Reviews

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote

mulders's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Most of life is so dull it is not worth discussing, and it is dull at all ages. When we change our brand of cigarette, move to a new neighborhood, subscribe to a different newspaper, fall in and out of love, we are protesting in ways both frivolous and deep against the not to be diluted dullness of day-to-day living.

It is incredibly hard to find just one quote to use in this review. I swear I highlighted every other page of the book, Capote is such an emoting, vivid, madman of a writer that the simplest moments of humanity in his work feel like a gut punch. Grady is a lovely protagonist fitting of the story; a timeless picture of a teenage girl wise beyond her years who is ultimately just as naive as she thinks she isn't. Clyde makes for an extraordinary love interest— a man who first seems cold and disinterested and slowly reveals himself to be a beautiful, bleeding heart— but an even better deuteragonist: the shift in point of view from Grady's to Clyde's comes halfway through the book and knocked the wind right out of me, breaking my heart in hindsight.

A short novel of a whirlwind summer romance that starts off sunny and languid and hurtles towards a shining, dizzying, abrupt end. Truman Capote was and remains the greatest. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

millerrc's review

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

antidietleah's review

3.0

This book was kind of infuriating. I loved the style of writing but its really short, and was so hard to follow the timeline, then it just ENDED. What happens?!?

welkinvault's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I think this should’ve stayed  unpublished. I was disappointed in this novel. The prose was not as superb as I would have expected from Truman Capote.   There were times it was beautifully written and then times (often) it was just very chunky. You could see flashes of his other works, but this book was disappointing. 

nailavico's review against another edition

3.0

Es el primer libro que leo de Truman Capote y creo que ha sido un gran acierto para acercarme a su figura. Me llamó mucho la atención la historia detrás del libro (el manuscrito fue encontrado en una caja abandonada por Capote en su piso de Brooklyn y recuperada por el portero del edificio y en 2004 el contenido de dicha caja se subastó en Sotheby's) y aunque es una historia aparentemente sencilla me ha parecido increíble la forma de narrar de Capote, cómo describe los sentimientos y las imágenes que crea con las palabras. Tal y cómo dice el fiduciario de Truman,Alan U.Schwartz, en el epílogo "aunque no sea una obrea redonda, refleja plenamente la aparición de una voz original y de un prosista de asombrosa maestría". Después de leer "Crucero de Verano" me quedó con muchas ganas de seguir leyendo y descubriendo a Truman y su obra literaria.

eviewilliams29's review against another edition

sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

selincck's review against another edition

3.25

- the start was good -> gave all the Audrey Hepburn vibes
- the last 60 pages were quite dragging
- interesting love story ->

them ending up -possibly- dead

emilyspurr's review

reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lola425's review

3.0

So I giggled through three quarters of the book (until it started to get strangely dark toward the end) beacuse I felt like I was reading a 1940's script for the HBO show Girls. Seriously, Grady and Clyde read just like Hannah and Adam. Once I had that flash, the book was over for me. Couldn't dislodge the image. The end just didn't make sense.

tallbianca's review

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5