I would never try to put forward any pretense, for if I did I would surely fail miserably. The truth be known, when it comes to what literary experts rather unanimously declare to be a fine literary work, I just don't get it. Believe me, I dearly want to and toward this end have made many attempts by reading many of the best known great works in American literature as identified by the experts, but inevitably I'm left with a frustrating feeling of like HUH? I do understand that true literary art has much to do with the writer's ability to, in my own words, paint pictures with words. And, I do recognize excellence in that regard when I see it. It seems clear to me that writers either have it or they don't. But for me to enjoy a book I need something that grabs my interest and holds it. And when that doesn't happen as with this book Other Voices, Other Rooms, it just leaves me cold. Thank heaven for sites like Goodreads where there are numerous people to summarize and explain what is going on, and what I miss that the writer is saying. This is one of those works which, on my own and without the reviews provided by many others much more inciteful than me, I would not have had the slightest understanding or appreciation of what I just read.
As for the frequent mention in reviews written by others of the on-going relationship between Truman Capote and Haper Lee, author of one of the most famous books in American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird, this is probably as good a place as any for me to say if anyone wishes to take the time to delve deeply into all the available evidence, one would have to believe, as I do, that it was only with a significant amount of "help" from Capote that Harper Lee was able to write the published version of this book, perhaps even to the extent of Truman having completely re-written what Lee herself first sketched out. This, I believe, was his gift to her. The most convincing piece of evidence to support this speculation was the publication in recent years of Harper's long, long overdue book entitled Go Set a Watchman. The latter, which almost everyone agrees is nowhere near as well written as TKAM (and which she was almost certainly too old in July 2015 when it was published to have a say in the matter) was definitely written by Lee. This book is more, what I and many others believe TKAM would have looked like were it not for Capote's help. Indeed, I suspect it would never have even been published.
As for the frequent mention in reviews written by others of the on-going relationship between Truman Capote and Haper Lee, author of one of the most famous books in American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird, this is probably as good a place as any for me to say if anyone wishes to take the time to delve deeply into all the available evidence, one would have to believe, as I do, that it was only with a significant amount of "help" from Capote that Harper Lee was able to write the published version of this book, perhaps even to the extent of Truman having completely re-written what Lee herself first sketched out. This, I believe, was his gift to her. The most convincing piece of evidence to support this speculation was the publication in recent years of Harper's long, long overdue book entitled Go Set a Watchman. The latter, which almost everyone agrees is nowhere near as well written as TKAM (and which she was almost certainly too old in July 2015 when it was published to have a say in the matter) was definitely written by Lee. This book is more, what I and many others believe TKAM would have looked like were it not for Capote's help. Indeed, I suspect it would never have even been published.
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