Irene Selznick once advised her friend, biographer Scott Berg, against writing a book on Tennessee Williams because it had a "bad third act".You could say the same thing about Capote. Like Williams, he had a horrid childhood (Capote's mum was a party girl who didn't really want him and became an alcoholic who would abuse him; his dad was a useless con man), but he overcame it to have a glittering early adult hood.
But just as Williams slid into the pit during the last years of his life,so, too, did Capote - not finishing Answered Prayers, only writing a few short stories, getting involved in a series of horrible relationships with men who were basically gigolos (who talk to Clarke here, so we get their side of the story - actually the whole book pays a lot of attention to Capote's long term love affairs, which is good, I think), annoying all his rich friends with the publication of a story,drinking and taking drugs. It's really depressing. But this is still very much worth reading.
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