Editor's Note Summary

The three short works in this book are chapters of an uncompleted novel by acclaimed writer Truman Capote. Narrated by what an editor's note suggests is a thinly veiled version of the author himself, the chapter/stories focus on the lives and experiences of individuals, both real-life and fictionalized, active in the so-called "high society" of the time. At the core of both the book's narrative and thematic considerations is the experience of loneliness, as well as two of its primary manifestations, exploitation of others and the allure of fame and fortune.

In an introduction to the manuscript, the editor, Joseph M. Fox, a former friend and colleague of the author, Truman Capote, discusses several aspects of the book's history. First is its contract history, how the author received a contract and an advance to write the full novel, how its...