‘He’d spit it all out and you’d eat it all up’ … Capote, who had a genius for gossip. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
‘He’d spit it all out and you’d eat it all up’ … Capote, who had a genius for gossip. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
He partied with high society America but caused outrage when he spilled their secrets. Ebs Burnough talks us through his new film about Answered Prayers – the ‘smart, salacious’ novel Capote never finished
Tue 26 Jan 2021 01.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 2 Feb 2021 07.03 EST
When Truman Capote died in 1984, he left the remains of a novel he had been hatching for nearly two decades, and talking about for almost as long. Answered Prayers, the story of a budding writer screwing his way through polite society, was intended to be Capote’s most explosive achievement. He likened it to a deadly weapon. “There’s the handle, the trigger, the barrel, and, finally, the bullet,” he told People magazine. “And when that bullet is fired from the gun, it’s going to come out with a speed and power like you’ve never seen – wham!” Having bragged about the book for years, all he had to do now was write it.