Truman Capote is being haunted by the Clutter family. Aging and isolated in Florida after losing his New York society friends once they saw that he would use their own histories in his stories, he's spiraling downward in a haze of pills and booze. He does have two friends, his housekeeper, Myrtle and the ac repairman. He begins to send his childhood friend, Harper Lee, tiny coffins in decorated boxes. Nelle is also living isolated and not writing, but for different reasons. Now estranged, they were once so close that they worked together in Kansas to research Capote's masterpiece.

This is an atmospheric look at the lives of both Harper Lee and Truman Capote. Moving back and forth between their shared childhood, to their time in New York and Kansas, to their self-imposed exiles where they no longer write, Powers digs into their motivations and fears and into the reason they stopped being friends.

This was a lot of fun. I enjoy the exercise of imagining the lives of authors and Powers handled these two Great American Novelists with empathy and humor. ( )

Wow ... this was really good. I picked it up just out of curiosity from the book shelf while randomly browsing the library shelves.

What a marvelous imagining of the relationship between Truman C. and Harper Lee (Elle Harper) ... very moving.

( )

This is a weird "ghost story" about Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote, and the break-up of their friendship. It's really quite sad and pitiful, and I actually got teary at the end. But I'm not sure who I would recommend it to; in fact I haven't recommended it to anyone. ( )

This seems like a development of fan-fiction, only it's really an alternative history of Harper Lee and Truman Capote with a twilight zoneish twist. It didn't shed too much new light on Capote other than I was not aware of his collaged "snake boxes". Powers attempts to blend them into some possible meaning. It was an enjoyable read and made me want to find out more about Harper Lee.(Nellie).
I might add that if you are not familiar with Capote's life much of it won't make sense.

* library borrow.

So far hauntingly familiar. Have I read this before? or just read enough of Capote for it to be familiar. ( )

Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers
A fantastical and heartbreaking tale, Capote in Kansas imagines the minds and lives of Truman Capote and Harper Lee in the later years of their lives, after their respective books have made them both famous and infamous. Now the ghosts of those whose lives Lee and Capote used for their stories are appearing in their bedrooms, and the authors are forced to confront issues of fame, friendship, privacy, and mortality. ( )