Reviews

So, it turns out I've had a total misconception about this book for several years. I first heard this title when one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Nancy Griffith, named an album after this book. On the album she sang other songwriters' songs. I, for some unknown reason, just assumed this was a book of short stories. I don't know why I assumed that, I just did. It's not.

Anyway, besides not being what I expected, it is a classic for several reasons including exquisite writing and having a queer child as a protagonist.

Recommended.

will_price's review against another edition

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5.0

This is my first Capote! I really loved this entire book until the very last chapter. I felt like we took a sharp left into surrealism that was disorienting and confusing but also still interesting? However, I like the rest of this book so much that it's still five stars from me. I think I'm just a sucker for Southern Gothic coming-of-age stories. All of these characters were memorable, and there are two names in particular that are just spectacular- Jesus Fever and Missouri "Zoo" Fever. There were several instances of just amazing writing that really got to me.

But there was no prayer in Joel's mind; rather, nothing a net of words could capture, for, with one exception, all his prayers of the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved.

fdarlene491's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

First published January 1, 1948
232 pages, Paperback

"Other Voices, Other Rooms is a 1948 novel by Truman Capote. It is written in the Southern Gothic style and is notable for its atmosphere of isolation and decadence.
Other Voices, Other Rooms is significant because it is both Capote's first published novel and semi-autobiographical. It is also noteworthy due to its erotically charged photograph of the author, risqué content, and debut at number nine on The New York Times Best Seller list, remaining on the list for nine weeks."

By all accounts the critics loved this story, the public must have too since it spent so much time on the best sellers list. It deals with taboo subjects in an abstract way, today we'd come right out and write about homosexuality or racism. Things were very different in 1948; I've heard many euphemisms for both. Knowing that Capote and Harper Lee grew up in Alabama and were friends gives a look into their relationship as he uses Lee in the character of Idabel. Capotes early life was not ideal and he uses some of that angst for Joel.

Other than that I wasn't impressed with the story. There isn't a word in the dictionary that Capote missed using. He turned sentences into entire paragraphs. I began skipping from the beginning to the end of the sentence and didn't miss much. Lots of what happens is in Joels head and that's a strange fuzzy place. The reader isn't certain what's real and what seems to be an alcohol induced hallucination, on Capotes part not the kid. The ending was a cliffhanger. As an e-book from the library I had to wait for months to borrow it. Capote and the Swans mini-series had his books relevant and desired again. Other reviews I've read love the Southern gothic theme and so on but I just don't get it.

#TrumanCapote #OtherVoices,OtherRooms

tomleetang's review against another edition

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2.0

Incredibly overwritten. There are plenty of poetic turns of phrase, but it's all too much froth. This is my first foray into Capote, but if I were to judge him on this work alone, I would say he is a very self-indulgent writer who sacrifices precision for a flurry of colourful images. Certainly, there are a few nifty phrases; absolutely, I was drawn in by the series of strange, grotesque events; undoubtedly, there is a hint of Rimbaud-esque madness to the writing, in particular when boy-to-man Joel Knox is delirious from snake venom. Yet I am not convinced there is more here than smoke and mirrors.

One contemporary review described Other Voices, Others Room as "a deep, murky well of Freudian symbols." Normally, a book with a review like that would be right up my street, but in this case I felt the well's depth was over-estimated - probably because it was so blooming murky.

limpan02's review against another edition

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3.5

I have mixed feelings about this one… That’s all I have to say. I just have a hard time grasping my thoughts, it left me kinda puzzled.

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