Summer Crossing: A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks)
by Truman Capote
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I can easily say this is definitely the best book I've ever read that was rescued from a trash can (Confederacy of Dunces was under his bed, right?). This was a novel Truman abandoned in 1943 to write his debut Other Voices, Other Rooms. After his success with In Cold Blood he moved out of his Brooklyn apartment for Manhattan instructing the remaining contents of his apartment be put out on the curb for collection. The Super salvaged a box full of papers that included this manuscript. Nobody kne...more
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This is one of those books where the back-story itself is almost good enough. Years after he originally wrote this novella (at age 19) in 4 Composition Notebooks (remember those black and white ones that you did all your Important Writing in in middle school?), Capote hastily moved out of his brownstone and asked his Super to throw away anything that he'd left behind in the rush. The detritus included a box containing this manuscript. A neighbor found the box and decided that such a thing shoul...more
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Aww... I liked this book. I liked it more than a lot of people, apparently. It's definitely less impressive than Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, but it's lovely nonetheless. I've been 19 years old before and I sure as hell wasn't able to crank out anything even close to being as good as this. I read it in a day and it was light, sweet and totally enjoyable... but I'm biased, because Capote can do no wrong in my eyes. If someone finds a grocery list of his in a trash can somewhere, let ...more
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Read in March, 2008
i liked this book a lot because it was short and to the point.
it was about a rich 17 year old girl from manhattan, grady, who spends the summer with her boyfriend in the city with out any parental supervision (her parents are away in europe). who knows what kind of crazy shenanigans a teenage girl and her boyfriend will get in to? well, apparently ALOT! in the few days that this book takes place over, grady and her boyfriend get married, and grady drives off of a bridge with him, and his f...more
it was about a rich 17 year old girl from manhattan, grady, who spends the summer with her boyfriend in the city with out any parental supervision (her parents are away in europe). who knows what kind of crazy shenanigans a teenage girl and her boyfriend will get in to? well, apparently ALOT! in the few days that this book takes place over, grady and her boyfriend get married, and grady drives off of a bridge with him, and his f...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Sara by:
Greg Draheim
After checking out this apparent prototype to the rest of Capote's work, I definitely wanted to move on into some Breakfast territory.
Grady, like Clyde, offers only the leanest peripheral insight into her inner life, causing the reader to view her uncomfortably atop a pedestal. Irony abounds in Grady's childlike insistence for acceptance from those she places beneath her. (To me, she is the complete embodiment of "svelte" :) ) More than a coming-of-age, class-conflict, or sultry be...more
Grady, like Clyde, offers only the leanest peripheral insight into her inner life, causing the reader to view her uncomfortably atop a pedestal. Irony abounds in Grady's childlike insistence for acceptance from those she places beneath her. (To me, she is the complete embodiment of "svelte" :) ) More than a coming-of-age, class-conflict, or sultry be...more
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recommends it for:
people of Capote's age, Capote-Fans
Mr. Truman will probably throw a fit in his grave if I tell him that his first novel wasn't nearly as entertaining as Ms. Novik's. So he is a great writer, I don't doubt that. And for a first novel, Summer Crossing is probably better than most.
Doesn't mean I have to like it, and I didn't. It didn't make sense to me, which is probably more a question of age than of writing. But the book did nothing to me: I wasn't particularly interested in what was happening, I didn't seem to like the charac...more
Doesn't mean I have to like it, and I didn't. It didn't make sense to me, which is probably more a question of age than of writing. But the book did nothing to me: I wasn't particularly interested in what was happening, I didn't seem to like the charac...more
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Read in February, 2008
Lost Truman Capote manuscript, uncovered in 2004, of his first novel, started when he was 19 years old. It's about a 17 year-old socialite named Grady McNeil, left alone on Long Island while her parents are in Europe, who stumbles into a hasty marriage with her working-class Jewish lover, with tragic results.
Thin novella (only about 130 pages) becomes somewhat hazy about two-thirds of the way through -- dialogue marks disappear, etc. -- and it clearly needs a polish that Capote never gave i...more
Thin novella (only about 130 pages) becomes somewhat hazy about two-thirds of the way through -- dialogue marks disappear, etc. -- and it clearly needs a polish that Capote never gave i...more
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Read in April, 2006
recommends it for:
Yes and No
If I had read this book not knowing anything about its background, I would not recommend it.
Written by Capote, this book was discovered in an attic somewhere and was subsequently published. Having been the first attempt to write a book by Capote ever, the book is flawed- there is no fluid style or theme or cast of characters- yet throughout its context, the reader witnesses the emergence of a brilliant writing style that would later cultivate and produce such classics as Music for Chameleons ...more
Written by Capote, this book was discovered in an attic somewhere and was subsequently published. Having been the first attempt to write a book by Capote ever, the book is flawed- there is no fluid style or theme or cast of characters- yet throughout its context, the reader witnesses the emergence of a brilliant writing style that would later cultivate and produce such classics as Music for Chameleons ...more
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This is the first book I read by Truman Capote, and I completely loved it. It's a relatively quick read as a result of both Capote's writing style and the plot. The book is almost like a detailed snapshot of the main character Grady's life-- while focusing on the events that unfold involving and around her one summer, you get a clear picture of who Grady is and why, largely impacted by her family and upbringing. Even though Capote chose to not give the reader complete closure in the book, it ...more
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The story itself isn't terribly interesting but what makes this a book interesting is Capote's mastery of the English language. Turns of phrases, metaphors, imagery, he has a command over all of them. The world he creates is somehow more vivid because its unnatural beauty. It's like watching a movie in technicolor and feeling that it is somehow more real than the real thing. The ending is a bit abrupt but it is the work of a very young Capote. The characters are well developed. The biggest obsta...more
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Read in January, 2008
The book shows the adventures, better say the book of Grady McNeill's quest after Clyde Manzer, her love. The ending was quite a shock for me, I really didn't see that coming. And thinking about it today, I still can't really with a 100% security say I understand what she did in that car. I don't see why she did it. But, nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, and for me it wasn't any less a good story than Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Spending a summer alone in New York was never so interesting. And it n...more
Spending a summer alone in New York was never so interesting. And it n...more
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Read in February, 2007
I had a lasting memory of the Christmas story Truman Capote wrote about his crazy old aunt, that we read in school. I knew I would like him from that, but I never got around to reading anything else by him, until this "lost" novel was given to me as a gift. It's a very quick read about a girl from a wealthy family who starts a relationship with a bad boy. It's unfinished and everything, but I liked it a lot. Excellent writing. It started the whole Truman Capote phase (which is ong
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Posthumously released in this last year ('07), it is evident that this was a working draft of a complete novel that needed more fleshing out. It reads ok but there are elements, dialogue and characters that definitely needed more fleshing out. You can tell this wasn't necessarily meant to be published. Capote, disenchanted with his lack of interest in this novel, finally set it aside to write Other Voices, Other Rooms and the rest is history.
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I picked up this book for a quick summer read. Thankfully, I read the forward and afterward which informed me that this book was found after Capote's 1984 death and was one he did not intend to publish.
All in all, I found this book to be a quick, enjoyable read, mildly thought-provoking, a bit surprising at times, with an unresolved ending.
It's a good read and a good introduction to Capote.
All in all, I found this book to be a quick, enjoyable read, mildly thought-provoking, a bit surprising at times, with an unresolved ending.
It's a good read and a good introduction to Capote.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in November, 2007
recommended to Marianne by:
Every Last Wordrecommends it for: Capote fans
Interesting but not very sympathetic characters. This was written early in Capote's career, but only discovered and published posthumously. He apparently didn't like it enough to sell it, or maybe hadn't really finished it. Would be interesting as a comparison to someone who has read and enjoyed some of Capote's other works (that wouldn't be me).
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Capote Fans
I enjoyed this little book quite a bit but it was fairly obvious that it had been unfinished and others touched up Truheart's work--it still had the wonderful descriptive quality of his other work but was patchy in parts and had a rather sudden end. Overall, not one of his best but still a cut above most folks writing today!
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Read in October, 2006
"While it’s a good piece of writing, it’s not the best of novels and I suppose would be best left to Capote completists and those who appreciate style; most others will find themselves disappointed."
Read my full review <a href="http://booklit.com/blog/2007/0....
Read my full review <a href="http://booklit.com/blog/2007/0....
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Given that this was in manuscript form when discovered, and Truman Capote had no intention of publishing this, it was still a good story. The jacket swooned over Capote's command of the English language, turn of phrases, and irony. Perhaps I should've tried his other, intended for publication works first.
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Capote fans
I love Truman Capote's prose. This is an early novella that was discovered several years after his death -- not quite complete (though completed by his editor). While it's not the Capote (yet) of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, it's still very well written and a pleasure to read.
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This should never have been published. Strange, out of character actions from characters that he meanders and spends the whole book in developing. Capote was right not to ever finish the book; too bad the publishers got greedy. If anyone else had written it, I'd give it one star.
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