Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers (Inner Lives)

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Drawing on an arsenal of psychological techniques, Schultz illuminates Capote's early years in the South--a time that Capote himself described as a "snake's nest of No's"--no parents to speak of, no friends but books, no hope, no future. Out of this dark childhood emerged Capote's prominent dual life-scripts: Schultz shows how Capote would strike out when he felt hurt or taken for granted, engaging in caustic feuds with Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and many other writers.

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And Schultz reveals how this tendency fed into Answered Prayers , an exceedingly corrosive and thinly disguised roman a clef that trashed his high-society friends. What emerges by the end of this book is a cogent, immensely insightful portrait of an artist on the edge, brilliantly but self-destructively biting the jet-set hands that fed him. Anyone interested in the inner life of one of America's most fascinating literary personalities will find this book a revelation.

When I interviewed Capote over the last three years of his life, he always amused, and sometimes confused. He told me stories with a straight face and earnestness which I accepted as truth-- his truth-- only to discover other versions of the same story later on. So, what to make of Tiny Terror? Schultz has gone a long way in this brief book to show us how complex, how complicated, how intriguing, and how mystifying Truman Capote was. His work lives on.

His character continues to be defined. Schultz skillfully uses contemporary personality theories to show how Capote's innate personal qualities and excruciatingly painful childhood experiences combined to produce exceptional works of art. Beautifully written, the book will grip you like a mystery novel. Structure, Dynamics, and Change.

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The culmination of 25 years spent studying the infamous author, this work also suggests directions for future theorizing and research in personality psychology. Schultz shows in this enjoyable guide through the fetid swamp of the author's psyche, [Capote] was destined to remain a slave to his infantile impulses. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Academic Skip to main content. A invaluable artist too soon gone Schultz elevates Psychobiography here to an art form all its own, humanizing and rescuing Capote from the self-caricature the tiny terror himself had created, and making us understand that in the greatest creative souls, there can never be Light unless there is something Dark beside which it can shine.

Cheers to William Todd Schultz for shining his flashlight on a discipline too long left hidden in boxes in the attic. Dec 31, Nancy rated it liked it Shelves: If you skip the introduction and the last chapter, this book is an entertaining short biography of Truman Capote. Tiny Terror is billed as a "pyschobiographical" book.

Truman Capote is an interesting subject for a biography but Schultz's psychological musing about what made Capote tick made my eyes glaze over. Feb 01, Taylor Church rated it really liked it. But I took exception learning that this was not a comprehensive work, but a psycho-biography concentrating on why he wrote his final unfinished novel that basically blacklisted him from the high society he loved so much.

Tiny Terror was more academic and psychologically researched than I had anticipated, but it was a good, unique thing.

The author talked at length about the very things that shape us all the most, our childhood, our parents, our environment, and the DNA we just happen to enter the world with, along with other predispositions and propensities that make us who we are and who we may become.

Much of the analysis is of course opinion and subject to debate, but for the most part the author gives the reader facts and explains when things are not fully knowable or ascertainable. At this point my duty seems clear. Aug 20, Marty rated it really liked it. This was an engaging but very disturbing look at the process that lead Truman Capote to write Answered Prayers, the book-that-wasn't-quite.

It is this damage and his reaction to it that Schultz believes resulted in Capote's vitriolic attack on the high society matrons whom he called his 'swans'.

Tiny Terror: Why Truman Capote (Almost) Wrote Answered Prayers

A very sad look at the life of an extraordinarily talented and self-destruct This was an engaging but very disturbing look at the process that lead Truman Capote to write Answered Prayers, the book-that-wasn't-quite. A very sad look at the life of an extraordinarily talented and self-destructive man. May 27, Mary rated it really liked it Shelves: This book is not a biography or a literary analysis. It's more of a look at the complex drives and events from his past that led Capote to begin a book that would ruin his friendships with society women and send him on a fatal downward spiral.

If you like looking at a writer's body of work and teasing out the various themes to be found, you'll enjoy Tiny Terror. Jan 31, Melissa rated it liked it. Yes-I'm off on a Truman Capote rabbit hole after reading about his "swans" in a historical fiction novel.

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For a small book, this took me incredible long to read. I felt like I was back in school doing required reading. I don't think I learned anything new that wasn't in the historical fiction book. What has received comparatively little attention, however, is Capote's last, unfinished book, Answered Prayers, a merciless skewering of cafe society and the high-class women Capote called his "swans. In Tiny Terror, a new volume in Oxford's Inner Lives series, William Todd Schultz sheds light on the life and works of Capote and answers the perplexing mystery--why did Capote write a book that would destroy him?

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And Schultz reveals how this tendency fed into Answered Prayers, an exceedingly corrosive and thinly disguised roman a clef that trashed his high-society friends. Sep 14, Lisa rated it really liked it. This is a book about author Truman Capote and his never-finished book, 'Answered Prayers'. Portions of the book were published during his lifetime, the most controversial story being "La Cote Basque, " published in the mids.

This was a very thinly disguised account of the society women such as Babe Paley and 'Slim' Keith, among others, with whom he frequently lunched and had listened to all their innermost secrets, then proceeded to put them in the story. Neither of these women ever spoke This is a book about author Truman Capote and his never-finished book, 'Answered Prayers'.

Neither of these women ever spoke to him again. This book was written by a "psychobiographer", William Todd Schultz, who goes through each of Capote's major works and discusses why Capote would go out of his way to alienate those closest to him. There is a particularly complete chapter on "In Cold Blood" and the author's opinions as to whether Capote had a sexual relationship, or at least a love relationship, with either of the two killers. Also, the character Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" whose real name, we learn during the book and movie, is Lula Mae , was supposedly based on Truman's own mother.

Truman was very unhappy when Audrey Hepburn was cast in the movie as Holly; he had wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role. It was mainly interesting except when the author veered too long into his psychological theories about Capote having attachment-- or detachment-- problems in dealing with others. Jan 16, Fishface rated it liked it Shelves: A good, short read applying psychoanalysis to the works and biography of my personal patron saint, Truman Capote. I think the author was pretty spot-on in many ways, more questionable elsewhere.

Overalll, he helped me make sense of many of the great man's works and persistent fictional themes. For all the author made of St.

Truman's attachment issues, why was there no comment on his long-term sttled relationships, like the one with Jack Dunphy? The writer tried a leetle too hard to be scholarly A good, short read applying psychoanalysis to the works and biography of my personal patron saint, Truman Capote.

The writer tried a leetle too hard to be scholarly and then bungled everything by persistently using "like" where he needed to use "as. Oct 31, Maggie rated it it was amazing Shelves: Aug 13, Barbara rated it it was amazing. Todd was on the show with this book and with his psychobiography about Diane Arbus and I love the form and love the way he delves into his subjects lives. With this one, it was interesting to see into Capote. Also interesting to learn that Capote hated the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffanys. His book is so much darker. Jun 09, Scout rated it it was amazing.

A cogent and precise analysis of Capote's life, drawing intricate connections between his relationship to his mother and his art. Definitely a must-read for those interested in the psychological links between Capote's difficult and fascinating life and his often difficult, always fascinating writing. Sep 25, Eric Andrews-Katz added it. A good hypothetical study of Truman Capote. Some of it a little fanciful, but most of it was good for thought. This should NOT be the first or only bio of Capote. This is more of an amendment or side study of a very talented, but tormented soul.

Jul 23, Tricia Thompson rated it really liked it. Anything about Truman Capote is extraordinarily interesting, this is a psychobiography, written by a clinical psychologist, so lots of psycho babble, which I happen to love! Sep 04, Elizabeth rated it liked it Shelves:

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