Other Voices, Other Rooms
Truman Capote
First published January 1, 1948 232 pages, Paperback
"Other Voices, Other Rooms is a 1948 novel by Truman Capote. It is written in the Southern Gothic style and is notable for its atmosphere of isolation and decadence. Other Voices, Other Rooms is significant because it is both Capote's first published novel and semi-autobiographical. It is also noteworthy due to its erotically charged photograph of the author, risqué content, and debut at number nine on The New York Times Best Seller list, remaining on the list for nine weeks."
By all accounts the critics loved this story, the public must have too since it spent so much time on the best sellers list. It deals with taboo subjects in an abstract way, today we'd come right out and write about homosexuality or racism. Things were very different in 1948; I've heard many euphemisms for both. Knowing that Capote and Harper Lee grew up in Alabama and were friends gives a look into their relationship as he uses Lee in the character of Idabel. Capotes early life was not ideal and he uses some of that angst for Joel.
Other than that I wasn't impressed with the story. There isn't a word in the dictionary that Capote missed using. He turned sentences into entire paragraphs. I began skipping from the beginning to the end of the sentence and didn't miss much. Lots of what happens is in Joels head and that's a strange fuzzy place. The reader isn't certain what's real and what seems to be an alcohol induced hallucination, on Capotes part not the kid. The ending was a cliffhanger. As an e-book from the library I had to wait for months to borrow it. Capote and the Swans mini-series had his books relevant and desired again. Other reviews I've read love the Southern gothic theme and so on but I just don't get it.
