Every writer has their idol. A genius scribe whose work you adore and style you’d die to emulate.
For me, when it comes to fiction (I’ve had a novel on the backburner for a while now,) that literature pin-up is Truman Capote.
To me, his work was never less than brilliant. And I don’t even question the lengths he went to for In Cold Blood. Yeah, yeah, I’m so controversial.
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| $9.95 well spent / photo: me |
Regardless of whether you think he is evil or just committed, this excerpt from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is wonderful. Pure magic, word wizardry:
“Watching her, I remembered a girl I’d known in school, a grind, Mildred Grossman. Mildred: with her moist hair and greasy spectacles, her stained fingers that dissected frogs and carried coffee to picket lines, her flat eyes that only turned towards the stars to estimate their chemical tonnage. Earth and air could not be more opposite than Mildred and Holly, yet in my head they acquired a Siamese twinship, and the thread of thought that had sewn them together ran like this: the average personality reshapes frequently, every few years even our bodies undergo a complete overhaul – desirable or not, it is a natural thing that we should change. All right, here were two people who never would. That is what Mildred Grossman had in common with Holly Golightly. They would never change because they’d been given their character too soon; which, like sudden riches, leads to a lack of proportion: the one had splurged herself into a top heavy realist, the other a lopsided romantic. I imagined them in a restaurant of the future, Mildred still studying the menu for its nutritional value, Holly still gluttonous for everything on it. It would never be different. They would walk through life and out of it with the same determined step that took small notice of those cliffs at the left.”
Just a little inspiration for the day, and an apology for letting the end of MBFWA slip by with no posts. I will rectify that as soon as these university assignments find a spot to quietly die.
In the meantime, who is your favourite writer? Do you think Capote was a Deity, or a ruthless, slightly crazed little man?
5 comments:
This book is in my bookshelf but I am yet to read it! I have heard very good things about it though, so I might have to pick it up when I'm done with my reading for uni this semester :)
I know exactly how you feel!
I stayed up super late a few nights in a row to read Breakfast at Tiffany's, and am now oh-so tired.
Highly recommend it, though.
On the plus side, it is a very easy read and not long at all.
cj.
theindustrybaby.blogspot.com
If I'm to read fiction then Breakfast At Tiffany's is a never fail.
Although I have not read In Cold Blood.
I do recommend "Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine" By Tom Wolfe. He rambles about In Cold Blood and says some clever things about it. I do want to read it and at $10 for a penguin classic, I have no excuse not too
Thanks for the reccommendation elleziebellz!
I will definitely have to check that one out, I love reading all the controversy and opinion surrounding In Cold Blood.
In Cold Blood is also a pretty easy read, in my opinion.
cj.
That excerpt was mind blowing.
I have that exact book sitting on my bookshelf and savoured every word of it. Admittedly, it's the only Truman Capote novel I've read, but nothing beats a classic such as this. I have so many favourite quotes from this novel!
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