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The Grass Harp: Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories by Truman Capote
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 the sacredness of love, "that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life."
This volume also includes Capote's A Tree of Night and Other Stories, which the Washington Post called "unobstrusively beautiful...a superlative book."
This volume also includes Capote's A Tree of Night and Other Stories, which the Washington Post called "unobstrusively beautiful...a superlative book."
Paperback
First published January 2, 1956
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About the author
Truman Capote
379 books7,150 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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 and young Lillie Mae. His parents divorced when he was four and he went to live with his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. He was a lonely child who learned to read and write by himself before entering school. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her new husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born businessman. Mr. Capote adopted Truman, legally changing his last name to Capote and enrolling him in private school. After graduating from high school in 1942, Truman Capote began his regular job as a copy boy at The New Yorker. During this time, he also began his career as a writer, publishing many short stories which introduced him into a circle of literary critics. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks and became controversial because of the photograph of Capote used to promote the novel, posing seductively and gazing into the camera.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Capote remained prolific producing both fiction and non-fiction. His masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a story about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, was published in 1966 in book form by Random House, became a worldwide success and brought Capote much praise from the literary community. After this success he published rarely and suffered from alcohol addiction. He died in 1984 at age 59.
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 and young Lillie Mae. His parents divorced when he was four and he went to live with his mother's relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. He was a lonely child who learned to read and write by himself before entering school. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her new husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born businessman. Mr. Capote adopted Truman, legally changing his last name to Capote and enrolling him in private school. After graduating from high school in 1942, Truman Capote began his regular job as a copy boy at The New Yorker. During this time, he also began his career as a writer, publishing many short stories which introduced him into a circle of literary critics. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks and became controversial because of the photograph of Capote used to promote the novel, posing seductively and gazing into the camera.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Capote remained prolific producing both fiction and non-fiction. His masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a story about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, was published in 1966 in book form by Random House, became a worldwide success and brought Capote much praise from the literary community. After this success he published rarely and suffered from alcohol addiction. He died in 1984 at age 59.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 364 reviews
August 29, 2021
This collection of Capote short stories and a novella are set in either the rural south or N.Y.C. They were written between the late 40's and early 50's. Some of the characters are children, some misfits, some quirky but all interesting.
The novella, The Grass Harp, was one of my favorites. It was tender, warm and funny, probably the only short story or novella I have read that was humorous. The people and their relationships, the sleepy small town and the events of a 50's country town seemed so real. It had all the southern charm and simplicity of yesteryear, much like Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Rebellion and control were themes in the novella and a few other stories such as Master Misery, where the title character steals dreams,"steals them like he would steal your dolls or the chicken wings off your plate". These themes are also evident in A Tree of Night and Children on Their Birthdays.
Capote's stories seem to be taken from his own life. I don't think the authorship of these stories could be mistaken for anyone else. There is something particularly appealing about that.
The novella, The Grass Harp, was one of my favorites. It was tender, warm and funny, probably the only short story or novella I have read that was humorous. The people and their relationships, the sleepy small town and the events of a 50's country town seemed so real. It had all the southern charm and simplicity of yesteryear, much like Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Rebellion and control were themes in the novella and a few other stories such as Master Misery, where the title character steals dreams,"steals them like he would steal your dolls or the chicken wings off your plate". These themes are also evident in A Tree of Night and Children on Their Birthdays.
Capote's stories seem to be taken from his own life. I don't think the authorship of these stories could be mistaken for anyone else. There is something particularly appealing about that.
March 4, 2020
The Grass Harp: 4-stars
After a failed attempt to listen to The Grass Harp on audio, I purchased this book and began again. I am quite glad that I did, since the beauty of the language minus the fake Southern accent is remarkable. I loved the Truman Capote I heard in my own head, with the softness of the accents of my own Aunts Pearl and Maybelle echoing in the words of Miss Dolly.
The audaciousness of the concept of a boy and two old women living in a tree is lost in the genuine delight of the image Capote paints--the defiance of those who are the weaklings in the eyes of everyone else in this town. Dolly is a marvelous character, but Catherine made me smile almost every time she spoke. I could see her, hands on hips, calling Verena “That One”.
Capote achieves a lot in a short time. With less than 100 pages in which to tell a fairly complicated story, he says exactly what needs to be said and wastes not a word. Quite an accomplishment. He also manages to incorporate a real humor and a poignant sense of loneliness into this brief moment in a bunch of fractured, and perhaps wasted, lives.
I intend to read the other stories in this collection, but not right now. Hoping to come back soon and complete the review. Meanwhile, I have rated this book with only The Grass Harp in mind.
After a failed attempt to listen to The Grass Harp on audio, I purchased this book and began again. I am quite glad that I did, since the beauty of the language minus the fake Southern accent is remarkable. I loved the Truman Capote I heard in my own head, with the softness of the accents of my own Aunts Pearl and Maybelle echoing in the words of Miss Dolly.
The audaciousness of the concept of a boy and two old women living in a tree is lost in the genuine delight of the image Capote paints--the defiance of those who are the weaklings in the eyes of everyone else in this town. Dolly is a marvelous character, but Catherine made me smile almost every time she spoke. I could see her, hands on hips, calling Verena “That One”.
Capote achieves a lot in a short time. With less than 100 pages in which to tell a fairly complicated story, he says exactly what needs to be said and wastes not a word. Quite an accomplishment. He also manages to incorporate a real humor and a poignant sense of loneliness into this brief moment in a bunch of fractured, and perhaps wasted, lives.
I intend to read the other stories in this collection, but not right now. Hoping to come back soon and complete the review. Meanwhile, I have rated this book with only The Grass Harp in mind.
June 13, 2012
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: Truman, you're a wonderful writer...
Capote: Oh, that's so true. There's only one TC! (Truman takes a languorous puff from his cigarette and stares dreamily at the ceiling, then looks at Bob, giving him a sultry look.)
Linscott: Don't pull that pouty baby face look on me. It won't work.
Capote: Why, Bob, I don't know what you mean! (In a whining tone)
Linscott: Look. Bennett's getting nervous. It's been two years since Other Voices, Other Rooms came out. That jacket photo just about made us all laughing stocks.
Capote: Now, that was perfectly innocent, Bob. And, Foxy, you had final approval on that picture. Now, didn't you?
Linscott: You caught me at a weak moment.
Capote: (Waving his cigarette delicately) Well, there you have it, Bobby.
Linscott: We've kept you in front of the public, Truman. We published your short fiction in
A Tree of Night: And Other Stories. But you've been promising...
Capote: And it was a ROUSING success. You were at the reading down at the Poetry Center. I was practically BLASTED off that high stool Malcolm had me sit on by the applause. How many times have you heard Bravo and Encore shouted outside of an opera house? Hmmmm???
Linscott: And you hopped off that stool and were bowing and blowing kisses with both hands. Have you absolutely no shame, Truman?
Capote: What's that, Bob? Shame? (giggling)
Linscott: Truman, you SKIPPED off the damned stage like a school boy!
HUZZAH!
Capote: Well, Foxy, I FELT like a school boy. Why, I DID!
Linscott: And don't tell me you're still working on Summer Crossing.
Capote: But, Bob, I am. I really, really am. It's just that the progress is slow.
Linscott: Really, Truman. What do you not understand? A rich New York girl falls in love with a cab stand attendant?
Capote: Love comes in many places. Wherever you find it, is natural.
Linscott: I'm sure you would know, Truman. But it's THIN, Truman, THIN! Any author could write it. It doesn't have your unique artistic stamp.
Capote: Well, actually, Jack doesn't like it either.
Truman and Jack Dunphy, long time companions
Linscott: You're not helping that gad about with his novel are you, Truman?
Capote: NO! Bob! I wouldn't do that. Why would I lie? (eyes dart left and right)
Linscott: For any of the same reasons you always do, Truman. So what am I going to tell Bennett?
Capote: Alright. I tore it up. I didn't like it either.
Linscott: You tore it up! Truman!
Capote: Well you said you didn't like it. I tore it up. It's finished. Gone. Never to see the light of day. Happy? I'm working on something else. Something from back in Alabama. About growing up with Callie, Sook, and Annie.
Linscott: Is this true? I want to see the first two chapters.
Capote: Oh, Bob! You won't believe it. It's about the lovely years I spent with my cousins. I know how dark and gloomy Other Voices, Other Rooms was. But this is the HAPPY TC. It's very real to me, more real than anything I've ever written, probably ever will.
Linscott: That's what you've said about EVERYTHING you've ever written.
Capote: (sulking) I cry. I have no control over myself or what I'm doing. Memories are always breaking my heart, Bob. You know, it's not easy writing a beautiful book.
SCENE TWO--Truman on the terrace of the Fontana Vecchia in Taormina, on the phone. Linscott in his office at Random House, also on phone.
Linscott: Truman, Truman, Truman. This is absolutely wonderful. So, Dolly, that'd be Sook, right? She's got a patent medicine for Dropsy that Verena...
Capote: Ye-e-e-s, that would be Cousin Callie. She could be so mean--
Linscott: And Verena is going to steal Dolly's recipe to make the money off it--
Capote: (Yawning. Jack is rubbing his shoulders) That's right. Callie always was the richest, meanest woman in town.
Linscott: So, they run off from home and find a treehouse between two China Berry trees and live there, and Verena sends the law to bring them back, and there's this retired Judge--
Capote--Charlie Cool who falls in love with Dolly, and Catherine Creek, Dolly's helper, and Riley, an older boy I looked up to all living up in this tree. And Judge Cool stands between Verena, the law and the townspeople who are trying to get Dolly to go back home and live with Verena.
Linscott: My boy, my boy--This is simply marvelous stuff. How are you going to get them down out of the tree? ARE you going to get them out of the tree?
Capote: Bob, you'll just have to wait and see. I'm mailing out the last sections June 4.
Linscott: I hope you mean June 4, 1951, and not 52 or 53.
Capote: Really Bob. You need to loosen up a little. First you drink, then you have sex, and then you smoke. You should try it sometime.
Linscott: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wonderful stuff. Simply marvelous. Now this is the TC I know and love that we ALL know and love here at Random House.
Capote: Give my regards to Bennett, Foxy. (hanging up) A little lower Jack, honey.
SCENE THREE: Scenes of train travelling through the Italian countryside. A map flashes Florence, Rome, and finally Venice. Truman is on the phone looking out his hotel room overlooking the Canal.
CAPOTE: Uhm, Bob, Truman
Linscott: How could I ever mistake that voice, my boy.
Capote: Oh, Bob. I do hope you are pleased with the book.
Linscott: Uhm, how can I say this, Truman. I didn't like the ending. Nobody hear at Random House liked the ending.
And if Bennett Cerf isn't happy, ain't nobody happy at Random House
Capote: But, Bob, WHY? I just don't understand! (plaintively, turning into a pouty face)
Linscott: Well, Truman, the first half was absolutely divine! I was expecting a continuing miracle! I don't think we got that. Not at all.
Capote: But, but, but...
Linscott: Not, you understand, that it isn't a good as a story and as superb as a piece of righting. There's no specific criticism to be made; just that we all had a slight feeling of letdown, tapering off a little, with the ending coming to soon. It's so short, we don't think people will buy it as a novel.
Capote: I cannot endure it (stamping feet) that all of you think my book a failure. I am simply striken by such overpowering opinion!
Linscott: "We'll pray that the critics won't have the same feeling of vague letdown in the last half that effected us.
SCENE FOUR: Review pages swirl coming to rest on headlines as a back drop to Truman Capote sitting in a comfortable chair. Capote holds an Atlantic Magazine. Newspapers and magazines are scattered around his chair.
First Edition, The Grass Harp
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE--
THE GRASS HARP SHOWS THE MATURING AND MELLOWING OF ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST YOUNG WRITERS
NEW YORK TIMES--
A VAST IMPROVEMENT OVER OTHER VOICES OTHER ROOMS
THE COMMONWEAL--
WITHIN THE SLIM COMPASS OF THIS WORK, TRUMAN CAPOTE HAS ACHIEVED A MASTERPIECE OF PASSIONATE SIMPLICITY
(Lights begin to fade)
Capote: (reading aloud) "The Atlantic Monthly commented that 'The Grass Harp charms you into sharing the author's feeling that there is a special poetry - a spontaneity and wonder and delight - in lives untarnished by conformity and common sense.'"
Capote: (reading reviews with satisfied smile) All books are far too long. MY theory is that a book should be like a seed you plant, and that the reader should make his own flower. Now, Bob, Honey--Bennett--What was it you were saying? Actually, I'm thinking about an extraordinary young woman that loves to shop at Tiffany's.
Stage lights fade to black.
FINIS
"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: Truman, you're a wonderful writer...
Capote: Oh, that's so true. There's only one TC! (Truman takes a languorous puff from his cigarette and stares dreamily at the ceiling, then looks at Bob, giving him a sultry look.)
Linscott: Don't pull that pouty baby face look on me. It won't work.
Capote: Why, Bob, I don't know what you mean! (In a whining tone)
Linscott: Look. Bennett's getting nervous. It's been two years since Other Voices, Other Rooms came out. That jacket photo just about made us all laughing stocks.
Capote: Now, that was perfectly innocent, Bob. And, Foxy, you had final approval on that picture. Now, didn't you?
Linscott: You caught me at a weak moment.
Capote: (Waving his cigarette delicately) Well, there you have it, Bobby.
Linscott: We've kept you in front of the public, Truman. We published your short fiction in
A Tree of Night: And Other Stories. But you've been promising...
Capote: And it was a ROUSING success. You were at the reading down at the Poetry Center. I was practically BLASTED off that high stool Malcolm had me sit on by the applause. How many times have you heard Bravo and Encore shouted outside of an opera house? Hmmmm???
Linscott: And you hopped off that stool and were bowing and blowing kisses with both hands. Have you absolutely no shame, Truman?
Capote: What's that, Bob? Shame? (giggling)
Linscott: Truman, you SKIPPED off the damned stage like a school boy!
HUZZAH!
Capote: Well, Foxy, I FELT like a school boy. Why, I DID!
Linscott: And don't tell me you're still working on Summer Crossing.
Capote: But, Bob, I am. I really, really am. It's just that the progress is slow.
Linscott: Really, Truman. What do you not understand? A rich New York girl falls in love with a cab stand attendant?
Capote: Love comes in many places. Wherever you find it, is natural.
Linscott: I'm sure you would know, Truman. But it's THIN, Truman, THIN! Any author could write it. It doesn't have your unique artistic stamp.
Capote: Well, actually, Jack doesn't like it either.
Truman and Jack Dunphy, long time companions
Linscott: You're not helping that gad about with his novel are you, Truman?
Capote: NO! Bob! I wouldn't do that. Why would I lie? (eyes dart left and right)
Linscott: For any of the same reasons you always do, Truman. So what am I going to tell Bennett?
Capote: Alright. I tore it up. I didn't like it either.
Linscott: You tore it up! Truman!
Capote: Well you said you didn't like it. I tore it up. It's finished. Gone. Never to see the light of day. Happy? I'm working on something else. Something from back in Alabama. About growing up with Callie, Sook, and Annie.
Linscott: Is this true? I want to see the first two chapters.
Capote: Oh, Bob! You won't believe it. It's about the lovely years I spent with my cousins. I know how dark and gloomy Other Voices, Other Rooms was. But this is the HAPPY TC. It's very real to me, more real than anything I've ever written, probably ever will.
Linscott: That's what you've said about EVERYTHING you've ever written.
Capote: (sulking) I cry. I have no control over myself or what I'm doing. Memories are always breaking my heart, Bob. You know, it's not easy writing a beautiful book.
SCENE TWO--Truman on the terrace of the Fontana Vecchia in Taormina, on the phone. Linscott in his office at Random House, also on phone.
Linscott: Truman, Truman, Truman. This is absolutely wonderful. So, Dolly, that'd be Sook, right? She's got a patent medicine for Dropsy that Verena...
Capote: Ye-e-e-s, that would be Cousin Callie. She could be so mean--
Linscott: And Verena is going to steal Dolly's recipe to make the money off it--
Capote: (Yawning. Jack is rubbing his shoulders) That's right. Callie always was the richest, meanest woman in town.
Linscott: So, they run off from home and find a treehouse between two China Berry trees and live there, and Verena sends the law to bring them back, and there's this retired Judge--
Capote--Charlie Cool who falls in love with Dolly, and Catherine Creek, Dolly's helper, and Riley, an older boy I looked up to all living up in this tree. And Judge Cool stands between Verena, the law and the townspeople who are trying to get Dolly to go back home and live with Verena.
Linscott: My boy, my boy--This is simply marvelous stuff. How are you going to get them down out of the tree? ARE you going to get them out of the tree?
Capote: Bob, you'll just have to wait and see. I'm mailing out the last sections June 4.
Linscott: I hope you mean June 4, 1951, and not 52 or 53.
Capote: Really Bob. You need to loosen up a little. First you drink, then you have sex, and then you smoke. You should try it sometime.
Linscott: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wonderful stuff. Simply marvelous. Now this is the TC I know and love that we ALL know and love here at Random House.
Capote: Give my regards to Bennett, Foxy. (hanging up) A little lower Jack, honey.
SCENE THREE: Scenes of train travelling through the Italian countryside. A map flashes Florence, Rome, and finally Venice. Truman is on the phone looking out his hotel room overlooking the Canal.
CAPOTE: Uhm, Bob, Truman
Linscott: How could I ever mistake that voice, my boy.
Capote: Oh, Bob. I do hope you are pleased with the book.
Linscott: Uhm, how can I say this, Truman. I didn't like the ending. Nobody hear at Random House liked the ending.
And if Bennett Cerf isn't happy, ain't nobody happy at Random House
Capote: But, Bob, WHY? I just don't understand! (plaintively, turning into a pouty face)
Linscott: Well, Truman, the first half was absolutely divine! I was expecting a continuing miracle! I don't think we got that. Not at all.
Capote: But, but, but...
Linscott: Not, you understand, that it isn't a good as a story and as superb as a piece of righting. There's no specific criticism to be made; just that we all had a slight feeling of letdown, tapering off a little, with the ending coming to soon. It's so short, we don't think people will buy it as a novel.
Capote: I cannot endure it (stamping feet) that all of you think my book a failure. I am simply striken by such overpowering opinion!
Linscott: "We'll pray that the critics won't have the same feeling of vague letdown in the last half that effected us.
SCENE FOUR: Review pages swirl coming to rest on headlines as a back drop to Truman Capote sitting in a comfortable chair. Capote holds an Atlantic Magazine. Newspapers and magazines are scattered around his chair.
First Edition, The Grass Harp
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE--
THE GRASS HARP SHOWS THE MATURING AND MELLOWING OF ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST YOUNG WRITERS
NEW YORK TIMES--
A VAST IMPROVEMENT OVER OTHER VOICES OTHER ROOMS
THE COMMONWEAL--
WITHIN THE SLIM COMPASS OF THIS WORK, TRUMAN CAPOTE HAS ACHIEVED A MASTERPIECE OF PASSIONATE SIMPLICITY
(Lights begin to fade)
Capote: (reading aloud) "The Atlantic Monthly commented that 'The Grass Harp charms you into sharing the author's feeling that there is a special poetry - a spontaneity and wonder and delight - in lives untarnished by conformity and common sense.'"
Capote: (reading reviews with satisfied smile) All books are far too long. MY theory is that a book should be like a seed you plant, and that the reader should make his own flower. Now, Bob, Honey--Bennett--What was it you were saying? Actually, I'm thinking about an extraordinary young woman that loves to shop at Tiffany's.
Stage lights fade to black.
FINIS
February 15, 2019
This book includes the novella The Grass Harp and eight stories. They are listed below with a short description and some quotes from each. At the end I speak of the book as a whole and the audiobook performance.
The Grass Harp—about an orphan and two elderly women friends, one White and the other a mixed Indian and Black. They flee to a house hidden in a china tree. Set in a small southern town.
Quote: “Love is a chain of love, because if you love one thing you can love another.”
Master Misery—about a girl and a clown and a man who buys dreams. Set in NYC.
Quote: “Happiness winged around her like a bird lamed, but flying around her.”
Children on Their Birthdays--about an obnoxious little girl, Miss Bobbitt, in her pretty yellow frock. She moves into town with her mother, meets some kids and gets run over by the 6 o’clock bus. This about the bus, we are told at the start. Set again in a small southern town.
Quote: “Friends, like ivy on the wall, must fall.”
Shut a Final Door--about making your way among the chic and the advertising world of NYC. This is well done, but not a pleasant reading experience!
Quotes: “What is the use of having friends if you couldn’t discuss them objectively.”
and
"On the way out, he paid for a cup of coffee he had forgotten to have.”
Jug of Silver--In a small southern town there is a drugstore with its soda fountain counter. Into town moves a competitor. How are the clientele to be won back? This story, set at Christmas, I did enjoy.
Quote: “You oughtn’t to be telling our personal, private family business that a’way, Appleseed.”
Miriam--about two Miriams, a little girl and a widow. They meet at a movie theater in wintry NYC. This story grabbed my interest from the start and held it to the end. THIS story is very good!
Quotes: “The line seemed to be taking its own time, and looking around for some distraction, she suddenly became conscious of a little girl standing under the edge of the marquis. Her hair was…….”
and
(That's an) “imitation. Aren’t imitations sad?”
The Headless Hawk--about a girl in green and a guy working in an art studio. He buys her painting, but he buys it for himself! Look at the title and the last quote and then stop and think. This story attracted me at the start, but the end threw me. Another story set in NYC.
Quotes: “Her eyes rolled in her sockets like loose marbles…she looked like a sad rag doll…..and (he) wondered why it was that eccentricity always excited in him such a curious admiration. It was the feeling he’d had toward carnival freaks.”
and
“Candles are magic. Light one and the world becomes a storybook.”
and
“He was, he said, a poet who had never written poetry, a painter who had never painted, a lover who had never loved absolutely. Someone, in short, without direction and quite headless.”
My Side of the Matter--about Miss Olivia Ann, Eunice, Blue Bell, Marge and Baby Doll. The last is a man, if I have understood correctly. Set in the South, it is a disjointed telling of a confrontation, a fracas, a melee.
Quotes: “No wife of mine is ever gonna be disrespectful of me.”
and
“That was my funeral money, and I want it back.”
A Tree of Night is set in a train in Alabama headed toward Atlanta. It is about a nineteen-year-old girl traveling from her uncle’s funeral back to college and the creepy couple she meets in the train coach. You could call them a traveling circus show of two.
Quotes: “He think I’m drunk, and the funny part is I am. You gotta do something.”
and
“Didn’t your mamma ever tell you it is sinful to lie?!”
The prose is filled with abstract metaphors and fanciful impressions. They seem to me to be saying more than I understand. The writing feels somehow psychedelic. Few of the stories engaged me, and none of the characters pulled me in. The reading experience left me detached. On the other hand, Truman Capote is adept at capturing the feel of a time and place, be it NYC, the world of advertising or a small town in the South. His prose intrigues me, which explains why I have given quotes.
The audiobook sold at Audible is entitled The Grass Harp, but the stories are also included. Cody Roberts narrates the audiobook. He uses a thick southern dialect when he reads the novella. When he is using a southern accent, he tends to almost sing the lines. Pauses are often misplaced. He stops both before and after the word “and”. Why he does this is beyond me! I did not like his narration of the novella, but he reads the stories better, so I have given the narration three stars.
The novella, the next two stories and the last two did little for me. Only one story, Miriam, did I like a lot, three stories were good or pretty good, so I guess the book was OK.
************************
In Cold Blood 4 stars
Breakfast at Tiffany's 4 stars
The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories 2 stars
Other Voices, Other Rooms TBR
The Grass Harp—about an orphan and two elderly women friends, one White and the other a mixed Indian and Black. They flee to a house hidden in a china tree. Set in a small southern town.
Quote: “Love is a chain of love, because if you love one thing you can love another.”
Master Misery—about a girl and a clown and a man who buys dreams. Set in NYC.
Quote: “Happiness winged around her like a bird lamed, but flying around her.”
Children on Their Birthdays--about an obnoxious little girl, Miss Bobbitt, in her pretty yellow frock. She moves into town with her mother, meets some kids and gets run over by the 6 o’clock bus. This about the bus, we are told at the start. Set again in a small southern town.
Quote: “Friends, like ivy on the wall, must fall.”
Shut a Final Door--about making your way among the chic and the advertising world of NYC. This is well done, but not a pleasant reading experience!
Quotes: “What is the use of having friends if you couldn’t discuss them objectively.”
and
"On the way out, he paid for a cup of coffee he had forgotten to have.”
Jug of Silver--In a small southern town there is a drugstore with its soda fountain counter. Into town moves a competitor. How are the clientele to be won back? This story, set at Christmas, I did enjoy.
Quote: “You oughtn’t to be telling our personal, private family business that a’way, Appleseed.”
Miriam--about two Miriams, a little girl and a widow. They meet at a movie theater in wintry NYC. This story grabbed my interest from the start and held it to the end. THIS story is very good!
Quotes: “The line seemed to be taking its own time, and looking around for some distraction, she suddenly became conscious of a little girl standing under the edge of the marquis. Her hair was…….”
and
(That's an) “imitation. Aren’t imitations sad?”
The Headless Hawk--about a girl in green and a guy working in an art studio. He buys her painting, but he buys it for himself! Look at the title and the last quote and then stop and think. This story attracted me at the start, but the end threw me. Another story set in NYC.
Quotes: “Her eyes rolled in her sockets like loose marbles…she looked like a sad rag doll…..and (he) wondered why it was that eccentricity always excited in him such a curious admiration. It was the feeling he’d had toward carnival freaks.”
and
“Candles are magic. Light one and the world becomes a storybook.”
and
“He was, he said, a poet who had never written poetry, a painter who had never painted, a lover who had never loved absolutely. Someone, in short, without direction and quite headless.”
My Side of the Matter--about Miss Olivia Ann, Eunice, Blue Bell, Marge and Baby Doll. The last is a man, if I have understood correctly. Set in the South, it is a disjointed telling of a confrontation, a fracas, a melee.
Quotes: “No wife of mine is ever gonna be disrespectful of me.”
and
“That was my funeral money, and I want it back.”
A Tree of Night is set in a train in Alabama headed toward Atlanta. It is about a nineteen-year-old girl traveling from her uncle’s funeral back to college and the creepy couple she meets in the train coach. You could call them a traveling circus show of two.
Quotes: “He think I’m drunk, and the funny part is I am. You gotta do something.”
and
“Didn’t your mamma ever tell you it is sinful to lie?!”
The prose is filled with abstract metaphors and fanciful impressions. They seem to me to be saying more than I understand. The writing feels somehow psychedelic. Few of the stories engaged me, and none of the characters pulled me in. The reading experience left me detached. On the other hand, Truman Capote is adept at capturing the feel of a time and place, be it NYC, the world of advertising or a small town in the South. His prose intrigues me, which explains why I have given quotes.
The audiobook sold at Audible is entitled The Grass Harp, but the stories are also included. Cody Roberts narrates the audiobook. He uses a thick southern dialect when he reads the novella. When he is using a southern accent, he tends to almost sing the lines. Pauses are often misplaced. He stops both before and after the word “and”. Why he does this is beyond me! I did not like his narration of the novella, but he reads the stories better, so I have given the narration three stars.
The novella, the next two stories and the last two did little for me. Only one story, Miriam, did I like a lot, three stories were good or pretty good, so I guess the book was OK.
************************
In Cold Blood 4 stars
Breakfast at Tiffany's 4 stars
The Grass Harp, Including A Tree of Night and Other Stories 2 stars
Other Voices, Other Rooms TBR
October 23, 2022
Truman Capote is such a good writer you don't even care what he's talking about, you are simply mesmerized by his words. So when he chooses an interesting topic the result is a real treat, as happens with some of the stories in A Tree of Night.
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Truman Capote era tan buen escritor que no te importa siquiera de qué te está hablando, sencillamente estás hipnotizado por sus palabras. Así que cuando elige un tema interesante el resultado es una auténtica delicia, como pasa con algunos de los cuentos de A Tree of Night.
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Truman Capote era tan buen escritor que no te importa siquiera de qué te está hablando, sencillamente estás hipnotizado por sus palabras. Así que cuando elige un tema interesante el resultado es una auténtica delicia, como pasa con algunos de los cuentos de A Tree of Night.
January 12, 2015
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 glorious. 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 above us, a late wayaway wintery moon: it was like a slice of snow, near and far creatures called to it, hunched moon-eyed frogs, a claw-voiced wildcat.
At its core, The Grass Harp is about love. The Judge says of love, "A leaf, a handful of seed -- begin with these, learn a little of what it is to love. First, a leaf, a fall of rain, then someone to receive what a leaf has taught you, what a fall of rain has ripened. No easy process, understand: it could take a lifetime, it has mine, and still I've never mastered it -- I only know how true it is: that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life."
Dolly elaborates on this thought in the final pages of the book in a conversation with Collin:
"Charlie said that love is a chain of love. I hope you listened and understood him. Because when you can love one thing...., you can love another, and that is owning, that is something to live with. You can forgive everything."
The treehouse scenes create the turning point of the book. There we have a collection of "fools" each trying to find out who he/she truly is. It is after the Judge leaves the treehouse that he has the courage to leave his sons and set off on his own. Similarly with Riley Henderson, it is after he leaves the tree house that he falls in love with Maude Riordan, gets engaged, and finds purpose as he begins to clear land with a plan to build houses.
Verena, unfortunately, never has a treehouse epiphany although Dolly forces her into the tree presumably with the hope of redeeming her sister (or herself, maybe both). The reader realizes that Verena has allowed the longstanding unacknowledged or perhaps unreciprocated love she held for Maudie Laura Murphy to destroy her life. In other words, she permitted the chain of love to be broken. Dolly, on the other hand, has kept the chain of love intact and although she leaves the treehouse to return to her sister, one gets the impression she is triumphant and not a coward.
A beautiful book.
Reading Truman Capote is like eating cheesecake -- every sentence is rich and glorious. 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 above us, a late wayaway wintery moon: it was like a slice of snow, near and far creatures called to it, hunched moon-eyed frogs, a claw-voiced wildcat.
At its core, The Grass Harp is about love. The Judge says of love, "A leaf, a handful of seed -- begin with these, learn a little of what it is to love. First, a leaf, a fall of rain, then someone to receive what a leaf has taught you, what a fall of rain has ripened. No easy process, understand: it could take a lifetime, it has mine, and still I've never mastered it -- I only know how true it is: that love is a chain of love, as nature is a chain of life."
Dolly elaborates on this thought in the final pages of the book in a conversation with Collin:
"Charlie said that love is a chain of love. I hope you listened and understood him. Because when you can love one thing...., you can love another, and that is owning, that is something to live with. You can forgive everything."
The treehouse scenes create the turning point of the book. There we have a collection of "fools" each trying to find out who he/she truly is. It is after the Judge leaves the treehouse that he has the courage to leave his sons and set off on his own. Similarly with Riley Henderson, it is after he leaves the tree house that he falls in love with Maude Riordan, gets engaged, and finds purpose as he begins to clear land with a plan to build houses.
Verena, unfortunately, never has a treehouse epiphany although Dolly forces her into the tree presumably with the hope of redeeming her sister (or herself, maybe both). The reader realizes that Verena has allowed the longstanding unacknowledged or perhaps unreciprocated love she held for Maudie Laura Murphy to destroy her life. In other words, she permitted the chain of love to be broken. Dolly, on the other hand, has kept the chain of love intact and although she leaves the treehouse to return to her sister, one gets the impression she is triumphant and not a coward.
A beautiful book.
February 4, 2022
Sobre o conto "A Harpa de Ervas":
"… Dolly disse assim: Estás a ouvir? É a harpa de ervas, sempre a contar histórias – conhece as de todas as pessoas que ali estão na colina, de todas as pessoas que alguma vez viveram, e que, quando nós morrermos, também vai contar a nossa." Pág. 14
Deparei-me com uma escrita encantadora, apelativa.
Dei por mim a ler com um sorriso nos lábios.
Uma narrativa onde se aglutinam uma infinidade de sensações, de sons e ritmos, de cores, de peculiaridades, de cheiros dispersos a saturar o ar, de pequenos nadas que tudo são.
Personagens singulares, uns quantos desajustados, que gravitam à volta dos seus ascendentes, submetendo-se permanentemente à vontade alheia, até uma quebra de confiança tamanha que provoca um autêntico cataclismo, originando finalmente, uma posição de força.
"Ela fugia em passinhos leves e apressados mal me ouvia chegar, ou, quando não havia maneira de evitar-me, fechava-se como as folhas de uma tímida sensitiva. Era uma daquelas pessoas que conseguem fazer-se passar por um objecto inanimado numa sala, uma sombra num canto, e cuja presença, quando revelada, constitui uma agradável surpresa." Pág. 16
Divertido e comovente ao mesmo tempo. Espíritos livres, genuínos e simples que engrandecem as vidas de quem os rodeia sem se fazerem notar.
Maravilhoso!
Sobre os outros contos:
Acresce novamente histórias invulgares sobre pessoas singulares; dramas onde palpitam, muitas das vezes, o medo, a solidão e o abandono.
O valor da escrita é inegável.
"… Dolly disse assim: Estás a ouvir? É a harpa de ervas, sempre a contar histórias – conhece as de todas as pessoas que ali estão na colina, de todas as pessoas que alguma vez viveram, e que, quando nós morrermos, também vai contar a nossa." Pág. 14
Deparei-me com uma escrita encantadora, apelativa.
Dei por mim a ler com um sorriso nos lábios.
Uma narrativa onde se aglutinam uma infinidade de sensações, de sons e ritmos, de cores, de peculiaridades, de cheiros dispersos a saturar o ar, de pequenos nadas que tudo são.
Personagens singulares, uns quantos desajustados, que gravitam à volta dos seus ascendentes, submetendo-se permanentemente à vontade alheia, até uma quebra de confiança tamanha que provoca um autêntico cataclismo, originando finalmente, uma posição de força.
"Ela fugia em passinhos leves e apressados mal me ouvia chegar, ou, quando não havia maneira de evitar-me, fechava-se como as folhas de uma tímida sensitiva. Era uma daquelas pessoas que conseguem fazer-se passar por um objecto inanimado numa sala, uma sombra num canto, e cuja presença, quando revelada, constitui uma agradável surpresa." Pág. 16
Divertido e comovente ao mesmo tempo. Espíritos livres, genuínos e simples que engrandecem as vidas de quem os rodeia sem se fazerem notar.
Maravilhoso!
Sobre os outros contos:
Acresce novamente histórias invulgares sobre pessoas singulares; dramas onde palpitam, muitas das vezes, o medo, a solidão e o abandono.
O valor da escrita é inegável.
October 29, 2018
I had not read any Truman Capote because in the seventies, when I became aware of him he had already deteriorated into a Hollywood celebrity writer, which made me automatically assume that he wrote pabulum for the masses. Hence I took him as an author about as seriously as a writer for tabloids.
Such an arrogant thing to think, I know, but I'm being honest. So how did I come around to finally reading Capote, and furthermore, really liking and admiring his work?
It was through his good friend, Harper Lee. I was reading about her life and came to know that she and Capote grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. They were close childhood friends and, later as adults, encouraged and influenced each others' writing. Some have darkly whispered that Capote largely edited Lee's work, "To Kill a Mockingbird", which would explain why the original manuscript, "Go Tell a Watchman" that was published a couple of years ago is not of the same quality.
Others argue that Capote was way too narcissistic to keep that sort of thing a secret, especially since the book won the Pulitzer Prize.
What is easier to conclude is that Lee helped Capote write "Cold Blood", well, not the writing, which is all his own, but she did the ground work for him, meticulously researching the background of the murder, befriending and interviewing the families involved etc.. Capote gave her no credit for collecting all the information that he used to write. Not that he didn't do a lot himself, and ultimately wrote the book, but based on what I read, he couldn't have done it without Harper Lee.
So granted, Truman Capote was a self-centered little (he stood at 5 foot 3) donkey's behind. He was still a wonderful writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
First of all, I have lived several years in the South and I appreciate the local color that Capote so deftly writes into his stories. The culture, the dialect, it's all so rich. And his story lines are fun, yet also poignant.
This collection of short stories alternate between people living in small southern towns and people living in New York City. Even in New York, at least one of the characters is a Southern transplant, which allows the contrast between the two cultures to rub against each other and shine more clearly. Since I have also spent several years in the Northeast (I'm not real old, just middle-aged), I appreciate his stories in that environment as well.
Capote has a fun sense of humor which keeps the reader from taking some events too seriously, events that would otherwise perplex us.
Yet, there is also an overriding loneliness in his stories. His characters are often disenfranchised, isolated, and alone. Truman Capote lost his father when very young and abandoned by his mother to a couple of elderly aunts. One of the aunts must have been a little slow, because these two aunts, one domineering and the other autistic or mentally challenged, crop up in many of the stories in this collection.
These stories were written when Capote was a young man, and published in 1945. They offer a unique view of a time period, especially in the South, that preserves a culture, its beauty and its ugliness, for those of use who came after.
I look forward to reading more of his works and see how he matured as a writer.
Such an arrogant thing to think, I know, but I'm being honest. So how did I come around to finally reading Capote, and furthermore, really liking and admiring his work?
It was through his good friend, Harper Lee. I was reading about her life and came to know that she and Capote grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. They were close childhood friends and, later as adults, encouraged and influenced each others' writing. Some have darkly whispered that Capote largely edited Lee's work, "To Kill a Mockingbird", which would explain why the original manuscript, "Go Tell a Watchman" that was published a couple of years ago is not of the same quality.
Others argue that Capote was way too narcissistic to keep that sort of thing a secret, especially since the book won the Pulitzer Prize.
What is easier to conclude is that Lee helped Capote write "Cold Blood", well, not the writing, which is all his own, but she did the ground work for him, meticulously researching the background of the murder, befriending and interviewing the families involved etc.. Capote gave her no credit for collecting all the information that he used to write. Not that he didn't do a lot himself, and ultimately wrote the book, but based on what I read, he couldn't have done it without Harper Lee.
So granted, Truman Capote was a self-centered little (he stood at 5 foot 3) donkey's behind. He was still a wonderful writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
First of all, I have lived several years in the South and I appreciate the local color that Capote so deftly writes into his stories. The culture, the dialect, it's all so rich. And his story lines are fun, yet also poignant.
This collection of short stories alternate between people living in small southern towns and people living in New York City. Even in New York, at least one of the characters is a Southern transplant, which allows the contrast between the two cultures to rub against each other and shine more clearly. Since I have also spent several years in the Northeast (I'm not real old, just middle-aged), I appreciate his stories in that environment as well.
Capote has a fun sense of humor which keeps the reader from taking some events too seriously, events that would otherwise perplex us.
Yet, there is also an overriding loneliness in his stories. His characters are often disenfranchised, isolated, and alone. Truman Capote lost his father when very young and abandoned by his mother to a couple of elderly aunts. One of the aunts must have been a little slow, because these two aunts, one domineering and the other autistic or mentally challenged, crop up in many of the stories in this collection.
These stories were written when Capote was a young man, and published in 1945. They offer a unique view of a time period, especially in the South, that preserves a culture, its beauty and its ugliness, for those of use who came after.
I look forward to reading more of his works and see how he matured as a writer.
December 31, 2021
This review is only about The Grass Harp - I reviewed A Tree of Night separately …
Let me start this review with a sigh …. My God, this was a beautiful story …
Collin, the narrator, goes to live with his spinster cousins, Verena and Dolly, after both his parents have died … he grows up particularly attached to Dolly, a sweet but nervous woman who many call “slow,” and Dolly’s best friend Catherine, an African-American woman who lives in a shed in the garden … Verena is a harsh woman who owns several properties around town and is fixated on all the money she earns through dogged determination …
After a violent argument between herself and Verena, Dolly runs away with Catherine and Collin to a treehouse hidden in the forest near the cemetery … Verena calls the sheriff and the reverend to force Dolly and her companions to leave the treehouse and return home, but they prove unsuccessful … afterward, the group in the treehouse is joined by Judge Charlie Cool, who falls in love with Dolly, and Riley Henderson, a teenage boy whom Collin emulates …
This is a novella, only about 112 pages long, but it creates such an impact with its colorful characters and timeless, undulating plot … I was so fixated while reading it that my mom said I missed a rainstorm, which in the desert of Arizona is a big deal around here! But I was enthralled with Dolly’s growth from a timid, soft spoken old woman to a more confident woman who could finally make major decisions on how she chose to live her life …
I might have to read this book again right now … it’s that good …
Let me start this review with a sigh …. My God, this was a beautiful story …
Collin, the narrator, goes to live with his spinster cousins, Verena and Dolly, after both his parents have died … he grows up particularly attached to Dolly, a sweet but nervous woman who many call “slow,” and Dolly’s best friend Catherine, an African-American woman who lives in a shed in the garden … Verena is a harsh woman who owns several properties around town and is fixated on all the money she earns through dogged determination …
After a violent argument between herself and Verena, Dolly runs away with Catherine and Collin to a treehouse hidden in the forest near the cemetery … Verena calls the sheriff and the reverend to force Dolly and her companions to leave the treehouse and return home, but they prove unsuccessful … afterward, the group in the treehouse is joined by Judge Charlie Cool, who falls in love with Dolly, and Riley Henderson, a teenage boy whom Collin emulates …
This is a novella, only about 112 pages long, but it creates such an impact with its colorful characters and timeless, undulating plot … I was so fixated while reading it that my mom said I missed a rainstorm, which in the desert of Arizona is a big deal around here! But I was enthralled with Dolly’s growth from a timid, soft spoken old woman to a more confident woman who could finally make major decisions on how she chose to live her life …
I might have to read this book again right now … it’s that good …
April 2, 2018
It was a reading group that directed me to this book and I am very thankful for this advice. The title story “A Grass Harp” is “poetry in form of prose” as one group member put it. Capote is a master of painting with words, visible in expressions like “the snowflake of Dolly’s face”, “eyes … luminously green as mint jelly” or “the kitchen was warm as a cow’s tongue”. The story is deeply engulfed in humanity. The main characters the narrator boy Colling, Aunt Dolly, her coloured friend and help Catherine and Judge Cool defy the indifference and callousness of the people of a Southern town and retreat to a tree house. The regular society of the town cannot allow for such an unheard thing and forces them to give up. A young man gets shot in the shoulder, but the event has no other major consequences. Still the people involved come out of it changed.
The story reminded me in many ways of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It plays in a remote, rural town, central characters are a child and a judge, and they display the same fierce attitude towards injustice and racism.
Among the other stories of the book I liked most “Children on their Birthdays” and “A Jug of Silver”, both again displaying Capote’s mastery picture strong, exceptional children, their struggles and view of the world. The 4-star rating is only to be contributed to those other stories that were less my taste.
The story reminded me in many ways of “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It plays in a remote, rural town, central characters are a child and a judge, and they display the same fierce attitude towards injustice and racism.
Among the other stories of the book I liked most “Children on their Birthdays” and “A Jug of Silver”, both again displaying Capote’s mastery picture strong, exceptional children, their struggles and view of the world. The 4-star rating is only to be contributed to those other stories that were less my taste.
Read
April 6, 2020[3.5 Stars]
My Video Review:
https://youtu.be/6iqcD3oRT2I
My Video Review:
https://youtu.be/6iqcD3oRT2I
February 27, 2022
Besides the Grass Harp there are other stories in this collection:
A Tree or the Night
Children on Their Birthdays
Shut a Final Door
Master Misery
Jug of Silver
Miriam
The Headless Hawk
My Side of the Matter
The thing about Truman Capote is he captures this atmosphere that swirls around my family. In my mother's side the lines that had members who raised me in my youth came from the south, the deep south, the south that talks more Suth'un when it is angry. . .that kinda Suth'un. . . so when I read TC, I'm back in my youth, sitting on a floor, watchin' grown ups (defined as anyone over 7).
His characters make sense to me, and don't trouble me, regardless of flaws, incompleteness or wrong-headedness. They are who they are. We all carry our hurts, usually our whole lives long, hugging them close like beloved teddy bears. Characters who work around self-imposed obstacles are as common as an old shoe. Fictions (dreams) v reality considerations abound, and as it is not a question on which I myself am ready to confidently land an answer, there's a patience waiting in between the words of this story for me.
Still, that said, Of all the stories, Grass Harp was my favorite. Collin, the Talbos, Catherine Creek, the Judge, Ida and her tribe of 15. . .the town. All of it. But most of all that old Grass Harp out beyond the cemetery, telling our stories. . . .
A Tree or the Night
Children on Their Birthdays
Shut a Final Door
Master Misery
Jug of Silver
Miriam
The Headless Hawk
My Side of the Matter
The thing about Truman Capote is he captures this atmosphere that swirls around my family. In my mother's side the lines that had members who raised me in my youth came from the south, the deep south, the south that talks more Suth'un when it is angry. . .that kinda Suth'un. . . so when I read TC, I'm back in my youth, sitting on a floor, watchin' grown ups (defined as anyone over 7).
His characters make sense to me, and don't trouble me, regardless of flaws, incompleteness or wrong-headedness. They are who they are. We all carry our hurts, usually our whole lives long, hugging them close like beloved teddy bears. Characters who work around self-imposed obstacles are as common as an old shoe. Fictions (dreams) v reality considerations abound, and as it is not a question on which I myself am ready to confidently land an answer, there's a patience waiting in between the words of this story for me.
Still, that said, Of all the stories, Grass Harp was my favorite. Collin, the Talbos, Catherine Creek, the Judge, Ida and her tribe of 15. . .the town. All of it. But most of all that old Grass Harp out beyond the cemetery, telling our stories. . . .
March 18, 2019
Have you ever done anything on a lark and then had someone tell you that you couldn't do it? A minute ago you couldn't have cared less about the activity but as soon as someone dares to tell you you can't do it, you can't help but dig in your heels and insist on doing it. This is what happens in The Grass Harp when an unlikely trio decides to have a picnic in a tree house. It's an odd little tale but what can one expect from Truman Capote? Told in the first person, I can easily imagine sitting with Capote at a cocktail party listening to him relate this unusual story from his childhood.
February 1, 2018
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.
August 20, 2008
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.
October 21, 2012
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 September, when it has gone red as sunset, when scarlet shadows like firelight breeze over it and the autumn winds strum on its dry leaves sighing human music, a harp of voices."
"She was one of those people who can disguise themselves as an object in the room, a shadow in the corner, whose presence is a delicate happening. ...Pulled and guided by the gravity of Verena's planet, we rotated separately in the outer spaces of the house."
"...the kitchen was warm as a cow's tongue."
"...Alaska--well, it was fun for an old man sitting alone listening to the noise of a clock."
"...like two children lost in a witch-ruled forest..."
"...Big Eddie Stover was legally born a bastard; the other two made the grade on their own."
"...drugstore slander..."
"...he was a fat cigar of a man..."
Yes, I know. Without context the quotes probably don't stand well on their own. But, for context you have to read the collection. And, you won't be disappointed.
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 September, when it has gone red as sunset, when scarlet shadows like firelight breeze over it and the autumn winds strum on its dry leaves sighing human music, a harp of voices."
"She was one of those people who can disguise themselves as an object in the room, a shadow in the corner, whose presence is a delicate happening. ...Pulled and guided by the gravity of Verena's planet, we rotated separately in the outer spaces of the house."
"...the kitchen was warm as a cow's tongue."
"...Alaska--well, it was fun for an old man sitting alone listening to the noise of a clock."
"...like two children lost in a witch-ruled forest..."
"...Big Eddie Stover was legally born a bastard; the other two made the grade on their own."
"...drugstore slander..."
"...he was a fat cigar of a man..."
Yes, I know. Without context the quotes probably don't stand well on their own. But, for context you have to read the collection. And, you won't be disappointed.
April 18, 2008
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 make. You do get the feeling that the two books take place in mirror images of the same town, with distant relatives making up the townsfolk. But both have distinct stories to share, and I wouldn't dare discount one by comparing it to the other. It does make it easy to wonder about long summers shared by Truman and Nell though.
Highly recommended.
Also, if you enjoy the whole Capote/Lee connection as much as I do, check out Capote in Kansas. A lovely ghost story starring Truman Capote and Harper Lee, by Kim Powers.
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 make. You do get the feeling that the two books take place in mirror images of the same town, with distant relatives making up the townsfolk. But both have distinct stories to share, and I wouldn't dare discount one by comparing it to the other. It does make it easy to wonder about long summers shared by Truman and Nell though.
Highly recommended.
Also, if you enjoy the whole Capote/Lee connection as much as I do, check out Capote in Kansas. A lovely ghost story starring Truman Capote and Harper Lee, by Kim Powers.
Read
March 29, 2018The Grass Harp is a wonderful story.
The other stories in the book have a variety of themes, some of which I enjoyed more than others, but I am impressed with the quality of Capote's writing in all of them.
The other stories in the book have a variety of themes, some of which I enjoyed more than others, but I am impressed with the quality of Capote's writing in all of them.
January 26, 2018
Poppycock : Capote, searching for his voice, bakes a pretentious poppyseed cake with an excess of passion-fruit curds.
August 2, 2022
It took me a long time to get through the audio version of The Grass Harp, including A Tree of Night and other stories but through no fault of Capote or the narrator, Cody Roberts. I just prefer a hard copy most of the time.
Cody Roberts is the perfect voice of the south and I absolutely loved The Grass Harp which I imagine is considered a novella. I remember seeing Truman Capote on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson decades ago and I didn't much like him but, man, can he write Southern literature! The Grass Harp is a beautiful story of two enchanting, unconventional women and an orphan boy who, for reasons you'll have to find out for yourself, leave home to live in a treehouse. It alone is worth the price of admission. It is definitely a 5* read for me. The other stories, although clever and interesting, hovered around 3.5 to 4. They were good; they were fine but after The Grass Harp I wanted amazing! I also read the hardcover edition and I am glad I listened to the audio first. The voice of Cody Roberts was in my head and that heightened my enjoyment considerably.
Fans of Southern literature will enjoy this one.
Cody Roberts is the perfect voice of the south and I absolutely loved The Grass Harp which I imagine is considered a novella. I remember seeing Truman Capote on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson decades ago and I didn't much like him but, man, can he write Southern literature! The Grass Harp is a beautiful story of two enchanting, unconventional women and an orphan boy who, for reasons you'll have to find out for yourself, leave home to live in a treehouse. It alone is worth the price of admission. It is definitely a 5* read for me. The other stories, although clever and interesting, hovered around 3.5 to 4. They were good; they were fine but after The Grass Harp I wanted amazing! I also read the hardcover edition and I am glad I listened to the audio first. The voice of Cody Roberts was in my head and that heightened my enjoyment considerably.
Fans of Southern literature will enjoy this one.
December 16, 2019
True to his Capote style, these are quirky and compelling stories--slices of life that leave you with vivid and often disturbing images of the characters he creates. The most perverse of those characters--at least for me--appear in The Tree of Night where a young girl named Kay boards a train to Atlanta and, unfortunately, chooses to sit in a compartment with a tipsy woman and a crude, sexually suggestive man. While Kay notes they verge on the grotesque physically (the woman's outsized head, the man's boyish yet old face) she soon discovers that the distortions she can see are mere hints of their insanity. While I turned that last page on this story yesterday, this story is still firmly lodged inside my head and that woman and man continue to trouble me. Like Kay, I was permanently affected by coming into contact with them.
July 8, 2025
If you know anything about Capote's childhood, you see it reflected in this gem of a book. His beloved Sook is here and many of the other important characters from his youth, including Harper Lee, who spent many happy hours with Capote in a tree house as misfits in this small Alabama town. Truman Capote has a way with language that makes the mundane beautiful. This is a treasure of a book.
Published October 1, 1951.
Published October 1, 1951.
December 24, 2020
I liked the title story very much but I didn't care for several of the other stories. 5 stars for the title story.
June 8, 2025
“The Grass Harp” was a truly interesting and enjoyable read for me. Capote’s storytelling is, as always, exceptionally well-crafted. The narrative feels somewhat autobiographical, deeply rooted in memories, with the world explained through the eyes of a teenage boy. While this approach was well-executed, it didn’t leave me entirely impressed. The book definitely poses the big question of whether the world is good or bad, but it doesn't really give an answer.
March 20, 2010
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, heartfelt, and complex. Everyone in this book is looking for love, for a place to be - the treehouse at the top of the china tree brings them all together and holds them peaceful in its arms.
There is, of course, the town and its folk who stand in opposition to the people of the tree and who, ultimately, bring the idyll to an end leaving only the shadows of voices on the wind.
What remains for me is the image of the kitchen with its smells of sweet and savory things baking, the sound of conversation on a hot day, and the bowl of goldfish swimming lazily in their bowl.
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, heartfelt, and complex. Everyone in this book is looking for love, for a place to be - the treehouse at the top of the china tree brings them all together and holds them peaceful in its arms.
There is, of course, the town and its folk who stand in opposition to the people of the tree and who, ultimately, bring the idyll to an end leaving only the shadows of voices on the wind.
What remains for me is the image of the kitchen with its smells of sweet and savory things baking, the sound of conversation on a hot day, and the bowl of goldfish swimming lazily in their bowl.
October 8, 2016
You know, I realized I just can't get enough of Truman Capote. Wish he had written forever! His short stories are so poignant that it brings you to tears. A master of writing he makes you feel his characters so intensely. I loved "Master Misery" with such great lines as: "Dreams are the mind of the soul", "She is the recent victim of a major theft; poor baby, she has had her soul stolen" and "if one disappears from the world, then the world should stop" (something I have selfishly said many times!) Luckily for us still on this fragile planet, Capote may have gone, but his words will never dissappear, thank God!
July 11, 2020
This book offers Truman Capote’s novella The Grass Harp and his A Tree of Night and Other Stories . The novella is an endearing, sentimental homage to friendship and to being true to oneself. But it was the collection of eight short stories which were especially intriguing. Several were deeply disturbing ― if not horrifying ― explorations of fear, alienation, loneliness, our subliminal motivations, and our darker natures. Powerful descriptions, beautiful prose.
July 20, 2025
The Grass Harp is a delightful romp about a teenage boy, his elderly aunt, and her lifelong friend who run away from home to live in a treehouse. A short novel about five outcasts in a small southern town, coming together and finding acceptance with each other. I went into it expecting the more gothic vibes of other voices, other rooms, but instead I was just charmed by its sweetness.
I got intense ghibli vibes from this book: the characters are elderly and young, tons of beautiful nature writing, living in the woods, bizarre feasts. Very cosy feeling.
"…a person to whom everything can be said. Am I an idiot to want such a thing? But ah, the energy we spend hiding from one another, afraid as we are of being identified. But here we are, identified: five fools in a tree.”
(I didn’t like the short stories as much, so, in this review, I am pretending they aren’t there.)
I got intense ghibli vibes from this book: the characters are elderly and young, tons of beautiful nature writing, living in the woods, bizarre feasts. Very cosy feeling.
"…a person to whom everything can be said. Am I an idiot to want such a thing? But ah, the energy we spend hiding from one another, afraid as we are of being identified. But here we are, identified: five fools in a tree.”
(I didn’t like the short stories as much, so, in this review, I am pretending they aren’t there.)
June 27, 2025
A charming honest collection of stories about country folk in the early 1900s
July 31, 2024
I felt like I gorged on Capote's writing by the end of this collection. The collection doesn't fit together in the most flattering way because the first and largest story is sweet, nostalgic, and sentimental, while the subsequent stories in this collection are uncanny, gothic, and fabulously creepy. By the end of the collection, I felt I had too much Southern gothic; everything was the devil!!! Ooooooh (creepy spirit fingers); therefore, I highly recommend reading this anthology with breaks in between for a higher and more positive impact. This is not to say, I could not appreciate the genius of Capote; I absolutely did! Master Misery, Miriam, and A Tree of Night were among some of my favorite stories; they are haunting in the best way possible. I particularly liked the vignettes of people's lives (in NY and in the South) that were so beautifully sewn through. Capote can create compelling characters in a matter of sentences. Definitely, an assortment of stories I will re-read (particularly in the autumn when I am craving spooky).
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