Book Review: Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal and a Swan Song for an Era

(Bought at Barnes and Nobles with a left-over gift card from Christmas) I've been wanting to read this since Feud: Capote Vs. the Swans (based on this book) started airing on FX to see where the two differ. Both chronicle the fallout of Capote's publication of a chapter from his unfinished novel Answered Prayers in Esquire Magazine revealing the dirty little secrets of several of his high-society friends. Rich elegant queens of American elite, whom he dubbed "his swans," were portrayed as vicious, petty gossipmongers. Babe Paley, Lee Radziwell, Slim Keith all froze him out of their circle and he languished in a whirlpool of booze and drugs. CZ Guest remained a friend. Leamer offers biographies of seven of these women--Gloria Guinness and Marella Agnelli were not included in the FX series. Pamela Churchill makes a cameo appearance at the infamous black and white ball. Leamer's book is tight and economical, drawing parallels between Capote's tortured bio and those of his swans. The screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz has imagined several additional chapters to Answered Prayers as well as Capote encountering James Baldwin and the Maylses Brothers (Grey Gardens) filming the black and white ball.

I don't think Capote ever finished Answered Prayers. The series imagines he did but burned the manuscript and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz imagines endings for each of the characters in the book. It's a fascinating read but not very in-depth.