A review by johndiconsiglio
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote

Capote’s infamous unfinished pseudo-novel (published posthumously in 1986) works better in legend than in print. He bragged it’d be an American Proust, but missed deadlines for decades. “Either I’m going to kill it, or it’s going to kill me,” he said. Scandalous chapters popped up in Esquire. Rumors circulated with stray pages. What his high-society friends saw—thinly-veiled exposés on their own romps with sex, drugs & hustlers—they didn’t like. Until his 1984 death, Capote was ostracized from his beloved party circuit by ex-pals like Gloria Vanderbilt. “What did they expect?” he said. “I’m a writer. I use everything.”