My Side of the Matter by Truman Capote
Jul. 5th, 2011 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
One of the great masters of lyrical melancholy, Truman Capote remains admired for both his fiction – including Breakfast at Tiffany’s - and the pioneering In Cold Blood, a ‘non-fiction novel’ telling the true story of a brutal murder. Penguin Modern Classics publish the full range of Capote’s novels and short stories, and the tales in My Side of the Matter show to the full the blend of cynicism, humour and love that characterised his finest work.
This is a ‘taster’ book put out by Penguin and offered for free with copies of The Times newspaper a few years ago and is a collection of four short stories by Truman Capote that comprises the following:
MIRIAM – Miriam Miller is a recently widowed woman who meets a young girl at the cinema who happens to share her name. A momentary act of kindness by Mrs Miller to the girl results in her barging into her life and threatening to take it over. This was my favourite in the collection as it works both as a paranormal story and a psychological character examination and there’s a really eerie feel to it right up until the final pay-off.
MY SIDE OF THE MATTER – the 16-year-old narrator recounts his side of the events of Sunday 12th August, when, he claims, his teenage wife’s aunts tried to kill him. It’s supposed to be a humorous tale, but the humour wasn’t to my taste and while the characters are neatly observed and depicted, the general all-round unpleasantness prevented me from really enjoying it.
MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS – the narrator is visiting an elderly, chic woman in Martinique to discuss mutual friends and shared experiences. It’s a well-written story but absolutely nothing happens in it, which meant that my interest started to wane towards the end.
MR JONES – the narrator reminisces about a neighbour of his from 1945, a blind and crippled man called Mr Jones who used to listen to the neighbourhood’s problems. It’s a really short story and the central twist didn’t work for me at all, feeling like more of a tack-on than anything meaningful.
All in all, it’s worth checking out for MIRIAM and to see how Capote sketches out character, but if you’re like me and prefer short stories that focus on plot, then it’s likely to be a little frustrating.
The Verdict:
This ‘taster’ book from Penguin is a collection of 4 Truman Capote short stories. If you’re interested in character, then there’s more to take from it than if you’re interested in plot, but it’s enjoyable enough to dip into.
One of the great masters of lyrical melancholy, Truman Capote remains admired for both his fiction – including Breakfast at Tiffany’s - and the pioneering In Cold Blood, a ‘non-fiction novel’ telling the true story of a brutal murder. Penguin Modern Classics publish the full range of Capote’s novels and short stories, and the tales in My Side of the Matter show to the full the blend of cynicism, humour and love that characterised his finest work.
This is a ‘taster’ book put out by Penguin and offered for free with copies of The Times newspaper a few years ago and is a collection of four short stories by Truman Capote that comprises the following:
MIRIAM – Miriam Miller is a recently widowed woman who meets a young girl at the cinema who happens to share her name. A momentary act of kindness by Mrs Miller to the girl results in her barging into her life and threatening to take it over. This was my favourite in the collection as it works both as a paranormal story and a psychological character examination and there’s a really eerie feel to it right up until the final pay-off.
MY SIDE OF THE MATTER – the 16-year-old narrator recounts his side of the events of Sunday 12th August, when, he claims, his teenage wife’s aunts tried to kill him. It’s supposed to be a humorous tale, but the humour wasn’t to my taste and while the characters are neatly observed and depicted, the general all-round unpleasantness prevented me from really enjoying it.
MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS – the narrator is visiting an elderly, chic woman in Martinique to discuss mutual friends and shared experiences. It’s a well-written story but absolutely nothing happens in it, which meant that my interest started to wane towards the end.
MR JONES – the narrator reminisces about a neighbour of his from 1945, a blind and crippled man called Mr Jones who used to listen to the neighbourhood’s problems. It’s a really short story and the central twist didn’t work for me at all, feeling like more of a tack-on than anything meaningful.
All in all, it’s worth checking out for MIRIAM and to see how Capote sketches out character, but if you’re like me and prefer short stories that focus on plot, then it’s likely to be a little frustrating.
The Verdict:
This ‘taster’ book from Penguin is a collection of 4 Truman Capote short stories. If you’re interested in character, then there’s more to take from it than if you’re interested in plot, but it’s enjoyable enough to dip into.
