Haunted authors cling in decline
by Jim Provenzano
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Capote in Kansas: a Ghost Story by Kim Powers; Carroll & Graf, $25.
A number of prerequisite readings will make Kim Powers’ novel Capote in Kansas even more enjoyable than it is, and it is…. touching and often hilarious…. Powers, whose own life became the subject of his first book, a memoir (The History of Swimming), weaves a deft and clever rewriting of what is known and fabricated about these two mysterious authors, both of whom became national celebrities in the 1950s, but both of whom failed to continue their success. In a way, Powers enacts a sort of revenge on Capote, who was known to change details of In Cold Blood to satisfy his own writing. Perhaps the Clutters are satisfied. Living readers will be satisfied as well.
