Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629401 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fans of In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird will welcome this off-beat novel from Powers (The History of Swimming) about the odd relationship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee. In an intriguing opening, Capote calls Lee late at night to relate his fears that he's being haunted by both the victims and the killers featured in his true-crime account of a brutal Kansas killing spree. Those calls trigger Lee's recollections of the twist and turns in their association, as well as the real-life antecedents for her novel about racism and justice in the South. The plot line concerning the haunting is secondary to the flashbacks, making the revelation of who's responsible for the haunting somewhat anticlimactic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"An intriguing opening... Fans of In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird will welcome this off-beat novel." - Publishers Weekly"

From the Publisher
"I thought I knew the story of Truman Capote and Harper Lee. I was wrong. Kim Powers brilliantly brings their strange relationship alive in a way a standard-issue biography never could. Weaving together fact, speculation and fantasy, he creates a sort of emotional biography that will haunt you long after the last page...just as the ghosts of the slain Clutters must have haunted them."--Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love and Mr. Ives' Christmas

Customer Reviews

What haunts us
There have been a bevy of films and books within the last couple of years revolving around Truman Capote and his seminal work, In Cold Blood. It's his oft recognized masterpiece, a blend of fiction and fact previously never done before, setting the literary world on fire. And his eventual downfall. Same might be said for literary legend Harper Lee, who also reached the peak of her success, publishing what arguably could be considered the best book in American history, To Kill a Mockingbird (slipcased edition).
These two authors, former best friends and confidants, come together in Kim Powers new book, "Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story".

Power recreates the lives of these two authors by reflecting on the things that haunt both of them. For Truman, he is pursued by his imaginative ghosts of the Clutter Family, as well as the two killers, in his drunken hallucinations. Frightened, with no one really to turn to, he calls up Nelle, who speaks with him but fails to chase the ghosts away. Nelle herself has her own ghosts to contend with. She is pursued, not by spiritual beings, but by the fame that came with writing her masterpiece. She is the object of someone stalking her, who sends her a dead mockingbird in a box, along with pictures to show that she has been tailed in the past.

Powers magically strings both of these stories along, with a sparse prose reminiscent of the elegance of Le''s writing. At first, I was dubious to the plot, wondering how he would handle these two greats, but more importantly, how could he possibly shed any more light on this topic, which by now is starting to feel a little bit overdone. But, because this ultimately is a work of fiction, he is able to bend realities enough to make these ghost stories real enough, and compelling enough, to add to the current stream of knowledge. Both authors are brilliantly realized, and fit into their perspective slots in American Literature.

But perhaps my favorite was getting closer to one of my favorite authors, Harper Lee. A recent book written about her life, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee only made me long for more information about her. This story appeased that somewhat, as we as readers were invited into her closed world, if only in our imaginations. Perhaps Harper has one more book inside of her that she hasn't written yet. Perhaps she could write about Truman, and her days during this time. What a book that would be.

Truman and Nelle, the Original Odd Couple

Being a devoted fan of Truman Capote and Harper Lee, I loved receiving this book as a birthday gift. I wasn't sure what more I would learn of the two's unusual friendship, but discovered several interesting tidbits. The time they spent in Kansas has been documented in "Capote" and "Infamous" but this tale takes creative license to suppose what happened in much more detail. Why did Harper and Truman end a life-long friendship of 20 years shortly after "In Cold Blood was published? How deeply were they both affected by their extensive research on the Clutter family.(The four victims of "In Cold Blood.") How does it still "haunt" them? Also discussed is the fact that neither Capote or Lee published any works after their time in Kansas. Why?

I liked the fictionalization of this novel. It makes a grander tale while educating the reader on true facts about both of these geniuses. Written with suspense and ghosts the books clips along while pages turn themselves.

Interesting and creative read.

Metaphor
Capote in Kansas is a ghostly story, in which a pair of childhood friends attain tremendous literary fame, only to have their relationship destroyed by their success. The novel opens as both Truman Capote and Harper Lee are nearing the ends of their respective lives. Each has been a "one book wonder" of a sort, each now long paralyzed by a form of writer's block. Both authors, who were simply human, after all, obsess over the choices they've made, struggling with enormous guilt and anxiety, somewhat existential in nature. Kim Powers takes the reader on an imaginary sojourn into their minds and hearts. Both are visited by ghosts and memories, unfulfilled wishes and waking dreams. How much of this plot is sheer, metaphorical fancy? Probably most of it. But it is based upon facts, and it might be interesting to revisit Capote in Kansas after reading some legitimate biography, to come to one's own educated conclusion.