OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS by Truman Capote

Finished Th 2/8/18

I found this on the shelves (ancient paperback with no note of purchase date) after I watched the remarkable film, CAPOTE with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Katherine Keener (as Harper Lee), last week.

The tomboy character, Idabel, is based on Harper Lee.

I really loved the writing, but it got to be just too much- too florid and overblown. It was like all frosting, and not much cake. Although it is supposed to be an early gay classic, Joel, Randolph, and the rest of the characters just seemed more flat-out weird.

The theme of abandonment from family is autobiographical. He was separated from his mother and really did live in rural Alabama. This is where he met Harper Lee, life-long friend. Although their relationship was strained after she won the Pulitzer after writing only one novel her whole life.

His stepfather, Capote, adopted Truman. This man was wealthy and the family lived a rich life in upper Manhattan. However, they lost it all, and the family's financial situation took a downward turn.

Although educated at the finest secondary schools, Truman never attended college. He felt that either you were a writer, or you weren't.

This might have worked better, pared down and offered as a short story.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA-

The story focuses on the lonely and slightly effeminate 13-year-old boy Joel Harrison Knox following the death of his mother. Joel is sent from New Orleans, Louisiana, to live with his father who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Arriving at Skully's Landing, a vast, decaying mansion on an isolated plantation in Mississippi, Joel meets his sullen stepmother Amy, his cousin Randolph, a gay man and dandy, the defiant tomboy Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend, and Jesus and Zoo, the two Black caretakers of the home. He also sees a spectral "queer lady" with "fat dribbling curls" watching him from a top window. Despite Joel's queries, the whereabouts of his father remain a mystery. When he finally is allowed to see his father, Joel is stunned to find he is a mute quadriplegic, having tumbled down a flight of stairs after being inadvertently shot by Randolph and nearly dying. Joel runs away with Idabel to a carnival and meets a woman with dwarfism; on a Ferris Wheel, the woman attempts to touch Joel in a sexual manner and is rebuffed. Looking for Idabel in a storm, Joel catches pneumonia and eventually returns to the Landing where he is nursed back to health by Randolph. The implication in the final paragraph is that the "queer lady" beckoning from the window is actually Randolph, dressed in an old Mardi Gras costume.

CHARACTER EXPLANATION FROM WIKIPEDIA-

Joel Harrison Knox: The 13-year-old protagonist of the story. Joel is a portrait of Truman Capote in his own youth, notably being delicate, fair-skinned and able to tell outrageous tales without hesitation.[7]

Mr. Edward R. Sansom: Joel's paralyzed father, a former boxing manager.

Miss Amy Skully: Joel's sharp-tongued stepmother who is in her late forties and shorter than Joel. Miss Amy's character is reminiscent of Callie Faulk, an older cousin with whom Truman Capote lived in Alabama.[8] She is also reminiscent of Capote's maternal grandmother, Mabel Knox, who always wore a glove on her left hand to cover an unknown malady and was known for her Southern aristocratic ways.[9]

Randolph: Miss Amy's first cousin and owner of Skully's Landing. Randolph is in his mid 30s and is effeminate, narcissistic, and openly homosexual. Randolph's character is largely imaginary, but is a faint shadow of Capote's older cousin Bud Faulk, a single man, likely homosexual, and role model for Capote while he was growing up in Alabama.[10]

Idabel Thompkins: A gloomy, cantankerous tomboy who befriends Joel. Idabel's character is an exaggeration of Capote's childhood friend, Nelle Harper Lee, later the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.[8]

Florabel Thompkins: Idabel's feminine and prissy sister.

Jesus Fever: A centenarian, pygmyish, African American mule-driver at Skully's Landing, where he had been a slave 70 years before.

Missouri Fever (Zoo): Jesus' granddaughter who is in her mid 20s. She wears a scarf on her elongated neck to hide a large scar inflicted by Keg Brown, who was sentenced to a chain gang for his crime. Missouri Fever's character is based on a cook named Little Bit who lived and worked in the Alabama home where Capote lived, as a child, with his older cousins.[11]

Pepe Alvarez: A Latin professional boxer who is Randolph's original obsession and muse, and the prototype that led to Randolph's obsession with young Joel, as it is inferred that Joel resembles Pepe.

Ellen Kendall: Joel's kind, genteel aunt who sends him from New Orleans to live with his father.

Little Sunshine: A short, bald, ugly, African American hermit who lives at The Cloud Hotel.

Miss Wisteria: A blond midget who befriends Joel and Idabel at a fair traveling through Noon City.