Understanding Truman Capote

This title offers a fresh look at a classic and often polarizing author. Fahy (English, director, American Studies program, Long Island Univ.-Post; Staging Modern American Life; Freak Shows and the Modern American Imagination) perspective on the works of Truman Capote (1924–84) has less of the sexuality slant prevalent in most of the critical studies on the author. Readers should not be wary of scholarly jargon, as Fahy does well in writing for those who may be looking for a nonacademic read. That isn't to say that researchers and students will not find here intelligent and intriguing material, though. Quite the contrary. Each chapter take pieces from the Capote canon, including In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's, to make critical reading of this literature streamlined and self-contained. Fahy asks that readers take a look at the author not only through aspects of gender studies but also through the lenses of suburban studies, African American literary studies, sociology, and politics.