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5.0étoiles sur 5
Compelling novel of the south, Mars 28 2006
Joel Knox is the main character in this riveting and compelling novel of the South. It’s probably the most “true” of all of Capote’s works—based mostly on his life as a child in Alabama. This is, probably, one of the most perfect books, second only to IN COLD BLOOD which IS the most perfect. Some have likened OTHER VOICES to McCuller’s THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, but I don’t take to that comparison. This is much more Gothic and more completely formed than HUNTER. Published in January 1948 and Capote's second novel (but the first to reach print), this still engaging work was a sensation and best seller that year and has been in print ever since. Like Capote himself, it's one of a kind. A misfit young boy, Joel Knox, the product of a broken home (as was Capote), travels from New Orleans to the backwater town of Noon City, Mississippi in search of his unknown father. After twelve years of separation, his father has supposedly written to Joel's loving aunt in New Orleans and wants Joel back. But Joel, longing for his father's love, finds himself in the decaying hothouse home of his stepmother, Miss Amy, and his clever and perverse cousin Randolph, their black "maid" Zoo, and Zoo's ancient father Jesus Fever. Joel's father is in the house too, but not in the form he anticipated. Two local girls, Florabel and the wild tomboy Idabel, round out the players and are Joel's allies in a threatening world of perversity, mental instability, and sexual ambiguity. Even though he was just 23 when he finished this work, Capote displays tremendous inventiveness, narrative talent, and over-the-top imagery. A coming-of-age story, this work gushes southern atmosphere and contains, in Capote's own words, "a certain anguished, pleading intensity like the message stuffed in a bottle and thrown into the sea." It also is semi-autobiographical, "an attempt to exorcise demons," although Capote claimed many years later that he was unconscious of this when he wrote it. On another level, this work is also about the elusive search for the father, and the discovery that one is all alone, seeking to feel that "everything is going to be all right." As a post-war novel, OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS found an audience longing for the same thing, seeking the safety of a benevolent father in a perverse world, and wanting to grow up and find itself. The only other novel that I enjoyed this much (though it is totally different, yet at the same time Capote-like) was Jackson McCrae’s KATZENJAMMER (Soon to be a major motion picture) with its twists and turns.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
This is it, Jui 2 2004
Par Un client
Forget what you've heard about IN COLD BLOOD being the number one Capote book. It isn't. OTHER VOICES is and should always be the thing he is rememberd for. While not a large book, it is, by most literary stands, almost perfect. Sure, it's Gothic, but then that's what the South is about, and consider too when he wrote it. It's really a coming of age tale, with more insight and twists than you'd expect from someone as young as Capote was when he wrote it. Of all the works by this great author, this is the first one you should tackle. Also, try reading it with its companion book, THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD by Jackson McCrae.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Why?, Mars 4 2004
Par Un client
Why this book isn't better known is beyond me. It is Capote's best work and it is one of the few complete and satisfying books on the market, even if it was written decades ago. The story is told by a child narrator (think Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, or McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD) and we follow the story as he allows us to. The characters are just brilliant and well-developed without pages and pages of background. I read somewhere that the critics blasted Capote for his "Gothic" book, so many years ago when it came out. One example of things they had trouble with was a red tennis ball that the ill father used to drop down the stairs when he wanted to communicate with the others in the house. How is that gothic? At any rate, this is a concise book that is perfect in form, length, and content. Please, please, please do youself a favor and add this to your list of "must haves."Also recommended: Gerald Clarke's bio on Capote and McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood--a tour of Southern homes and gardens.
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