In a recent writing workshop, a fellow writer told me about a book she just finished, “The Swans of Fifth Avenue,” by Melanie Benjamin.  She thought my book club would like it.

I had found Truman Capote rather odd when I saw him on talk shows in the mid-1970’s.  I was only a teenager and interested in the usual teen stuff and certainly not interested in a “personality.” But a few years later during my true crime genre phase I read “In Cold Blood.”  Personality or not, Capote’s novel captivated me.

“The Swans of Fifth Avenue,” is a historical fiction involving Capote and the ladies of New York’s Fifth Avenue – his Swans. During the 1960’s and 1970’s Capote delighted them with his wit and charm, moving among them with ease, as one of their own.

Babe Paley and her wealthy friends adhered to traditional lifestyles established by their mothers and high society during the turbulent 1960’s. There is a scene where Babe rubs her husband’s feet when he comes home from work, a scene repeated every day.  Imagine that. She was his personal butler – filling every need.  But where was the love?

Enter Truman Capote.  He shook up their lives, made Babe and the other Swans laugh with his quick wit and social satire.  He paid attention to them, praised them, and gossiped with them like teenagers.  He made them feel important – at least for a while.

I learned a lesson early in my life about money.  A wealthy girlfriend had just come home from boarding school.  I popped over to find her crying in her bed.  She told me between sobs that her parents were leaving later that day for a month in Europe.  She had only been home for a day. She only saw her parents during school holiday breaks and maybe a week or two in the summer. I felt her pain and isolation.  This novel made me feel the same way for the Swans, especially Babe Paley. Having so much and having nothing at all.

It’s always hard picking a book for book club.  We all like to read different genres. We’ve been lucky to find books that we have all enjoyed as a group.  And, this book was one of them.  We really liked it.

We talked about the culture of the time, how these incredibly wealthy women lived, how lonely they were, and about Capote and his spiral into addiction.  The book is a perfect pick for book clubs.

Check out this recent article about the book and the people it’s about: http://nypost.com/2016/01/24/the-story-that-destroyed-truman-capote/.  Also, Vanity Fair had done an article for its December 2012 edition http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/12/truman-capote-answered-prayers.

After we finished with this book, I toyed with the idea of re-reading “In Cold Blood.” Forty years later and thousands of books, I don’t know how I’d feel about it the second time around. Would his words still captivate me?  Often when I’ve re-read novels years later, I find that I’ve exalted the book to a higher place than I might today.  For me, it’s where I’m at in my life when the novel crosses my path and the effect it makes at that moment in time.  I remembered finishing “In Cold Blood,” and being scared.  I still have a smidge of fear just thinking about it now.  So, I opted not to re-read it and leave it rest peacefully among the books that moved me.

Rating: 8.5