Swan Song: Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019

Product Information

The writer became hugely famous after the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966, about the murder of a Kansas family in their home. Firstly, all the people are shallow, self-centred and vindictive, with Capote being the worst of them. I realise there is little an author can do if their chosen subjects are not nice people, so this is not a criticism of the book, but more an explanation of my reaction to it. He seduced us [them] all with his words – and Truman knows full well the power of words. They’re both armour and weapon, the one thing he’s sure of. They alone have never failed him, their lyricism hinting at the beauty trapped within his stunted body, not to mention his conflicted soul.” Because that's the other issue at the heart of this: I love the concept of reframing a traditionally male-dominated narrative by using women's voices - it's a concept that's carried through many of my favorite Greek mythology retellings quite soundly - but here it falls flat, because Greenberg-Jephcott never makes a convincing case for why this is a story that need reclaiming. A bunch of high society women have affairs and sail around on yachts and they're betrayed by their close friend but... so what? This books feels like an elaborate revenge fantasy that's so mired in gossip and cattiness that it loses its thematic heft.

Scandalous, frenetic, amusing and tragic, this throws open the doors to a privileged world driven by money, sex, power and influence, where stakes are high and, when trust is broken, there’s much to lose. Daily Mail a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Dominic Jephcott". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019 . Retrieved 14 April 2019.A] seductive spellbinding debut... Greenberg-Jephcott beautifully captures the pain and poignancy alongside the privilege S Magazine, Sunday Express She reminded us of Capote’s words: ‘rearrange the rules to suit yourself.’ You learn from the best, you bend the rules to suit your purposes, and you make them your own. A dazzling debut about the line between gossip and slander, self-creation and self-preservation, Swan Song is the tragic story of the literary icon of his age and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans. This is a first novel of extraordinary skill, a book of which Capote would have been proud" -- Alex Preston * The Observer * A dazzling debut about Truman Capote, the literary icon of his age, and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans.

Hannah forms a friendship with a nonagenarian former actress although she doesn’t discover the truth about her until it’s too late. Swan Song is utterly divine.It swept me up and I just couldn't put it down ... it is the writing in this debut novel that astounds most of all. It is vivid, addictive and whips up a terrific portrait of a deeply contradictory and complex man, contrasting scenes from his unorthodox childhood with those from the gilded bubble he ended up in that he lanced through his own actions. Victoria SadlerAnswered Prayers,” was, basically, the betrayal of the confidences that Capote gathered during his years as, ‘confessor, confidante, consigliore,’ to the socialites, society hostesses, tycoon’s wives and other wealthy women, who became known as his ‘Swans.’ When a chapter of his, long anticipated book, was published in, ”Esquire,” magazine, his beloved confidantes reacted badly to having their secrets, and barely disguised identities, available for everyone to read; resulting in Capote’s gradual decline. Benedict, David (21 January 2008). "SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE". Variety. 409 (9): 42 . Retrieved 20 April 2019. Secondly, large parts of the book are written in the first person plural by the "swans" of the title, the women whom Capote gathered around him and who told him the secrets that he exposed in Esquire magazine. To me, this felt odd, like some kind of Greek chorus roaming round the book en masse.

I am in two minds about this book: while I thought there were moments of brilliance, overall I found it indulgent, tedious, and way too long. Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcotts sets out to retell Truman Capote’s final years from the perspectives of his ‘Swans’, high society ladies he first befriended and then betrayed.A variation on the clique-as-kin scenario. The Delaneys are a blended family: step-siblings Maria, Niall and Celia, raised by theatrical parents. Narrated by one of the three (which one is cleverly left to conjecture), this is the story of their insular group – a circle closed to friends, husbands and lovers alike. In fact, Maria and Niall share an incestuous romantic bond. Maria’s husband says: “You prey on each other, living in a world of fantasy.” Of themselves, the Delaneys concede: “We have earned, not always fairly we consider, the reputation of being difficult guests.” High society, the glitterati, entwined with the arts, the literati, mixed with Hollywood, with Broadway, and with politics. It was Capote’s finest and most influential public hour I read this book (and persisted with it when I might otherwise long since have abandoned it) due to its longlisting for the 2019 Women’s Prize.

This is part a fictional biography and part the biography of a work, in progress for over twenty years; “Answered Prayers.” Capote befriended the rich and famous and delighted in their company and their confidences. Even as a child, Capote is shown as always watching, listening and absorbing the conversations of the adults around him. His closest childhood friend, the ‘to be famous in the future,’ Nellie Harper Lee, may have been able to warn his future Swans, after Truman inserted her mother’s vicious gossip into a short story, which caused a minor, local furore, long before “Answered Prayers,” was thought of. Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.”― Truman Capote. Swan Song is the story of Truman Capote's unfinished novel Answered Prayers and how it cost him his social status and friends. Kelleight Greenberg-Jephcott spent 10 years researching Swan Song and I'm afraid this made it difficult for her to let go of the many pieces of information she must have accumulated during that time.

Success!

The Story of Truman Capote famous for being an American writer who wrote “Breakfast At Tiffany’s and “ Cold Blood”