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110th out of 598 books
—
1,401 voters
The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories
Set on the outskirts of a small Southern town, The Grass Harp tells the story of three endearing misfits—an orphaned boy and two whimsical old ladies—who one day take up residence in a tree house. As they pass sweet yet hazardous hours in a china tree, The Grass Harp manages to convey all the pleasures and responsibilities of freedom. But most of all it teaches us about th...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
September 28th 1993
by Vintage
(first published 1951)
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The Grass Harp: Truman Capote on the Sunny Side of the Street
Random House, New York, New York
Scene One--The office of Bob Linscott,Editor for Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, among others Random House, New York, NY
Linscott: Tru...more
"Gonna take a Sentimental Journey,
Gonna set my heart at ease.
Gonna make a Sentimental Journey,
to renew old memories...
Never thought my heart could be so yearny.
Why did I decide to roam?
Gotta take that Sentimental Journey,
Sentimental Journey home.
Sentimental Journey."
Random House, New York, New York
Scene One--The office of Bob Linscott,Editor for Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, among others Random House, New York, NY
Linscott: Tru...more
Capote's Southerness shines in this lovely little book.
I adore Truman Capote's work. In Cold Blood has to be one of my favorite books of all time. So it was interesting to read a book that was still so blatantly Capote but emotionally so far removed from the other. Then again, I guess it's not. The Grass Harp has the same sad wistfulness as all of Capote's books but introduces the warm, lazy, drama of a Southern picturesque.
I loved this book. The comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird are easy to...more
I adore Truman Capote's work. In Cold Blood has to be one of my favorite books of all time. So it was interesting to read a book that was still so blatantly Capote but emotionally so far removed from the other. Then again, I guess it's not. The Grass Harp has the same sad wistfulness as all of Capote's books but introduces the warm, lazy, drama of a Southern picturesque.
I loved this book. The comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird are easy to...more
I was surprised how good this novella and series of short stories were. I'd forgotten what a gift Truman Capote had as a writer, both in his humor and in his humanity.
One passage from "The Grass Harp" that I really liked:
"Her dress was ripped down the front: she was as good as naked. Ray Oliver, Jack Mill and Big Eddie Stover, three grown men, cronies of the Sheriff, were dragging and slapping her through the grass. I wanted to kill them; and Catherine was trying to: but she didn't stand a chanc...more
One passage from "The Grass Harp" that I really liked:
"Her dress was ripped down the front: she was as good as naked. Ray Oliver, Jack Mill and Big Eddie Stover, three grown men, cronies of the Sheriff, were dragging and slapping her through the grass. I wanted to kill them; and Catherine was trying to: but she didn't stand a chanc...more
Добрая притча с грустным концом вполне в духе "Завтрака у Тиффани".
Вот вроде бы всё есть, но чего-то не хватает. Стержень повести - главная героиня Долли (которая мне невесть почему напоминает Сонечку Мармеладову) - её центральная ось, утекает из рук как дым и теряется где-то среди тех самых голосов травы, а ты так и не понял среди всех этих многослойных шёпотов и напевов, что же они всё-таки поведали. Может быть - я не поняла.
Книга напоминает нарезку из "лучших моментов" литературной жизни, сво...more
Вот вроде бы всё есть, но чего-то не хватает. Стержень повести - главная героиня Долли (которая мне невесть почему напоминает Сонечку Мармеладову) - её центральная ось, утекает из рук как дым и теряется где-то среди тех самых голосов травы, а ты так и не понял среди всех этих многослойных шёпотов и напевов, что же они всё-таки поведали. Может быть - я не поняла.
Книга напоминает нарезку из "лучших моментов" литературной жизни, сво...more
I travel Capote's world mostly for the words. Yes, there is plot, characterization, mood, beginnings, middles, and ends (although some of those ends are quite abrupt). If his world is, at times, wistful, sometimes silly, sometimes fantastical, often cold, then, all the better because they are made that way through his exquisite use of words--the simpler the better.
This is why I read Capote: "...a field of high Indian grass that changes color with the seasons: go to see it in the fall, late Sept...more
This is why I read Capote: "...a field of high Indian grass that changes color with the seasons: go to see it in the fall, late Sept...more
Mar 24, 2012
Susana
added it
Bueno, yo tengo la versión en castellano, pero no importa. O si, porque nunca sabes si la traducción es fiel o no al original.
Me gustó y me sorprendió esta novela porque no tiene nada que ver con "A sangre fría" y, en cambio, si tiene muchas reminiscencias del tipo Tom Sawyer. Tampoco es exactamente al estilo de "Desayuno en Tiffany's" (la famosa "Desayuno con diamantes") que quizá es una novela más madura.La historia, contada en primera persona por uno de sus protagonistas, un chaval, no deja...more
Me gustó y me sorprendió esta novela porque no tiene nada que ver con "A sangre fría" y, en cambio, si tiene muchas reminiscencias del tipo Tom Sawyer. Tampoco es exactamente al estilo de "Desayuno en Tiffany's" (la famosa "Desayuno con diamantes") que quizá es una novela más madura.La historia, contada en primera persona por uno de sus protagonistas, un chaval, no deja...more
This is an utterly charming novella with all the qualities of a good fairy tale. I've always thought that Truman Capote is the bastard child of Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams. This book is definitely on the Eudora Welty side of the equation, although it also reminds me in moments of We Have Always Lived at the Castle.
This is a tale of misfits, of the freedom of refusing to fit in, and of what it takes to make yourself and your family. The language is elegiac and the relationships are sweet,...more
This is a tale of misfits, of the freedom of refusing to fit in, and of what it takes to make yourself and your family. The language is elegiac and the relationships are sweet,...more
This is one weird novella. It's weird in a creepy sort of way. Capote tells the story of two older sisters who live together with another women who is Black but claims to be Native American. One sister is very wealthy and business oriented and the other sister, who basically lives for free in return for housekeeping, is very passive--and the latter sister lives in an entirely pink room. The three women take care of a boy, the narrator, who grows up in this strange house raised by three odd femal...more
I love the way Truman Capote writes. I love his vivid language, flamboyant characters, rhythmic sentences and bold, fantastic scenes.
Reading Truman Capote is like eating cheesecake -- every sentence is rich and satisfying.
Here's a beautiful excerpt from The Grass Harp:
Wind surprised, pealed the leaves, parted night clouds; showers of starlight were let loose: our candle, as though intimidated by the incandescence of the the opening, star-stabbed sky, toppled, and we could see, unwrapped abov...more
Reading Truman Capote is like eating cheesecake -- every sentence is rich and satisfying.
Here's a beautiful excerpt from The Grass Harp:
Wind surprised, pealed the leaves, parted night clouds; showers of starlight were let loose: our candle, as though intimidated by the incandescence of the the opening, star-stabbed sky, toppled, and we could see, unwrapped abov...more
I discovered Truman Capote with In Cold Blood. Then I gobbled up everything else I could find in the library. This is the book that first brought him fame, and introduced me to southern fiction. While he didn't "invent a genre" here, as he did with In Cold Blood, his voice was diaphanous and faintly perfumed, like Tennessee Williams in the pre-cocktail morning. In fact, I think Capote and Williams created that iconic atmosphere of humid sadness in a rocking chair, and the young misfit in a faded...more
In The Grass Harp, Truman Capote beautifully captures the bizarre story of Collin Fenwick. After the death of his mother, Collin was taken in by the wealthy Tablo sisters, Verena and Dolly. Verena is very distant from the Collin, Dolly and Catherine trio. The three do everything together including building a tree house as well as collecting and creating Dolly’s homemade “dropsy cure” medicine. Fed up with “That One” (their nick name for Verena), Dolly flees with Catherine and Collin. With nowher...more
The first time I read a Truman Capote story I could have sworn I had read it before. Not trite or derivative, more like he drew these stories in fine silvery threads from my heart.
I've never read anything by Truman Capote before, but this was a great introduction to his beautiful, encompassing storytelling, where every word fulfills a lovely purpose. The Grass Harp itself is one of the reasons I have a secret obsession with Southern storytelling. It tells a quirky, small town story filled with rich characters, the difficulties of human relationships and nostalgic details. The remaining stories alternated between somewhat creepy or atmospheric stories about New York City a...more
Leí este libro en algún verano durante mi adolescencia y me perdí un poco en él. Por un tiempo comí sólo dulces durante tres meses y me mudé a la copa de un árbol, siempre descalza y elucubrando aventuras y bromas ligeras con mis amigos imaginarios. De esto sólo obtuve, de regreso a la cotidianidad, una severa situación de caries y me volví prediabética, además de que casi me fracturo la columna vertebral una noche al bajar de mi guarida extravagante. Yo quería ser un poco como Dolly Talbo, no t...more
The Grass Harp was about as Southern Gothic as you could get, which means I loved it.
As for the short stories in this volume, the stories set in the South were folksy, hilarious and often depraved in a way that felt right at home for me. However, the New York set stories were desolate, spooky and actually gave me chill bumps. Not to say I didn't enjoy them but the fact they were all mixed together made me feel like walking out of a sultry sumertime kitchen into an snowstorm and back again. I end...more
As for the short stories in this volume, the stories set in the South were folksy, hilarious and often depraved in a way that felt right at home for me. However, the New York set stories were desolate, spooky and actually gave me chill bumps. Not to say I didn't enjoy them but the fact they were all mixed together made me feel like walking out of a sultry sumertime kitchen into an snowstorm and back again. I end...more
Whatever you do, don't see the revolting movie version of this exquisite novella. This is poetry, prose, and perfection between two narrow covers. It is a simple story in the tradition of Carson McCullers, but without the prop of physical deformity or mental aberration. A young orphaned boy goes to live with two eccentric aunts: one childlike and sincere, one embittered and controlling. The elegant plot is driven by a crisis when the ambitious sister attempts to profit from the other, triggering...more
Jan 17, 2011
Alice
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
for-all-times,
stack-challenge-2011
Here's to hoping that I never have to read anything by Capote again.
People that I’ve talked to about this collection are disappointed by how nostalgic the stories are, especially The Grass Harp. They are expecting something along the lines of In Cold Blood and are disappointed that this is not in the same vein.
This is my first read of any Capote, and I found the stories deep and beautifully sad. I personally enjoyed some more than others, but overall I found it to be a great collection. Each story needs time and space to breathe, so don’t expect to power through...more
This is my first read of any Capote, and I found the stories deep and beautifully sad. I personally enjoyed some more than others, but overall I found it to be a great collection. Each story needs time and space to breathe, so don’t expect to power through...more
Perhaps the favorite southern fiction book I've read so far. So beautifully descriptive. Everything - the pacing, the characters, the style. It's just such a vivid book. One of those in which you experience sensory images long after turning the last page.
Capote understood the child trying to adjust to living with and understanding two single bewildering aunts he's been thrust upon. And he wrote that child's viewpoint of those aunts and their house so well.
Recommended as a summer read - with th...more
Capote understood the child trying to adjust to living with and understanding two single bewildering aunts he's been thrust upon. And he wrote that child's viewpoint of those aunts and their house so well.
Recommended as a summer read - with th...more
Brilliant. Comparable in style and subject matter but not quite up to his debut Other Voices, Other Rooms. Memorable lines and opinions on humanity and love. Feels slightly rushed towards the end however, unfortunately. His characters are as eclectic and colourful as any other Capote novel.
"When was it that first I heard of the grass harp? Long before the autumn we lived in the China tree; an earlier autumn, then; and of course it was Dolly who told me, no one else would have known to call it th...more
"When was it that first I heard of the grass harp? Long before the autumn we lived in the China tree; an earlier autumn, then; and of course it was Dolly who told me, no one else would have known to call it th...more
liked it very much but still i want to admit that Capote's writing style was a little difficult to follow what was going on. there were a few ideas which i do not agree and have not ever heard such in my life, but it was one of the main reasons why I was so passionately interested in this book. for instance, there was wrong, for me, notion about love and how women should act when they are out or how one should make decision, not ordinary, but such important decision as, I think is one’s future....more
Lovely and meticulous, Capote's writing is haunting, playful, creepy, compelling, dark, and touching. Con men, miracle cures, precocious kids, small towns (and the nastiness of the small-town mentality), mysterious strangers, and the inexplicable appear again and again in these stories (as do japonica trees). There's a strange quality to a lot of the stories, as in "The Grass Harp," where the characters feel so real, and yet the events of the story are totally dreamlike and unreal.
So many authors' works don't live up to the adjectives used to desribe their works. Adjective like soaring, lyrical, incandescent, etc are so overused. As I read the Grass Harp by Truman Capote I understood why Capote's novels are so enduring. Here is a book that truly deserves those adjectives. Only 97 pages, this novella tells the story of three people in a small southern town that go to live in a treehouse and the consequences of that seemingly innocuous action.
"We must know our position to defend it..." (p.40)
"But, ah, the energy we spend hiding from one another, afraid as we are of being identified." (p.41)
"But a man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat: he stores up a lot of poison." (p.83)
"Some plants, though, they bloom just the once, if at all, and nothing more happens to them. They live, but they've had their life." (p.83)
"But, ah, the energy we spend hiding from one another, afraid as we are of being identified." (p.41)
"But a man who doesn't dream is like a man who doesn't sweat: he stores up a lot of poison." (p.83)
"Some plants, though, they bloom just the once, if at all, and nothing more happens to them. They live, but they've had their life." (p.83)
Read this because I enjoyed the movie. Hadn't realized it was a short story - and didn't read the rest of the stories in the collection, I'm afraid. Loved the quirky characters. My advice: read the story *before* watching the movie. This reminded me of Cold Sassy Tree and novels of that tradition of snug-bordering-on-corny-Americana, wonderful if done well, icky-sweet if mishandled.
Dec 18, 2008
Jill
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who wants their heart strings pulled
Capote creates some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. His characters are created with so much care, and I love them all, whether they're good or bad. This novella is perhaps the best example of Capote's skill. Anyone who loves to read gorgeous descriptions of eccentric characters and create a relationship with the story they're reading should pick up this book. It is the epitome of heart-warming.
My first in a Classics challenge I set for myself. I've read most of Truman Capote's books, and always enjoyed them. He wrote with a sense of wonder and warmth, thia endearing story of three misfits, an orphan and two whimsical old ladies, who take up residence in a tree house. It's a story of responsibilities, freedom, and love. I really enjoyed this book.
Oct 17, 2007
J.P.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
literary fiction fans, short story fans, fans of humor
Another one of my touchstone books.
This is an author I find difficult to like; Capote often pounded his own drum a bit too loudly for my taste, pissed away his talent on drugs and, at least in his later years, abandoned writing for the shameless pursuit of fame. But in his early years, he was damned sharp. Much of his reputation is founded on the stories in this book.
All of the pieces here are worthwhile; but the icing on the cake is "My Side of the Matter". One of Capote's earliest tales, "My...more
This is an author I find difficult to like; Capote often pounded his own drum a bit too loudly for my taste, pissed away his talent on drugs and, at least in his later years, abandoned writing for the shameless pursuit of fame. But in his early years, he was damned sharp. Much of his reputation is founded on the stories in this book.
All of the pieces here are worthwhile; but the icing on the cake is "My Side of the Matter". One of Capote's earliest tales, "My...more
Really odd little story but I really enjoyed the characters. They took getting used to, but worth the effort. All good people.
"It made my stomach hurt to hear him talk like that; I longed to tell him that he was all I wanted to be."
"As thought scattering a dream she brushed back her veil."
"It made my stomach hurt to hear him talk like that; I longed to tell him that he was all I wanted to be."
"As thought scattering a dream she brushed back her veil."
Okay... Americans CAN write good "classic" fiction. Very home-spun story, but deceptively compelling story that pokes around the soft-spots of child abandonment, homosexuality, class-ism, racism, and small-mindedness versus small-town charm.
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| The Male Gaze: The Queer Theory - The Grass Harp | 9 | 14 | Feb 20, 2013 08:58pm |
Truman Capote was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognised literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel." At least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and screenplays.
He was born as Truman Streckfus Persons to a salesman Archulus Persons...more
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He was born as Truman Streckfus Persons to a salesman Archulus Persons...more
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“If some wizard would like to give me a present, let him give me a bottle filled with the voices of that kitchen, the ha ha ha and the fire whispering, a bottle brimming with its buttery sugary smells . . .”
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“It may be that there is no place for any of us. Except we know there is somewhere; and if we found it, but lived there only a moment, we could count ourselves blessed.”
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2 people liked it
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'you SKIPPED off the damned stage lik...more
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