisms of a couple of Mr Capote's partners, do seem biased. At any rate, on the other hand, the biography was perhaps too good at giving a clear picture of Capote, as I found myself finishing the book with a dislike of the man. Just my opinion, don't kill me.

...you might end up a little disappointed since the section devoted to Capote's writing of IN COLD BLOOD reads a bit sparse compared to the film. (I haven't seen INFAMOUS yet so I'm going by CAPOTE).

I saw the film CAPOTE and was fascinated by the story behind the story of IN COLD BLOOD. How far a writer will go to "get" his story is a powerful dramatic premise (and the film makes a good case that Capote would answer for his actions for the rest of his life) and Philip Seymour Hoffman does a masterful job of humanizing him.

But after reading Clarke's biography, I wonder if the CAPOTE filmmakers added the humanity to his character in the film--and how much he actually had in real life.

Capote insinuates himself into New York society, completely betrays them in print, and then becomes an exaggerated parody of them himself in his private life and relationships.

His gay lovers throughout his life appear to be spoiled monsters using and abusing him at every turn. Not that Truman was too far above them himself: his campaign to literally destroy one errant lover by pouring sugar into his gas tank, sending goons to break his legs (they didn't follow through), and firing that closeted lover only to hire his outraged wife was as darkly funny as it was ridiculously frightening.

All the gossip from New York society to Washington royalty to Hollywood insiders made this an interesting read. The author does a great job of drawing from many, many sources to also make this a very literary read.

This is a masterful warts-and-all biography. As bitter and vindictive as Capote could be, I still felt sorry to see him end so badly: suffering from seizures and hallucinations, drinking himself to death while gobbling down pills, abandoned by the rich society he'd worshipped and the gay lovers who looted his bank accounts (especially his "life partner" who wouldn't put off any trips to see Truman in any of his many hospital stays). Very sad.

Capote's life had, for me, two great tragedies: he destroyed his talent and he destroyed himself.

I am almost completing "Capote: A Biography" by Gerald Clarke and my head is still reeling from the after effects. I loved the book. I haven't seen the movie yet but I know that it is bleak considering the book is not a light read either. Capote's life has been contained marvelously in this book. It has character and a lot of substance.

I wonder why every genius's life is so melancholic. Capote's life was no exception either. Abandoned by his parents at an early age he was forced to stay with his old cousins at Monroeville, Alabama and kept fantasizing about the day his parents would come and take him away. The day did come and Capote met his first love: New York City. Mr. Clarke's description of the New York Capote grew up in and flourished as a writer is simply outstanding. You can almost see all the sights and inhale its smells. Capote - the name was that of his step-father who eventually adopted him and who Truman grew close to.

One would think that "homosexuality" would run strong in the book considering Truman's preference; however that is not the case. What is captured brilliantly is his rise from working as a copy boy for "The New York Times" to becoming one of the famous twentieth century writers. His flamboyance, wit, anger, a streak of bitchiness, lavishness, fastidiousness and ultimately is downfall. Everything that Capote stood for is interestingly written about. Right from his affairs to his one-liners to his impulsive behaviour and his kindness [which wasn't known to all] to the torture a writer goes through while working on a book [it took him six years to finish "In Cold Blood" which is now heralded as a modern classic] and the frustration when the accolades aren't enough. The book successfully depicts his many friendships with the rich and the known to the downfall when he published a part of "Answered Prayers" [his self-proclaimed masterpiece] in Esquire and the characters were based on his rich friends, who did not forgive him for that.

This is the first time ever that I am reading a biography of a writer's life and I am so inclined to pick up more biographies of my favourite writers. To want to know more about their lives. I think next on my list has to be either F. Scott Fitzgerald or Anais Nin.

What I also loved about this book was that Mr.Clarke does not mince words at any stage. It is as real and honest as any biography can ever get. Tragic life of a Genius and ultimately how he all drained it away! Absolutely Fantastic!

Capote by Gerald Clarke is more than a biography. It is a journey and the reader is along for the bizarre ride throughout the entire book.
Gerald Clarke knew Truman and with Truman's blessing started the book about a decade before Truman died. Gerald was able to interview not only Truman but Truman's lovers and friends and had access to family letters.
And it shows. The book is so well written and I became so absorbed in it that it was difficult to put it down. I read every chance I had.
Finally I finished and am just amazed at what I've read. It was a very satisfying read and from here on out it will hard to find anything that is as interesting to me.
554 pages full of detailed information, interviews and photos. Once you start reading you'll wish you didn't have to put it down.

The biography of Truman Capote was just as good as the character himself. Crazy times, famous names, various betrayals and those betrayed. The days of great writing, the fog and falling into drugs with alcohol to wash them down. The people he loved most were hurt greatest. Such a sad wonderful life.

Clarke took 13 years to write this 547 page biography, and it shows. Often funny, sometimes shocking, always interesting, this book gave me such insight into Capote's writing. Because much of it is based on actual conversations with Capote, I really got a sense of his voice and his personality. The only thing that slowed it down for me was the non-stop name dropping. But, that's who he was, and there was no getting around it. It's absolutely necessary to the book. Also, I found the prose to be a little heavy handed in the beginning, maybe trying to emulate Capote's writing style. However, as I got into it, Clarke either eased up or I just stopped noticing. Now and then his metaphoric language was a bit over the top, but over all the writing was excellent.

There are several books about Capote out there. George Plimpton's 'Truman Capote' is an example which presents the thoughts of those who actually knew him. There are others which purport to present the facts as drawn from archive material and interviews with the man himself (and as we know, Truman's own version of his life could be somewhat unreliable) . The question is, wherein lies the truth about T.C.?

Well, all biographies must suffer from a little guesswork and, in the case of Mr Plimpton's fine tome, perhaps a little added colour at times. However, this one by Gerald Clarke entitled simply 'Capote - A Biography' is a remarkable achievement. It's closer to being a proper document of Truman's life than any other book I've read. It soon becomes clear that a vast amount of research has gone into it's making along with the use of a wealth of interviews. What emerges is a wonderfully balanced, well written biography that should be a must for all scholars of Mr Capote. And Truman's life is well worth reading about. Whether painful or happy, trashy or profound his was a busy life filled with interest and variety.

At no point does it attempt to sensationalise Truman's life which was fascinating enough not to require embellishment. And at a whopping 550 pages (not including source notes etc) it's a surprisingly easy read. Mr Clarke's writing style flows beautifully guiding the reader effortlessly and in a thoroughly entertaining manner. He's not attempted to impose himself upon the text, there's no attempt at ego here.

My only criticism is about the way the book has been marketed. My edition states that it is 'now a major motion picture starring Philip Seymour Hoffman' which it certainly is not. The fault of this rather misleading claim can be easily placed at the feet of the publishers and their desire to sell more copies. It's entirely likely that the makers of the film entitled 'Capote' used this book as part of their reference but that film covered only a small part of T.C.'s life whilst this work attempts to span all from birth (actually from a little bit before birth) to death.

If you are a student of Capote or merely someone who likes his writing this is a great book that is as compulsive as a 'holiday read'. You could take this to the beach and get lost in it all day and actually end up learning something.

By far, the best Capote biography to date. Clarke has a talent for giving us the facts, presented in such a way as to be entertaining and enlightening. He obviously knows his subject well and shows us this without pretension or the usual prestidigitation that so often accompanies biographies such as this. What strikes one first and foremost is the wonderful arc the book has. It is true that Capote's life had this arc already, but to be able to translate that from life to a book is not as easy as one would imagine.
Given the incredibly spotlight life that Capote led, much of the information in this book is axiomatic: the incidents of early life in New Orleans and Alabama, his mother's bi-polar if not manic travails, the uprooting at an early age to live in Greenwich, Connecticut, the infamous New Yorker job he held but for a short while; his elbow-rubbing with the jet set, ultimately culminating in Answered Prayers; the resulting fall from grace; the drugs, the alcohol. But it is the nuances, the small findings in this book, that make it unique and give it an edge over others. Clarke relates at one point how ill read Capote was, standing up in the middle of a film of a Dickens novel, shouting, "They've stolen my plot." Or his sad and telling description of Capote's last days at the home of Joanne Carson. His last words? "I'm cold." And he was gone.
This compelling biography is full of photographs that speak volumes as well: Capote as a child--innocent, a tabla rasa; Capote on the set of a movie; Capote vacationing. And a desperate-looking Capote clinging a little to hard to Marilyn Monroe. Wonderful and telling pictures that are enhanced by Gerald Clarke's troubling, wonderful, and ultimately entertaining look at Capote, the writer, and Capote the man. All-in-all a great read about one of America's greatest writers.

as far as capote is concerned i liked a biography over an autobiography, it seems more truthful. this was a man small in stature and character, but big in talent. the author's prose was a credit to his subject. sorry i don't do spoilers. just read the book, good reading.

A very long read but an excellent window into the glory days of the chic community in New York and how an uneducated outsider born with the talent to understand and write gained access to their world in fact and in print.

I got this book because I was interested in Capote's relationship with Harper Lee. Not much about that was in the book. I read the book anyway and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I knew almost nothing about Capote and did not really care. That is how good the writing is as well as what an interesting life he led. it was a very interesting book.

I ran across this book and hadn't thought about Capote in years and got it on impulse. It is just a wonderful bio and captures what Capote was and why he attracted such attention. It is hard to imagine what a youngster he was when he came on the scene and how he was so very loved. The book is full of lovely stories and famous people. The chapters on the "swans" was my favorite but his relationships, the accounts of his writing, his amazing ambition and ability to have devoted friends and ultimately his terrible end are written like a novel. Capote was generous, brilliant, kind, warm, seductive,vicious at times and utterly captivating. I now want to reread his books. But the accounts of his travels abroad, his long stays at wonderful quaint places and the "moveable feast" of his early life made me long to have been there. I loved this bio.

WHETHER OR NOT YOU LIKED TRUMAN CAPOTE OR HIS LIFESTYLE, THIS BOOK BRINGS TO LIFE ONE OF THE TRUE LITERARY GENIUSES OF OUR TIME. IT BRINGS OUT BOTH HIS CHARM AND HIS WORST QUALITIES, THE LEAST OF WHICH WAS HIS SEXUALITY. PEOPLE ADORED HIM AND FEARED HIM AT THE SAME TIME. THE PIVOTAL POINT IN HIS LIFE WAS WHEN HE WROTE THE MASTERPIECE "IN COLD BLOOD" AND SPENT MANY HOURS WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE SMALL TOWN OF HOLCOMB, KANSAS WHERE FOUR MEMBERS OF THE CLUTTER FAMILY WERE SAVAGELY MURDERED. AT FIRST THE TOWNS-PEOPLE WERE NOT SURE HOW THEY FELT ABOUT THIS LITTLE STRANGE MAN, THE LIKES OF WHICH THEY HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE BUT THEY WERE WON OVER BY HIS HONESTY, CHARM AND HOW SERIOUS HE WAS TO GET THE STORY RIGHT. THEY LOOKED FORWARD TO HIS MANY VISITS. MANY OF HIS FRIENDS SAID THAT AFTER HE FINISHED "IN COLD BLOOD" HE WAS A CHANGED PERSON. ALMOST AS THOUGH THE BOOK HAD TAKEN A MAJOR TOLL ON HIS LIFE. A MOST REMARKABLE MAN, WRITER AND ONE OF THE MOST MIS-UNDERSTOOD AUTHORS OF ALL TIME!!!

I have mixed feeling about this book, which is why I have given it a three star rating. If you are very interested in Truman Capote, then this is the biography to read. It is a very detailed and well-written book. If you have only a little interest, however, it may be overwhelmingly long. My husband got to page 374, and put it aside, asking me to tell him if he should finish it or not. Being only mildly interested in Capote, I found that I could only read the book for an hour to an hour in a half at a time. Gerald Clarke could very well be the only biographer who really knew Truman. Clarke thought that he would be spending two or three years on the book, and it would be a short book. Instead the book became a 547-page book that he spent more than 13 years researching and writing. He talked to hundreds of people who knew Truman, and even more importantly he spent 9 years observing and interviewing Truman himself, often in restaurants, but also at Truman's home on Long Island as they both lived only a few minutes apart from each other. Over the years they became close friends. The book covers his unhappy childhood, his rise to fame, his downfall, and his sad death. Expect lots and lots of pages about his relationships with the wealthy and famous people he hung out with. It is because of this that my husband became bored enough to put it down, and the reason why I sometimes laid it aside after only reading for an hour. Still, when I read the last page, I felt I had read as definitive a telling of Truman's life as could be told. So, did I tell my husband to finish the book? Yes I did. I also told him to read the Afterward, which is only three and a half pages long.

This book is thick and painstakingly detailed. I feel like I know everything about Truman Capote and everyone he ever knew. That may not be completely true, but that is how I feel after reading this book.

As I read about Capote, I began to feel like he was really a female in a male body and I said as much to family and friends that I thought Truman Capote was really a woman inside. Towards the end of the book I read where Truman had told friends how as a small child he wished to be a girl. That confirmed my suspicions. Truman was not really a gay man. He was a girl trapped in a body with male equipment.

I don't think the author spent too much time on Capote's childhood as another reviewer stated, but I do feel he spent way too much time in the 1940s and everyone who crossed Capote's path during that decade. There are some very interesting bits of information from that period such as Truman getting a draft notice sometime after the US naval base was bombed at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and entered the war. Truman told friends that when he reported for his notice, he was there no more than 15 minutes when he was told his processing would be delayed. He never heard from the draft board again.

Sometimes I felt that even the author was bored writing the book, it was so ponderous. Please note that I said "sometimes." In his afterword the author says the book took alot out of him. Well, it took alot out of me to read this huge book. This book covers it all and then some. I felt like the pace would pick up once I got to the 1950s, and it did to some degree.

This book covers everything from his childhood in the South, moving to New York City to be with his mother and step-father (from whom he got the name Capote), early career, height of his career, and slow but steady decline after "In Cold Blood" through the unfinished but explosive "Answered Prayers" that is listed under fiction, but was based on way too much non-fiction for his high-class, super-rich friends.

I'm glad I read this book, but I'm also glad I am finally through with it. Now I am reading the unfinished novel "Answered Prayers" to see what all the fuss was about.

This book deserves 5 stars just for the painstaking research that had to go into it.

After having read this excellent, balanced biography of Truman Capote, I feel like I know him myself. I think that is the highest praise I can give to this fascinating, thoroughly engaging view into one of the twentieth century's best literary talents and multifaceted personalities. Highly recommend.

The book is interesting from beginning to end, focusing on In Cold Blood and its strong impact on Capote's own life, during the time he knew and interacted with the accused and after their execution.

Like his great biography of Judy Garland, Gerald Clarke's CAPOTE is beautifully written and I feel like I have lived through this turbulent life alongside TC. I listened to IN COLD BLOOD while I was reading this book. Thrilling.

I enjoyed this book very much, well written and informative without being boring. I very much enjoyed Mr. Capote' s books and style of writing, each word was perfect, not to much, not to little. He was such an interesting man, I would have loved to just watch him at a party. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this primarily to learn two things. First, I wanted to learn about the black-and-white party that Capote held for Katherine Graham. Second, I wanted to learn about Capote's relationship with Harper Lee. On bother these fronts, this book delivered. On other fronts, the work is spotty (and not nearly as good as the author's biography of Judy Garland). However, overall it is solid.

Gerald Clarke has successfully tackled an amazingly complex subject. His biography of Truman Capote is imbued with not only sympathy, but a wonderful dry wit.

There is no doubt that Truman was a master of his craft. Even today, his stories are marvels of writing. Every syllable counts and no word is wasted. This makes Capote's up-and-down life all the more disturbing. How tragic it is that a man of such immense talent could fall victim to such pity and self-loathing.

Clarke, who bore witness to Truman's disastrous final years, does an outstanding job maintaining an objective stance in his writing without sacrificing the emotional impact. If anything, "Captote: A Biography" reveals the shallowness of character in New York's high society and the fragility of friendship. It also reveals that riches and fame, regardless of what many of us might think, don't always equal happiness.

Read "Capote." It's a wonderful portrait of a beautifully flamboyant personality . . . one, the likes of which, we'll never see again.

Wow, what a story! Reads more like a spectacular novel than biography...
An absolutely fantastic insight into elite society's beloved (and soon after, elite society's abhorred) and eccentric Puck who enrapts everyone in his midst with wild tales, crazy antics, and just the peculiarities of his odd character. For many years, Truman enjoyed the intimacy of friendship, and, supposedly confidence, with (the wives of) presidents, kings, business moguls and Hollywood's nobility of which Clark has researched and presented with wonderful insights from Truman's closest friends, great nay-sayers and, at times, even enemies. The biography sexually links Capote with such notable artists as Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal--and perhaps Albert Camus--to Errol Flynn, and Marlon Brando! Naturally, one knows of the homosexuality present in the artistic community, but to see it on paper, seems almost lascivious if not for Capote's frailties. Not only Capote's writings, but his grand orchestrations of spectacular peoples' lives, garnered glamorous attention in the US as well as around the globe, but unfortunately, he never escapes his desperate need of love and attention formed through an abusive childhood and eventually it becomes his undoing.

This book takes one through Truman's life much as, it seems, Truman lived it: lots of energy, then "oh my gosh, can we just move on!". Very slow, in a lot of places, but it gets you there. Good, annotated, information on a very interesting man.

I feel like I was a fly on the wall of his incredibly dramatic life. I rocket soared with him to the top of literary fame and glory and felt such sadness and frustration that his later years sank into such addiction and dysfunction. Very well written. The only downside: All those details created a very heavy book, but that I can happily deal with.

I have always heard of the writer,Truman Capote never a personal account of the man. I am now motivated as result of this book, to view the movie Capote and see the similarities. I found this book an excellent read and graphic detail of the turmoil Capote lived..by his own design as well as fate.

I bought this book partly because I so enjoyed Gerald Clarke's biography of Judy Garland, "Get Happy," and Clarke does not disappoint. "Capote" is meticulously researched and yet reads like the most entertaining novel, it's so interesting and filled with such extraordinary characters. I've always been fascinated by Truman Capote, and Clarke has done a wonderful job of bringing him to life in a very balanced, human way.

Don't let the size of this book daunt you. It reads as breezily as a 500-page PEOPLE Magazine article.

I was never a big fan of Capote's; my memories of him are more from the last years of his life, when he was drunk on a lot of talk shows. But I found this book interesting and have since bought a copy of "The Complete Stories of Truman Capote."

I found this excellent biography entertaining in two ways: for the true and hard way Capote's life was captured, highs and lows and everything in between, and for the prose itself that was very fine, I thought. I am a Southerner myself, from very close to Capote's South Alabama, and can vouch for the authenticity of the portrayal of his early years. I think this book is a must-read for fans of southern lit or southern writers, a wonderful companion to Plimpton's latest on Capote. Capote was lucky to have this biographer; he would have been pleased.

Wonderful book about a fascinating character! But why, oh, why, with all the great photos of Capote to choose from, is actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's photo on the cover? His being in the movie is not reason enough.

Many years ago, I became acquainted with Truman Capote by watching the Johnny Carson show. I loved this little bundle of energy,
charm and wit. When you really like someone, you naturally want to know what made them what they are.

Gerald Clarke gives you a front row seat in Capote's life. i am almost finished with this lengthy book and I am a bit sad
that I don't have all of the pages in front of me, still to be relished. It is a magnificent piece of work. Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

What a life to lead, to come from Alabama to high New York society brushing elbows with everyone from Gore Vidal to Gloria Vanderbilt. This was a great writer who was born and made into a great writer.