However ignorance of a book’s real life subject, when such subject is from the last Century or so, is, in the days of Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, not a barrier to literary enjoyment. The book is a fictionalised biography of Truman Capote - for who I think my knowledge is limited to knowing the famous poster of a film for which it turns out Capote wrote the originating novella (Breakfast In Tiffany’s). I read this book (and persisted with it when I might otherwise long since have abandoned it) due to its longlisting for the 2019 Women’s Prize. I received a copy of Swan Song from Random House UK via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. On the other hand, it is an immersive read you can easily sink into, and not want to surface from until you've witnessed the entire saga. At times the level of detail for each woman's experience or memory goes too far, the significant amount of research showing through. I do think the tale could have been more powerful in a slightly shorter format. But, even still, each also feels just out of reach, the narrative shifting to keep moving forward - just as we get to know one, our attention is redirected to another, reminding us that they're actually each part of a whole.
We learn so much about each of these women - their lives are meticulously researched and vividly imagined.
Their disdain for Capote, sharpened by their prior devotion to him, is present in every aspect of the telling - in the way they call him 'the boy', in the way they trivialise his grief relative to the harm he's inflicted on them, and in the way they blur his tale as subservient to their own. Greenburg-Jephcott writes the novel from the women's perspective as a Greek chorus - a literary device that's effective in its ability to shift amorphously and accumulate details. Love, motherhood and the idea of genius and what it entails (both the liberties and responsibilities) feature throughout, as do questions of fidelity. She draws us into the women's world, to help us understand.īetrayal isn't the only theme, though. We know from the beginning it's all going to end badly - the almost-lost manuscript barely fictionalising the women's darkest secrets - but the interesting part is in the way Greenberg-Jephcott makes this a tragedy, revealing the degrees of intimacy that continually deepen his betrayal. Swan Song starts with Capote almost losing a manuscript, and steadily unravels his childhood, literary ascent and then, most interestingly, his platonic relationships with each of the dazzling society women in his circle.
Readers should note triggers for suicide and drug and alcohol abuse. I learned so much about Capote and New York society, and mostly found it an enjoyable read. Swan Song unravels the social dramas of New York's elite as their confidante, Truman Capote, betrays their most intimate secrets in print. Another one down on the Women's Prize longlist.