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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Other Voices, Other Rooms is a coming-of-age novel but I felt there was no real plot or point; I struggled to understand what was happening for half the novel. I’d finally feel I got to grips with it and understood what was happening, only to turn the page and feel lost all over again. I feel like this novel was meant to be a profound piece of literature but it felt a bit like Capote tried too hard, tried to be too poetic and mysterious and totally lost me, as a reader, along the way.
My favourite parts of this novel were Joel Knox’s interactions with Idabel, mainly because Idabel was such an interesting character – in a world were ladies are supposed to be ‘proper’, she was a tomboy that wanted to run free.
Now this is where real life gets more interesting than fiction; after finishing this novel, I was thoroughly confused so I decided to read the Introduction, written by John Berendt, hoping it’d shed some light on the novel. I found out that Capote and Harper Lee, the very Harper Lee who wrote ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, were childhood friends. Capote based the character of Idabel on Harper Lee [which probably explains why I liked her character], in return she based one of her characters in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ on him.
Throughout this read, I took a particular disliking to Joel’s stepmother, Miss Amy, mainly because she said things like:
“Just a hotbed of crazy nigger-notions, that girl.”
“Her mouth worked in a furious way. ‘Niggers! Angela Lee warned me time again, said never trust a nigger: their minds and hair are full of kinks in equal measure.’”
I just didn’t care for the language; this novel was first published in 1948 so I completely understand language is used in this text that wouldn’t necessary be used today but Miss Amy was just so vulgar in her speech at times, always thinking she’s better than everybody else. As I read the Introduction, it turned out Miss Amy was based on one of Capote’s relatives.
The plot thickens…. Capote always denied this book was somewhat autobiographical, despite himself sharing so many similarities with Joel, for example, they were both born in New Orleans and longed for their fathers, they were both sent South to live with relatives, both took their mother’s surnames. Later Capote said he was not aware, except for a few descriptions, that he had made the book so autobiographical.
Berendt in the Introduction, also mentions that for Capote’s career his real life would go on to interest people more than his written works. So, while this book didn’t hold my interest because I wasn’t sure what was happening half the time, I certainly found its comparison to Capote’s real life interesting.
My favourite parts of this novel were Joel Knox’s interactions with Idabel, mainly because Idabel was such an interesting character – in a world were ladies are supposed to be ‘proper’, she was a tomboy that wanted to run free.
Now this is where real life gets more interesting than fiction; after finishing this novel, I was thoroughly confused so I decided to read the Introduction, written by John Berendt, hoping it’d shed some light on the novel. I found out that Capote and Harper Lee, the very Harper Lee who wrote ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, were childhood friends. Capote based the character of Idabel on Harper Lee [which probably explains why I liked her character], in return she based one of her characters in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ on him.
Throughout this read, I took a particular disliking to Joel’s stepmother, Miss Amy, mainly because she said things like:
“Just a hotbed of crazy nigger-notions, that girl.”
“Her mouth worked in a furious way. ‘Niggers! Angela Lee warned me time again, said never trust a nigger: their minds and hair are full of kinks in equal measure.’”
I just didn’t care for the language; this novel was first published in 1948 so I completely understand language is used in this text that wouldn’t necessary be used today but Miss Amy was just so vulgar in her speech at times, always thinking she’s better than everybody else. As I read the Introduction, it turned out Miss Amy was based on one of Capote’s relatives.
The plot thickens…. Capote always denied this book was somewhat autobiographical, despite himself sharing so many similarities with Joel, for example, they were both born in New Orleans and longed for their fathers, they were both sent South to live with relatives, both took their mother’s surnames. Later Capote said he was not aware, except for a few descriptions, that he had made the book so autobiographical.
Berendt in the Introduction, also mentions that for Capote’s career his real life would go on to interest people more than his written works. So, while this book didn’t hold my interest because I wasn’t sure what was happening half the time, I certainly found its comparison to Capote’s real life interesting.
As a seminal coming-of-age story...meh. Capote clearly has a knack for description, and some of his paragraphs are downright breathtaking. But in this story I found myself caring less and less about Joel as he discovers himself. Which probably wasn't the intent of the author.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great coming-of-age tale. capotes writing is wonderfully descriptive, really puts you in Skully’s Landing. This all felt like it embodied a real place with real people. Love when an author can capture that.
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
It was good, but not great. Enjoyed the characters, but the pacing was a bit slow. I didn't really like any of the characters - none of them enthralled or interested me - and so I found it really hard to plough through this book because I didn't feel motivated.
It's definitely a very gentle book - it unfolds slowly, and the ending, when Joel accepts himself for who he is, it done in a very vague but natural way. I enjoyed that, just not the characters themselves or the pacing.
It's definitely a very gentle book - it unfolds slowly, and the ending, when Joel accepts himself for who he is, it done in a very vague but natural way. I enjoyed that, just not the characters themselves or the pacing.
This is such a short book, I don't know why it took me so long to read it. The writing was excellent, arresting, but I could only handle so much at a time. And I'd put down the book but feel no pull or interest in picking it back up.
Truman Capote's debut novel is amazing. It's been described as hallucinogenic or "gothic on steroids". I would have to agree with both descriptions. I listened on audio, which was a full immersion experience.
The story is reportedly semi-autobiographical. It opens with Joel Knox, a young 12-year old boy traveling to meet his father for the first time in his life. Up till now he's lived in New Orleans, but his father lives at a place called Skully's Landing - very remote and difficult to reach place in the deep south.
At Skully's Landing Joel encounters a menagerie of characters and odd incidents. Some of the incidents seem to actually occur, where others are only in Joel's imagination.
Altogether a wonderful listen and a good distraction!
The story is reportedly semi-autobiographical. It opens with Joel Knox, a young 12-year old boy traveling to meet his father for the first time in his life. Up till now he's lived in New Orleans, but his father lives at a place called Skully's Landing - very remote and difficult to reach place in the deep south.
At Skully's Landing Joel encounters a menagerie of characters and odd incidents. Some of the incidents seem to actually occur, where others are only in Joel's imagination.
Altogether a wonderful listen and a good distraction!
This review won’t be very long, I find, more than anything, the pandemic’s sort of left me without words.
I read this book for my 20th century queer project, a project where I read 100+ books, one for each year of the 20th century. This was my book for 1948.
I want to use all the adjectives to describe this book. Lush, beautiful, sensual, hot, sticky, Gothic, queer, but I find that a lot of the adjectives I reach for fall short. His command of his work really is exemplary. I listened to this on audio (the narrator had a Southern drawl, which helped rather deliciously) but I wish I’d had a physical copy so I could go back and reread passages and pick them apart. His strength, in writing, is not the individual words, but the feeling his words leave you with.
Capote’s writing is so delicate. Joel Knox, his 13-year-old partially autobiographical protagonist, is fine-boned, beautiful and tells wild, wild stories. And who can forget Skully’s Landing, a dilapidated Alabama mansion and a character all in itself? So evocative, so atmospheric. I found myself wanting to listen to this every day, looking forward to listening to it every day and thinking, I’ll just read a little more. It was rather hypnotising.
Often when choosing books for this project, I wonder if the book is actually queer, or if it is just written by a queer author. But it was perfectly, perfectly queer.
Capote’s writing reminds me of something, makes me nostalgic, but I don’t know what for. It was all at once strange, but familiar.
When I found out Capote had spoken about his experience writing the novel in the November 1967 Harper’s magazine, I had to find the article. With my friend Erik’s help, I slipped under that paywall and pulled this quotation.
"Excitement-a variety of creative coma-overcame me. Walking home, I lost my way and moved in circles round the woods, for my mind was reeling with the whole Look. Usually when a story comes to me, it arrives, or seems to, in toto: a long sustained streak of lightning that darkens the tangible, so-called real world, and leaves illuminated only this suddenly seen pseudo-imaginary landscape, a terrain alive with figures, voices, rooms, atmospheres, weather. And all of it, at birth, is like an angry, wrathful tiger cub; one must soothe and tame it.”
This would be good to read beside To Kill a Mockingbird, as one of the characters, Idabel, a rambunctious tomboy, is based off Harper Lee. Both books have the idea to tear apart the fabric of how racist America is, while leaving black characters with futures so bleak, so depressing, so dismal that one has to wonder if the telling of the story isn’t harmful in and of itself. Not to mention, the fact that my 20th century queer project really should be called 100+ books, mostly by cis white men that feature gay coming of age stories, but is that title too long?
This book is so gristly, gruelling, but so beautifully written, difficult to review! I'll see if I can come back to it and do it justice later.
tw: racial slurs, gun violence, mention of past trauma
I read this book for my 20th century queer project, a project where I read 100+ books, one for each year of the 20th century. This was my book for 1948.
I want to use all the adjectives to describe this book. Lush, beautiful, sensual, hot, sticky, Gothic, queer, but I find that a lot of the adjectives I reach for fall short. His command of his work really is exemplary. I listened to this on audio (the narrator had a Southern drawl, which helped rather deliciously) but I wish I’d had a physical copy so I could go back and reread passages and pick them apart. His strength, in writing, is not the individual words, but the feeling his words leave you with.
Capote’s writing is so delicate. Joel Knox, his 13-year-old partially autobiographical protagonist, is fine-boned, beautiful and tells wild, wild stories. And who can forget Skully’s Landing, a dilapidated Alabama mansion and a character all in itself? So evocative, so atmospheric. I found myself wanting to listen to this every day, looking forward to listening to it every day and thinking, I’ll just read a little more. It was rather hypnotising.
Often when choosing books for this project, I wonder if the book is actually queer, or if it is just written by a queer author. But it was perfectly, perfectly queer.
Capote’s writing reminds me of something, makes me nostalgic, but I don’t know what for. It was all at once strange, but familiar.
When I found out Capote had spoken about his experience writing the novel in the November 1967 Harper’s magazine, I had to find the article. With my friend Erik’s help, I slipped under that paywall and pulled this quotation.
"Excitement-a variety of creative coma-overcame me. Walking home, I lost my way and moved in circles round the woods, for my mind was reeling with the whole Look. Usually when a story comes to me, it arrives, or seems to, in toto: a long sustained streak of lightning that darkens the tangible, so-called real world, and leaves illuminated only this suddenly seen pseudo-imaginary landscape, a terrain alive with figures, voices, rooms, atmospheres, weather. And all of it, at birth, is like an angry, wrathful tiger cub; one must soothe and tame it.”
This would be good to read beside To Kill a Mockingbird, as one of the characters, Idabel, a rambunctious tomboy, is based off Harper Lee. Both books have the idea to tear apart the fabric of how racist America is, while leaving black characters with futures so bleak, so depressing, so dismal that one has to wonder if the telling of the story isn’t harmful in and of itself. Not to mention, the fact that my 20th century queer project really should be called 100+ books, mostly by cis white men that feature gay coming of age stories, but is that title too long?
This book is so gristly, gruelling, but so beautifully written, difficult to review! I'll see if I can come back to it and do it justice later.
tw: racial slurs, gun violence, mention of past trauma
big gothic Mood and the language was lovely but ultimately a little unsatisfying