Review of Capote in Kansas by Kim Powers

Yes, I do read adult fiction from time to time. Kim Powers admits to a bit of obsession with Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote, chronicling her fascination in an Author's Note at the end of the novel, where she also distinguishes the work of her imagination on the materials from the historical, biographical, verifiable information that she includes. Her inventions are plausible, based on the sound research she brings to her portrayal of the famous authors. She imagines a drunken Capote vulnerable to visits from the ghosts of the Clutter family and their murderers, whose misery and horror he used to craft the work that stands as his enduring bid for fame. She imagines the reclusive Lee haunted in a different way--hated--by the sister of the man who inspired Boo Radley, one of the most memorable characters in American fiction. She imagines Lee--and her sister--continually troubled by the rumor that Lee's masterpiece was "ghost" written by Capote. She imagines Lee's injured feelings about these Capote-instigated rumors after her generous help in helping him win the trust of his informants in Kansas. And she imagines Capote's spiteful gossip and self-centeredness as the triggers for this plot that involves a laying to rest of all the ghosts--subtitling Capote in Kansas with the descripive genre category, A Ghost Story.

It's a pretty good read, made more pleasurable for the reader who has traveled some of the same territory--as fascinated by the relationship and mutual influence of Lee and Capote as by their wonderful texts. Powers's style gets a bit tedious at times when she draws ideas out in successive single-sentence, or single-frament, paragraphs. But like some other works that draw for their inspiration on the work of masters, this novel yields a high degree of enjoyment for the reader seeking new perspectives and new ways of engagement with the originals that sparked it. After you've read this, you'll want to go back to To Kill a Mockingbird and In Cold Blood.