Capote | Capote

At a glance:

Author: Gerald Clarke
First Published: 1988
Type of Work: Literary biography
Time of Work: 1924-1984
Setting: Primarily New York City and Long Island; also Europe, California, Kansas, and Alabama
Principal Characters: Truman Streckfus Persons (Truman Garcia Capote), Lillie Mae Faulk Persons Capote (Nina Capote), Arch Persons, Joe Capote, Nelle Harper Lee, Richard Hickock, Perry Smith, Carson Mccullers, Newton Arvin, Jack Dunphy
Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Journalism or journalists, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Authors or writers, 1940’s, Social life, 1920’s, 1930’s, 1980’s, Capital punishment
Locales: California, New York, NY, Europe, Alabama, Kansas, Long Island, NY

If, as Truman Capote (originally Truman Streckfus Persons) alleged, he invented the nonfiction novel, Gerald Clarke's enormous, meticulously researched Capote: A Biography exemplifies the genre, the actual origins of which some literary scholars dispute. Clarke's book, clearly a documented nonfiction account, reads like a novel, perhaps because Capote's life unfolds like an intricately contrived fiction. Even its duller periods, for which Capote manufactured events and stories to gloss over the banalities, sparkle with the sheer invention of Capote's gnomish mind at work.

Capote | Capote

At a glance:

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