In his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Capote introduces recurring characters, most notably the young male orphan and the eccentric females who take him into their household. Each of these young boys—initially an outsider —finds a sense of belonging as he gains maturity and self-knowledge from his experiences with these women. The young boys in other novels, such as A Christmas Memory (1966) and The Grass Harp (1951; see separate entry), become the wards of sisters—one loveably eccentric and the other practical and authoritarian. Here, though, the practical and somewhat cruel woman is Joel's stepmother Amy and the eccentric relative is her cousin Randolph, who at least twice appears dressed as an exotic lady. Amy's devotion to Randolph also resembles the relationship between Kate McCloud and P. B.Jones in Answered Prayers (1975-76), as well as that of Holly Golightly and the...