Swan Song is a lyrical, seductive and heartbreaking poem of a novel. Based on real life, it follows the social musings, interferings and manipulations of author Truman Capote, and the aftermath of a pivotal moment in the writer’s life when, in order to promote a new novel he was writing, he published a chapter of it in Esquire magazine. The novel, Answered Prayers, was inspired by his own social circles, and the published chapter tore those circles apart. Within it, through thinly veiled caricatures and barely disguised names, Capote revealed the secrets and confidences he had gleaned over the years of friendship with New York’s elite.

Known for surrounding himself with beautiful, wealthy and vulnerable women who he called his ‘swans’, when he shared their secrets, Capote found himself a pariah. Swan Song is told from the point of the swans, although we are never told who. The timeline hops backwards and forwards, which is confusing at first but somehow adds to the feeling that everything within the book is rushing towards a key point.

Capote is revealed as a complex and not always likeable man - self important and arrogant, yet deeply vulnerable and achingly lonely. The women - Slim, Babe, CZ, Lee and Marella, all legends in their own right - move around him in intricately woven threads. There is a feel of voyeurism to the book. The reader has to reconcile themselves with the fact that, as easy as it is to condemn Capote for his betrayal of his friends, for exposing their private lives to public scrutiny, this book actually takes that a step further, revisiting the buried hurts and exposing a few more for good measure. In the glamour of the world it is describing, it’s easy to forget that these were real people.

But the book itself is beautifully written, with haunting imagery and a feel to it that is somehow both human and ethereal. It’s compelling and thoughtful and, occasionally - like Capote - wickedly funny.

This was a delight. I was aware of Capote’s swans after viewing the film ‘Infamous’ a few years ago and was pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this fictionalised account of those relationships and how due to his hubris it all came crashing down..

The novel is rich in description and Greenberg’Jephcott weaves a narrative that places the reader in the midst of the glamourous parties, the lunches and meetings peppered with familiar names. Likewise, the unfolding tragedy is very visceral. I am curious about her research and will be looking up more information about her writing process.

A novel like his own infamous ‘Cold Blood’ that in a social sense peels away a world hidden from eyes of many and gives insight into a flawed yet great man. Highly recommended.

One way of looking at a book concerning the last magnum opus of Truman Capote's life is that the read will never be close to the power, wit, intention and achievement of the original. One other way of looking at this book, however, is that while it wants to excoriate Capote for digging up a load of socialite gossip and disguising it as fiction, these pages do get too close to doing that as well. So we get a fictional device of a 'royal we' kind of narrator, an unusual first person plural, to lambast the man for spreading the dirt. But we also get quotes from the dirt, with this author clearly wanting her cake and to eat it – and to throw it into the faces of the long dead. So several facts remain – one, that these people would be D-list celebrities these days, or pompous It Girls, and they are of no interest now and would never have been of interest to me then. Fact two, there are two very good films if you want to explore the character of Capote. Fact three, this clearly wasn't a book for me – and the length of it spreading out in front of me was far too galling to continue.

Fictionalised treatment of Truman Capote’s betrayal

I should stress that the 2-star rating is my personal view which seems to be out of kilter with the bulk of other reviewers who loved it.

For me, I couldn’t get into it at all. The writing is good making it quite literary, but it lacks pace and didn’t grab me at all. It covers Capote’s betrayal of his friends towards the end of his life, through a publication disclosing their secrets. I have no idea whether this happened, but it makes for an interesting storyline.

It is rare for me to give up on a book, but in this case, I just couldn’t summon up the energy to carry on reading. There is no discernible plotline in the early part of the book and the whole thing seems ephemeral and lacking in substance.

It can’t be a bad book, due to its critical acclaim, but the subject matter left me cold.

For anyone interested in the genius of Hollywood this could well be a gem.

Pashtpaws

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I am sorry but I really struggled with this book. I really enjoy reading historical novels. However I struggled to get into this one. I did not like the writing style and thought the book was too long. It has obviously been very well researched and a lot of effort has been put into it. It is just not my style of book. Sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

An imagining of the impact of a magazine article written by Truman Capote. It was a vicious and thinly veiled expose of people in his life. Not surprisingly there was terrific fallout from people who were his friends and acquaintances up to that date.
Full of people I didn’t care about I found it a difficult read. I knew Truman Capote ended up as a bitter old man but I didn’t realise just how nasty he was.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review

This documentary novel provides an oblique means of revisiting a series of events where the realities are so obscured you can have fun recreating them! The starting point is the novelist, Truman Capote, in later life - and arguably lacking self-censorship and good judgement - writing a thinly veiled account of the lives of the rich and famous in the wealthy circles he had access to.

The full book, to be known as Answered Prayers, was never published but part of it appeared in Esquire magazine as La Cote Basque. Swan Song focuses on this but also moves around, exploring Capote's early life and his appalling relationship with his mother together with the ease with which he found success as a writer. His most successful novel, In Cold Blood, was written in a documentary form and, over the years, there have been plenty of allegations that he was happy to embellish the reality of that story so, in that sense, he had something of a track record as someone who could tell a good story without necessarily too much regard for the truth. He was also someone whose fame allowed him to infiltrate these wealthier socialite levels of society where he was a confidante of many of the women he went on to write about. He was a drunk who played with drugs and was largely, but not exclusively, homosexual but he was also a good listener, often in the public eye and a gossip. It is fair to say that the women he knew best, a group which became known as the Swans, courted him as much as he courted them.

It all went sour when he started writing about them. As the book unravels this period of his life in the 1960s, the women are almost complicit in the stories, enjoying the bitchiness about others, gossiping about what might be in there and feeling offended if excluded. Some of the women are easily recognisable. Jackie Kennedy is in there and Capote has a love hate relationship with her sister Lee Radziwill. American readers will know many of the others – new American money, the wives of politicians and a Guinness heiress.

The story in the novel is told from the perspective of one of this group and the publication of the extract led to Capote being vilified and excluded from it. However, the real consequences went further. There is a character called Ann Hopkins who is clearly a thinly veiled version of Ann Woodward, an aspiring model and showgirl from a country background who wanted to be famous and would do almost anything to get there using her looks and her body. She succeeded and eventually married a rich socialite called William Woodward. The official story then is that, as the relationship came under strain, a burglar came into the house. Confusing her husband for the intruder she accidentally shot him. In Capote's version she murdered him and escaped conviction because of her connections. Hearing that the story was to be published Ann Woodward committed suicide. Whatever really happened - and it is likely that Capote's version was closer to the truth - that added to the outrage.

The book unravels all of these things. It is well researched but is also clearly a work of fiction although written in the same documentary style as Capote enjoyed. It catalogues Capote's very public slide into drugs and alcoholism encouraged by talk show hosts where he made a constant fool of himself while falling out with people who tried to help him. He comes over in the novel as unpleasant but with a superficial easy charm.

It is an interesting read. It encouraged me to find out more about the main characters without liking any of them. The whole thing is a bit of a circus parade but, even today, we all like to get a peep into the lives of the rich and famous and we're rarely sorry when they crash and burn!

He has been one of the most fascinating writers of the last century, not only his works but also his private life offers much to talk about. Both are closely linked since he used the people around him as a source for his creative work. Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott retells Truman Capote‘s life as it might have been. From his first steps in writing as a boy - the chance to win a puppy was motivation enough to take part in a competition - to his well known novels „Breakfast at Tiffany’s“ and „In Cold Blood“. He had his charms, could easily win people for him, but then he misused their trust and confidence, played his games and made fun of the people who took him for a close friend.

The novel is lively told, the fact that Greenberg-Jephcott does not stick to the chronological order but springs back and forth in time adds to the liveliness. The dialogues are vivid and you get quite a good idea of how the people around Capote might have been, especially his mother and Babe. It is not a biography, but real life events taken and told a story out of the facts - just what Capote himself did. Also from a psychological point of view quite impressive.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me. I found the prose somewhat self-indulgent and rambling and quickly lost interest as a result. The timeline seemed incoherent as well. I’ve read the other reviews that rave about th eloquence of the novel and I wonder if there is a touch of the emperor’s new clothes about this novel or if it’s just me. What I will say is it transports us back into a specific historical period and society nicely so may appeal to those with more of an interest in this subsection of America.

Sadly this left me as cold as Capote’s betrayal. 3/5 stars.

Swan Song should have been fascinating. I knew Truman Capote rubbed shoulders with the upper crust but I had no idea of the extent of his connections. He was intimate friends with New York royalty, spending years holidaying and enjoying boozy lunches with them. This book gives an insiders’ view of the lives of the very rich members of US and, to a lesser extent, European society in the 60s and 70s, and then details the fall-out when Truman screwed them over by publishing their most shocking secrets as thinly-veiled fiction.

The research behind this book is very thorough. This comes across in how distinct the different voices of the “Swans” are and how well various historical “figures” are brought to life. This is particularly the case when the women are shown in conversation with Truman, whose personality dominates the story.

With such a promising cast and stunning betrayal at its centre, I had hoped for waves of entertaining drama. Unfortunately I was bored and had to keep forcing myself to return to the book. For while the characters may be moneyed, glamorous, connected to apparently every famous person on the planet, lounging about in beautiful locations in gorgeous clothes and having many affairs, their lives came across as dreary and I didn’t care about any of them. I did wonder if this was partly the point and the author was trying to alert the reader to the emptiness of her subjects’ lives and the tragic waste of their potential… but surely there would have been a way to do this that was also entertaining?!

I found the many narrative time-shifts disorientating. I appreciate the author was trying to achieve an almost kaleidoscopic effect in places, giving us several versions of Truman’s stories to demonstrate the various way he would often tell a “true” story to suit the audience or his purposes, but the persistent time-hopping became jarring. Large parts of the book are narrated by an omniscient “we” which is supposedly an amalgamation of all the “swans'” voices, and while I can see what the author was going for with this, I just found it something else that held me at arm’s length from the characters and their personal stories.

Perhaps readers with a particular interest in Capote and/or US high society of the period will find this a more enjoyable book.

Overall: I feel this was a sadly wasted opportunity. In here somewhere is a brilliant book which I hope other readers are able to appreciate!

Over countless martini-soaked Manhattan lunches, they shared their deepest secrets and greatest fears. On exclusive yachts sailing the Mediterranean, on private jets streaming towards Jamaica, on Yucatán beaches in secluded bays, they gossiped about sex, power, money, love and fame. They never imagined he would betray them so absolutely.

Not for me but if you like historical fiction then this will be right up your street.

I was sent a copy of Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott to read and review by NetGalley.
The best thing about this novel is the eloquent writing but this does not necessarily make up for the tediousness of it. When I was only about a quarter of the way through the book I had to make a decision whether to persevere or not – I found that I didn’t care at all about the characters, with their money, their fame and their jet set lifestyles. I couldn’t care less about their squabbles and who was bitching about whom. I decided to continue as I do not like to be defeated by a book and I did like the author’s prose. There are also times when you only really appreciate a book once you have finished reading it – although this is rare! With this particular novel I think that it helps if you are aware of the real-life characters that are portrayed, which I am, and can put these characters into the context of the times. There were passages that were quite compelling but I personally found that the constant repetition and versions of events of particular occasions though clever in one respect added to the tedium and frustration in another. To my mind this novel is far too long, saying too much of the same thing to be really enjoyable, which is a shame. However, I did enjoy the author’s way of writing, which is why I gave the novel 3 stars, and I wouldn’t rule out reading more of her work in the future.

I'm really sorry but this book was not for me. I tried to read it and managed around 6 chapters but then I just couldn't go any further. I couldn't find a fault with the style or the author but its just not for me. Sorry

I loved this novel. I think it helps to have some knowledge of Truman Capote before you read this, as there are references to his work and life throughout. If you don't have that knowledge, this novel will have you rushing to find out more. A fascinating exploration of trust, betrayal, vulnerability, celebrity, scandal and friendship. Stunning.

This book has inspired me to read up on everything relating to Capote and his ‘lamentation’ of swans (a very apt collective noun in this case!). The prose in this fictional group biography of The Boy and the women he socialised with is exquisite, and the fine networks of High Society are rendered beautifully. Highly recommended!

I tried to read this but gave up as I did not like the style in which it was written. However, after reading some background, I re-read parts of it with more interest. It is the story of Truman Capote's last book, a thinly disguised expose of his fellow high society big-wigs. The author has totally fictionalised the story and changed the ending. Interesting but not an enjoyable read for me, I'm afraid.

I begin by saying that other than his works, I know nothing about Truman Capote or his life. I had never heard of his swans or his Black and White Ball. Or Answered Prayers. So I really don't know how accurate the events/depictions herein are.

But it really doesn't matter. Swan Song is a gorgeous, wicked, indulgent, eye-opening, glamourous and heart breaking story. Capote is a deeply intriguing character - charismatic and repellent in equal measures. His swans, superficial as society hostesses, are revealed to be fascinating but flawed women, living lives of hard won glamour and privilege. And oh, the glamour! I loved this aspect of the book - the villas and yachts, the Mediterranean cruises, the parties and luncheons, the designer clothes and showbiz pals. But you sense there is something rotten beneath the surface - the affairs, the murdered husbands, the gold digging, the gossip and backstabbing. Then Capote drops his bombshell .... there is no-one who I don't feel sorry for but there's no-one who I totally feel didn't deserve what they got.
I absolutely loved the structure and the narrative voice of this book. The unreliability, the changeability of the stories added to the metafiction feel that permeates this novel. Despite the ending being a little dragged out I found Swan Song to be hugely entertaining and utterly fascinating. I feel compelled to find out more about Capote, his swans and their lives. The author's research and command of her subject are to be admired. Highly recommended.

This covers a largely unknown aspect of Truman Capote. His deprived childhood and treacherous approach to friends led to him being isolated from the society he wanted to belong to. Most readers will probably feel he was well out of it. The social class of the period is well described and readable. The book seems long at times and there are too many characters coming and going but it does give an insight into the mind and life of a distinguished author.

This should have been a perfect book as it features a lot of things I love - New York high society, Truman Capote (well, I love Breakfast at Tiffany's anyway), scandal, drama, but it fell slightly short for me. I wasn't overly keen on the writing style and the story dragged a little. I understand the author did a lot of research (and it shows) but I do think the story would have benefited from a shorter length.

"We all know he can be a little bastard and have learned to keep our distance when he's on a jag. We can see him toying with us, a tom cat with a garbage pail of mice."

Name-dropping, pill-popping and unlikeable, it's astonishing that Truman Capote managed to keep the high society of New York so in thrall for as long as he did.

This novel captures what I imagine the "Swans" of the title felt as a result of being betrayed so categorically in Capote's roman-à-clef (well, he didn't publish the whole thing, so more like chapitres-à-clef). There was clearly so much research underpinning this book. The reader has the sense that they are there in the rooms described, walking amongst the guests at a Ball, or equally, at an horrific and poorly-hosted supper. Each person the reader encounters also has their own (it seems) authentic voice, as though Greenberg-Jephcott had been a fly on the wall in the decades of private conversations had between the characters. This resulted in me feeling inspired to do my own research, to put faces to the names of the people discussed and to see the real locations mentioned.

I personally preferred the sections Capote was not in - for example, the sailing trip with Jackie Kennedy and the Agnellis in Italy or the chapter relating to CZ Guest's past. The brief respite from Capote's self-aggrandising behaviour was needed.

Greenberg-Jephcott was (I felt) generous in her psychological reasoning as to why Capote behaved the way he did, but to be honest, I experienced an overwhelming sense of schadenfreude at his comeuppance on being shunned after the publication of the chapters of Answered Prayers. This is not giving anything away - we find out early-on what the fallout was from the decision to publish such an explosive work about his closest friends.

In the interests of demonstrating Capote's storytelling embellishments, the readers of Swan Song sometimes get the same story several times over (an example being the Mrs Busybody story near the start of the book where I initially thought the repetition was an error and then realised it might be a device to show exactly how stories ended up being quite so stretched.) I'm still not sure how I feel about this device. Also, I found that because the book jumps around in time (which, admittedly, the chapter headings make clear) I found it confusing. I kept having to reference back to which books Capote had yet written and whether he had yet met certain individuals.

Overall, a highly recommended read that will really satisfy readers who are either Capote fans or fans of the heady social scene of New York in the 1950s and 60s. Or actually just people who enjoy a well-written work about a well-known, self-acclaimed genius.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK, Cornerstone and Greenberg-Jephcott for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.