But the walls of Joel’s room were too thick for Amy’s voice to penetrate. Now for a long time he’d been unable to find the far-away room; always it had been difficult, but never so hard as in the last year. -From Other Voices Other Rooms, page 83-
Truman Capote’s first novel is gothic and mysterious. Thirteen year old Joel Knox (I couldn’t help making the connection between Joel’s last name and the saying: ‘The school of hard knocks.’) is sent to live with a father he has never met, deep in the south and among bizarre people. Joel travels alone, arriving in the town of Noon City where he is eventually retrieved by an elderly black man named Jesus Fever. Together they travel the gloomy, dark night road behind the stubborn mule John Brown, until they reach Skully’s Landing – the home of Joel’s father.
The first half of the novel introduces most of the main characters – from Idabel (the strange little girl who dresses like a boy) to Amy (Joel’s stepmother who likes to kill birds) to cousin Randolph (the effeminate relative with a dark history) to the likable Zoo (the black servant with an angry red scar slashed across her throat). Joel does not meet his father immediately, and when he does it is a shocking discovery. This part of the story engaged me with its gothic images, ghostly sightings and vivid dialogue. Capote’s description of Skully’s Landing was sharp and creepy:
A dormer window of frost glass illuminated the long top-floor hall with the kind of pearly light that drenches a room when rain is falling. The wallpaper had once, you could tell, been blood red, but now was faded to a mural of crimson blisters and maplike stains. -From Other Voices Other Rooms, page 50-
But as the book passes the midway point, it begins to waver and become nearly impossible to comprehend. The characters warp into strange and frightening people. Cousin Randolph spends a lot of time telling Joel stories that seem to have layers and layers of meaning. A lesbian midget shows signs of being a pedophile. A long night, involving a cottonmouth snake and a carnival ride, ends with an unexplained illness. And I began to wonder whether Capote was dropping acid while he wrote. The imagery is circular, dreamlike and unconnected to the story line.
I like gothic novels with creepy story lines and suspense. Other Voices Other Rooms had the potential, with Capote’s gift of stringing words together, to be a breathtaking work…but it fell short for me. It was too convoluted and confusing. Reviews and analysis I have read about the novel suggest it is a story about coming of age – but, it is a rough ride…and seemed to be more of a look through the pages of an abnormal psychology text.
I had a hard time rating this one. Capote’s prose is sometimes beautiful – he is an exacting writer – yet the plot was too weird for my liking. I don’t know many (if any) readers to whom I could recommend this one.
= Excellent
= Good/Very Good
= Okay read
= Not recommended
= Ugh! Don't waste your time.
Wow, it sounds really…. creepy. I tried reading Capote’s collection of short stories once, but have never managed to read one of his novels.
Too bad this book didn’t carry its momentum to the end. But it sounded like it had some coloful characters, just based on their names!
Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!
Jill
Jeane: It is creepy – and just not pleasant to read. I read Capote’s Summer Crossing (it is reviewed on my blog here), and really liked it. I’ve also read In Cold Blood many years ago and was impressed with Capote’s writing in that book – but this one left me cold.
Jill: Yup, it was a disappointment…although the characters *were* colorful (and bizarre, and strange, and weird…*laughing*).
I haven’t gotten around to picking it up (shame on me!), but I’m sort of disappointed to hear so many negative reviews. I had high hopes for it in light of some of Capote’s other work, but they can’t all be winners, right?
Thank You for validation! All of the sudden I was like, “What in the world is going on??” As soon as he went off to the circus it was like, you’re right, Truman drops a few tabs and finishes the book.
Andi: I’ll read more Capote because I’ve enjoyed his other work…but this one was just too odd for me. I *did* find some positive reviews for this book on Library Thing.
Liz: I read your review – I totally agree (obviously!). He just really went out there in the ozone mid-way through…
Glad I’m not the only one who thought it started well but really lost focus in the second half. Your review explains perfectly how I felt about it too.
Tanabata: I think many readers feel the same way (from what I’ve read of the reviews on this one).
I have had this on my TBR list for YEARS because it is the title of one of Nanci Griffith’s albums, and she is holding the book on another one of her album covers. I have read a lot by Capote, but I’ve yet to read this and Breakfast on Tiffany’s. Another that has been on my list for years!
Small World: I wish I could be more positive about this particular book – but, that shouldn’t keep you from reading Capote…I’ve read other books by him that I’ve liked quite a bit.
I read In Cold Blood, and several other of TC’s books, but this one left me confused so I looked for analysis to try and understand what I missed. I agree that it sounds like he was on acid writing this book, but his prose was flawless. I read several times that this was a “coming of age” book, but that didn’t resonate with me. The dialogue seemed to be inspired by David Lynch’s Erasorhead or Mulholland Drive, starting out simple enough to understand, then spinning off into nonsense. When I finished the last page, I re-read it more slowly hoping to better comprehend it’s meaning, to no avail. None of his other books were as obtuse as this one and I wonder how so many people lavished praise on this work allowing him to redeem himself, since his other works were far superior. I’m glad I didn’t read this book first since I would have never picked up another.
Dan: Thanks for stopping by with your comments. I found this book mostly a mystery to me as to what Capote meant to say…like you, this is not a book I enjoyed, nor one I could recommend to other readers.
I believe this is a very well written novel, with its mysterious twists in the plot. I personally enjoyed reading the novel and i don’t think it should be criticized so harshly since it is described through the eyes of a 13-year old. The world of the boy is vague and unclear, there are a lot of unanswered questions. His perception of things is sometimes delusional, but only because he is a confused child himself. Just because the book doesn’t have a black and white plot with a bright ending shining in the end, doesn’t mean it is poorly written under acid.It develops your imagination, if you have a tendency for this sort of action. The reason why Truman Capote is one of the best writers is because his books aren’t old plain cheap novel with defined left and write.If you like Gothic and mysterious, but very clear in the end with no food for mind, you might go for Agata Kristy or just plain Twilight. A lot of good literature is never absolutely clear, because great minds think complex, they make you wonder for some time after finishing the book. Maybe i read this book in an easy way because i was done reading Haruki Mrakami and he has truly wicked novels. I would admire this book only from the rich style it is written in. Writers explore themselves in different styles and Capote proved to be exquisitely delightful in any of them.
Koshka: Thanks for stopping by. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion about this book and I respect your opinion even if I don’t agree with it. I enjoy novels which make me think and I read a lot of literary novels (you can see all my reviews by clicking on the review tab on my blog)…but this one was just bizarre. Many other readers agreed with my review, a few did not (like yourself) – and that is what makes the world go ’round, as they say.
While I agrees with koshka that great writers
do have complexed visions, it is clear to the simpliest mind that there is a different intent in the first half of the novel than in the second. Also, great writers recognized that they must have a reasonably clear design in order to realize their intent; they must have some understanding of what they were trying to do, even for themselves. This book overwhelms the reader without giving one the chance to absorb or even speculate intent. You were dead on caribousmom.
Thanks for the validation, Michael. I really wanted to like this novel – but I didn’t…and I don’t think it is because don’t like a challenge (as Koshka implies!), but because it was (for the most part) nonsensical. Here is my final thought…a great writer needs to write so that a reader can actually understand his point(s). As you said, “a reasonably clear design in order to realize their intent.” In my opinion, Capote failed to do this in THIS book. If his name was not Capote, I am not so sure this novel would have even been published.
This book is a hard read, but in the end feels like a novella. Capote describes everything so well (which is an understatement). His characters are so bizarre that his talent seems to lie in his love and understanding in them. My favorite parts are when (in the very end ) he seems to commune with nature and leaves his adolescence behind.