Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era
Laurence Leamer
New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers--the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his swans. There are certain women, Truman Capote wrote, who, though perhaps not born rich, are born to be rich. Barbara Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C. more
368 pages, Hardcover
First published G.P. Putnam's Sons
3.86
Rating
6819
Ratings
486
Reviews
Laurence Leamer
29 books 177 followers
Laurence Leamer is an award-winning journalist and historian who has written eighteen books including five New York Times bestsellers. He has worked in a factory in France, a coal mine in West Virginia and as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote village in Nepal two days from a road. He has written two novels and an off Broadway play but is primarily known for his nonfiction. His most recent book, Capote's Women, is being made into an eight-part series starring Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Calista Flockhart, and Demi Moore.Community reviews
Read for Nonfiction November. LOVED it. Juicy juicy juicy, but not in a tabloid-ish way. I put a lot of work into writing a review for this book because I thought it was worth it. When I went to post the review, it disappeared. more
Barbara Babe Paley, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Slim Hayward, Pamela Churchill, C. Z. Guest and Lee Radziwill were courtesans whose sole ambition was to marry well (meaning “rich”) and then to marry better. They were attractive, elegant and well-dressed (which shouldn’t be that hard when you have all the money in the world). They were decorative and kept a succession of men happy, at least for a while. more
Having read “The Swans of Fifth Avenue” by Melanie Benjamin and disliking it I should have known that picking up this book was a mistake. 50 pages in I couldn’t stomach one more page of these ridiculous pathetic people whose only claim to fame was their money their looks and their clothes. What a waste. Even Capote was only really famous for two books and his friendships with these women. more
Extraordinary book. Couldn’t stop reading about the type of people who existed in an era that is long gone. Capote himself was gifted and utterly vicious. On one level he worshipped his “swans,” beautiful women at the top of high society, but on another level he must have held them in contempt to a point where he didn’t give a second’s thought to betraying them in the worst way. He flew on their planes, crashed in their estates and held court at their parties for decades but all the while he was keeping notes on them for his masterpiece, which was never completed. more
Wow. This book absolutely enchanted me. Being a certain age, Capote’s Women were very much part of the fabric of my youth. They were the women I admired. I followed their lives and saved money to eat in the restaurants they visited. more
Interesting and ultimately frustrating story of wasted lives - incredibly wealthy socialites who squandered their riches, in miserable marriages and betrayed by a genius writer who squandered his talents . more
3. 5, rounded down. Although I'd already read The Swans of Fifth Avenue, which covers much of the same territory in fictional format, Leamer's book is the source for the new TV miniseries about Capote and his swans, so I wanted to get the non-fictional facts as well. Leamer's book is certainly readable and well-researched, but perhaps goes into TOO much detail - and the structure is rather flat. He devotes a chapter or two to each of the women in Capote's orbit, interspersing some anecdotes about the author as deemed necessary - and then only the final 30 pages gets to the nitty-gritty dirt about the fall-out from the publication of his one chapter from his unfinished magnum opus, Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel in Esquire, which led to his downfall in society. more
A reader certainly gets what is promised by the title of this book. . . the author is skilled and has a wickedly sharp pen from the very first word. Still the reader is misled. more
"Capote's Women" reads like a book-length Vanity Fair article: well-written, fawning on the rich and stylish, somewhat bitchy, but fairly superficial. I expected the book to focus on the interaction between Truman Capote and his "swans" (towering socialites Babe Paley, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness, C. Z. Guess, Marella Agnelli, Lee Radziwell, and Pamela Harriman). Instead, Leamer weaves mini-biographies of the swans and Capote. more
Ran into cultural mashup here as I read this book while also watching Succession (S3) and Selling Sunset (S4) so I will point out that Capote’s era of obsession with the rich and superficial has not ended, just morphed into something even richer, skinnier and more surgically enhanced. I related to a paragraph early on about a manicurist who serviced all the Swans and hated Capote as she saw first hand the way he spread their stories from one to the next. And I nearly cheered at the end when Marella Agnelli dropped him cold in 1970 because she finally (finally. ) saw through him. more
One of the more fascinating aspects of Truman Capote's life, and which was not delved into in the Oscar-winning movie made of it, was probably the most fundamental part, equal to his honing of his writing talent - Capote absolutely adored a certain kind of woman, and he carefully selected and then tended to and eventually betrayed those women. He called these women - all beautiful, thin, rich, talkative, entertaining, and varying degrees "of good birth"- his "swans. " They were "socialites" - a breed hardly anyone even thinks about anymore, certainly not with the degree of awe and fascination they inspired for what author Laurence Leamer astutely concludes was only one generation. Leamer devotes his book equally to Capote and to the swans, who all get their own mini-biographies - and now I have much more reading to do. Some of the swans are insufferable (C. more
Everyone knows about Capote's swans. They were the creme de la creme of the world's jetsetters. They got best of everything: houses, cars, yachts, dresses, dinners and of course surnames. While divorce was such a no no thing in the society, it was nothing for these women. They did not want to drop those surnames when they signed divorce agreements because more they had more status they got. more
This book rang all my bells for juicy,gossipy, nonfiction tell-all books. I've read other books about Capote and his "swans" both collectively and individually. It's a fascinating transitional time period in our history and this book captures that era beautifully. Capote was a flawed sad literary genius. His ability to gather women of high society, create close friendships then exploit and expose their flaws and vulnerabilities for his own gain is ruthless and ugly. more
Just finished it. It was intresting concerning " The Swans ". I enjoy books about this era, which is now a bygone one. And books about Truman Capote in general. more
꧁ 3 stars ꧂I enjoyed the premise of this biography, but the execution was lacking in depth and focus. The author tries to focus on too many people in this short book, and the result is shallow character developments and fleeting plots. Joanne whatever-her-last-name-is, who *has Truman's ashes* isn't even introduced until the last chapters. I picked up this book partly because I need the context for my English presentation, and partly because I enjoy reading about dramatic historical events and people. The book definitely did not disappoint in that aspect, as it delves into each Swan's multiple (failed) marriages and affairs, and Truman's faults. more
3 leaning 2. 5 stars. i’m pretty disappointed by this, in part because i was so looking forward to it. each person featured sounded fascinating, including obviously truman himself, but the writing was all over the place. chapters were poorly organized, pacing was weird, and i frequently lost track of who was who. more
This book seemed a bit disjointed and all over the place. I think the author tried to cover too many people in too short a book. Truman Capote was an even more tortured soul than I had thought. I can't imagine what he thought the outcome of trashing his friends was going to be but it sure didn't work out for him. more
Inaczej wyobrażałam sobie Capotego, ale poznanie go lepiej oraz przede wszystkim poznanie kobiet, jakimi się otaczał, dało mi perspektywę, dzięki której lepiej zrozumiałam magię jego opowiadań (bo niestety tylko je jak dotąd czytałam i POLECAM). Poza tym „Kobiety Capotego. Śniadanie i Tiffany'ego, mroczne sekrety i zdrady w świecie glamour“ (bardzo nietrafione tłumaczenie tytułu „Capotes Women: A True Story of Love, Betratal, and a Swan Song for an Era“) było po prostu przyjemną lekturą, w której łatwo się zatopić i zanim człowiek się zorientuje, nagle jest w połowie. Mam sporo zastrzeżeń do strony technicznej książki, ale jednocześnie nie mogę jej odmówić uroku. A raczej podejmowaniemu przez nią tematowi, bo Leamer niestety pisze słabo. more
I liked it even though I didn't like anyone written about in the book. A fascinating look at a high-society wealthy-royalty-hollywood circle. Women who were brought up to marry rich men and lived their lives as some weird performance art. In the end, they were so used and dominated by those men - including Capote. So sad and yukky. more
Capote’s Women by Laurence Leamer is an enlightening and fascinating nonfiction that takes the reader into the lives, relationships, and mysteries of the fabulous, glamorous, and larger then life ladies (Swans) that were associated with the enigmatic author Truman Capote. I already knew a little about Capote, but the author does a fabulous job unearthing so much information that not only informs the reader of his friendships, muses, and the high society ladies that he was writing about, but also his rise and downfall. Through the snippets, biographies, and stories regarding each woman, one gets even more insight into the author himself. I loved that I learned not just about the volatility of the Author and his disappointing attempt to achieve that next high, that elusive bump of fame, that he attempted to write a novel about the very women that helped land him where he was. I loved learning more about these imperfect, glamorous, and old-Hollywood women and how each one was tied in with Capote. more
This is an astonishing good read. and also completely appalling. The story of the upper crust of the mid-20th century makes for conflicting reading. Are these people parasites. Are they figures of tragedy. more
Really fantastic for anyone who likes Truman, and like Truman, is fascinated by high society women of a certain era. It's both alluring and a cautionary tale of wealth, that as much as these women "work" for what they have, it isn't that hard to get it. Sometimes a certain je ne sais quoi is all that is needed, and sometimes it's just lucky circumstance, but divulging in all the sordid details is so intriguing. Definitely looking for more like this. more
A treasure to read. Mr. Leamer is an artist. He is a true gentleman. A smooth read that is a wonderful in that I could put it down. more
lifestyles of the wealthy and unappreciative. no thanks. more
The Real Housewives of NY Cafe Society. How fascinating. All the glamour, the sadness, and the betrayal. . more
Ciekawa książka. Ale głównie dla miłośników tego rodzaju historii. Kilka lat temu ukazała się po polsku fabularna wersja tego skandalu („Łabędzie z Piątej Alei”). Teraz czytelnicy mają okazję poznać tę prawdziwą stronę. Chciałoby się napisać po dziadersku: kiedyś to były skandale, nie to co teraz… 😂Ale nie byłoby to dalekie od prawdy. more
3. 5. I’m so fascinated by these women and how they navigated their world and the men. . more
I had high hopes for this book, sadly, it fell short. The author in general is very talented, I did enjoy this books intellectual prose. Where the book fell short; this easily could have been a series. The sheer number of ancillary people in this book is almost mind-numbing to keep track of. I would have preferred splitting the swans up into a series, which would have allowed the author to focus a little more in depth on each, rather than forcing the reader to drink from a fire hose; in my opinion it's almost a disservice to the very swans being written about. more