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Other Voices, Other Rooms
by Truman Capote
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Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN13: 9780679745648
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Published when Truman Capote was only twenty-three years old, Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.
Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.
This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace.
From the Hardcover edition.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I like reading Truman Capote's work because I absolutely love his delightful writing style, and this book was true to form. Every sentence is charged with a fanciful Capote-style description that's right on the money. For instance, on the first page Truman writes, "...for these washboard roads will loosen up even brand new cars pretty fast..." I loved that description. If you've ever driven on a hard, rutty, dry, dirt road and felt your whole car rattling like it was literally going to fall apart, you`d have to admire Truman Capote's laser-like attention to detail and his gift to transform his perceptions into written words. Beautiful. And that's only the first page. Later on he writes, "She had long ape-like arms that were covered with dark fuzz..." It just gets better and better.
In Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote's first novel, we share the adventures of a young boy who is traveling to an ominous sounding place called Skully's Landing to meet up with his natural father. Along the way, he encounters a gaggle of bigger than life characters. Among them are a dumb-looking girl named Louise, a very little man called Jesus Fever and a freakish lady who looks like a human giraffe. It's outlandish and absolutely great stuff. How does this weird adventure affect the young lad? You have to read the book to find that answer.
I loved this short novel and I highly recommend it.
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| Double Take |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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In reading this book, I often found myself re-reading passages. I did this not because of poor writing, but because I wanted to make sure I was interpreting the bizarre themes of Capote correctly. It is easy to understand why "Other Voices, Other Rooms" caused such a stir in its time.
In a semi-autobiographical work of fiction, Capote blurs the lines of reality in this novel. The central character Joel Harrison Knox is sent to live with his father after his mother passes away. Yet his father is a mystery as the people in town do not speak of him and Joel is not allowed to see him. Instead, interactions are made with an interesting cast of characters based in the south. His cold step mother seems only unique in her apparent obsession with killing birds. The suggestions about Randolph, though vague, are amusing yet shocking when one reads between the lines. Idabel, a paradox of a peer, challenges Joel's character and logic at times. These three characters are the devices Capote uses to demonstrate Joel's steps toward maturity or manhood.
More than Capote's other "finished" works, this novels comes off as being raw. While the writing itself demonstrates significant talent, it is the shock value that initially made this book noteworthy. The plot is erratic.
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| Such a sad tale, but redemptive |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Author of Afinidad: A novel of a serial killer
Aztec Dawn: A tale of sacrifical murder, from Manhattan to Mexico
Truman Capote's novel is so beautifully written that I found it hard to believe it was his first. There is a lyrical, dancing quality to his writing, like sunlight dancing on waves, that carries you along, e.g., 'He lay there on a bed of cold pebbles, the cool water washing, rippling over him; he wished he were a leaf, like the current-carried leaves riding past; leaf-boy, he would float lightly away, float and fade into a river, an ocean, the world's greatest flood.' His descriptions of his characters are just as evocative. Joel, the boy at the centre of the novel, is very lonely, and your heart aches for him as you read the novel. Joel's mother has died and he is sent to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. He has fantasies about this unknown father that verge on heroic but the reality is as far from them as can be imagined. You wish very much that he will find the love that he craves and he does, but from a most unexpected source.
Ruin is a prominent feature of the story. The mansion Joel's family lives in; an abandoned hotel that he is taken to; the nearest town of Noon City; all are well past their prime and descriptions of them, of which there are plenty, evoke a sad feeling of decay and weariness. Quite a few of the characters are also very lonely.
If a novel reveals anything about its author, I would venture to say that Capote had a very low opinion of his fellow humans but at the same time, a great love of them. Both sentiments come through strongly in this book. The book also deals with a theme that, for Capote in real life, would have consumed much of his early years; that of gender and sexual orientation. Joel is described as effiminate and one of my favourite characters, Randolph, is a .... well, I won't give THAT away. It's a great surprise. Idabel, a girl who befriends Joel, is extremely tomboyish, and seems to hate the fact that she is female.
For all its pathos, you will be curiously warmed by this story at the end. It makes you feel it is worthwhile never giving up hope.
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| Very Entertaining... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Very entertaining...
Take a trip to the old south.... Stretch your imagination....vivid.... Enjoyable short and quick...
Highly recommended.... 5tars
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| Excellent for book clubs |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Other Voices Other Rooms is at times massively confusing, intensely beautiful, and mystical. Often, all at the same time. Capote's command and use of language and style is unquestionably brilliant, and many times the text reads like poetry. Capote is simply a masterful composer of language. Every word in its rightful place.
Capote also has the gift that many writers lack and that is a descriptive prowess that completely surrounds the reader and engulfs them in the world of the text. The first time that Idabel describes the history of the Cloud Hotel to Joel the reader finds themselves seeing this world materialize in front of their eyes. To be so completely lost in a work speaks highly of the writer's abilities!
Another great strength of this text is how accurately it displays how a child left to his own devices has to create and interpret the world around him. Joel is left to figure out the world for himself, and considering his age and limited experience he does a decent job of it. Joel's interpretations of the world are oftentimes not concrete, or even accurate, and this is where the adult reader will find themselves at moments confused. Reread, it will be worth it.
The main theme of this novel is love and acceptance, and how we all pine for it from our earliest memories. Every character longs for it in some form. The successful ones find it first in themselves. The recognition of that is the greatest achievement in this text, and the scariest.
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