Answered Prayers (Hardcover)
Truman Capote’s unfinished final novel is an unsparing tell-all of New York high society that sent a seismic shock through the public and Capote’s own social circle.
“Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly.”—The New York Times Book Review
Catapulted from a childhood spent in a Missouri orphanage to the dizzying peaks of New York high society, the destitute and debauched writer P. B. Jones spends his days moving between the paltry cell of a Manhattan Y.M.C.A. and the opulent playgrounds of the metropolitan elite.
Though Jones struggles to make ends meet, his effortless associations with the moneyed and powerful thrust him into sumptuous business offices, bohemian bars inhabited by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the trendiest restaurants, where the tables are arranged by the social status of their occupants. Jones’s days and nights are a riptide of dysfunctional dinner parties and hobnobbing with drunken heiresses, accompanied by a carousel of legendary female characters who populated Capote’s own life, among them Colette, Jackie Kennedy, and the Duchess of Windsor. Indeed, Answered Prayers teems with the real-life secrets and confessions of Capote’s most trusted friends, and these pages, when first published as a magazine serial, astounded readers but betrayed his confidantes, banishing him from the exclusive circle that was once his.
Unrestrained and irreverent, Answered Prayers renders a carnival of wealth and influence so unthinkable that it satirizes itself—with the inimitable wit of one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated writers.
“Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly.”—The New York Times Book Review
Catapulted from a childhood spent in a Missouri orphanage to the dizzying peaks of New York high society, the destitute and debauched writer P. B. Jones spends his days moving between the paltry cell of a Manhattan Y.M.C.A. and the opulent playgrounds of the metropolitan elite.
Though Jones struggles to make ends meet, his effortless associations with the moneyed and powerful thrust him into sumptuous business offices, bohemian bars inhabited by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the trendiest restaurants, where the tables are arranged by the social status of their occupants. Jones’s days and nights are a riptide of dysfunctional dinner parties and hobnobbing with drunken heiresses, accompanied by a carousel of legendary female characters who populated Capote’s own life, among them Colette, Jackie Kennedy, and the Duchess of Windsor. Indeed, Answered Prayers teems with the real-life secrets and confessions of Capote’s most trusted friends, and these pages, when first published as a magazine serial, astounded readers but betrayed his confidantes, banishing him from the exclusive circle that was once his.
Unrestrained and irreverent, Answered Prayers renders a carnival of wealth and influence so unthinkable that it satirizes itself—with the inimitable wit of one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated writers.
Truman Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924. In 1948 his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published to international critical acclaim, assuring Capote a place among the prominent postwar American writers. He won the O. Henry Award twice and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His other works include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Grass Harp, and the nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood. Truman Capote died on August 25, 1984, in Los Angeles.
Praise for Answered Prayers and Truman Capote
“Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly.”—The New York Times Book Review
“It’s easy to see how and why Capote had predicted [Answered Prayers] to be his magnum opus.”—Book Riot
“A gift from an unbridled genius . . . a Proustian view of international high society, a tell-all account of the Kennedys, sexual barter in the literary world and fragrant, addictive gossip at La Cote Basque, an elegant bistro then serving as Manhattan’s social hub . . . Even if the reader is unfamiliar with the blizzard of names being dropped, Answered Prayers is worth the ride, as an engrossing and ultimately poignant saga of aristocratic excess. . . . Capote’s work is irresistible.”—Los Angeles Times
“Capote’s ability to conjure a time, place and mood with just a few sentences is remarkable.”—Associated Press
“It is a stunning experience to reread this fiction . . . and to realize how very golden this boy was. . . . We are in the presence of a tremendous talent.”—The New Criterion
“Capote does some things perfectly that many writers can’t do at all. . . . [He] summons the sensory world in its bewildering, inexhaustible richness.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Prose that makes the heart sing and the narrative fly.”—The New York Times Book Review
“It’s easy to see how and why Capote had predicted [Answered Prayers] to be his magnum opus.”—Book Riot
“A gift from an unbridled genius . . . a Proustian view of international high society, a tell-all account of the Kennedys, sexual barter in the literary world and fragrant, addictive gossip at La Cote Basque, an elegant bistro then serving as Manhattan’s social hub . . . Even if the reader is unfamiliar with the blizzard of names being dropped, Answered Prayers is worth the ride, as an engrossing and ultimately poignant saga of aristocratic excess. . . . Capote’s work is irresistible.”—Los Angeles Times
“Capote’s ability to conjure a time, place and mood with just a few sentences is remarkable.”—Associated Press
“It is a stunning experience to reread this fiction . . . and to realize how very golden this boy was. . . . We are in the presence of a tremendous talent.”—The New Criterion
“Capote does some things perfectly that many writers can’t do at all. . . . [He] summons the sensory world in its bewildering, inexhaustible richness.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review