Book the 40th

Summer Crossing, by Truman Capote.

In 1966, in the wake of the huge success of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote moved out of his Brooklyn apartment and basically left this short novel in a pile of trash on the curb to be thrown out. A caretaker, however, preserved the manuscript of Summer Crossing, and it has now been published for the first time.

I really, really liked it. I'm a fan of Capote anyway, and this little book is not as well-written as his other works, but cut him a break: it was one of his first attempts at writing anything. It's pretty darn readable for a first attempt, as far as I'm concerned.

Summer Crossing is the story of Grady MacNeil, a 17 year-old socialite who refuses to join her family on a summer trip to Europe and stays behind in New York for the summer. She pursues Mr. Wrong and there's tragedy in the end. As I've said before, I'm all about bad teenagers, so this plotline, of course, appealed to me. Purists will say it is a crappy book, but me? I liked it.

In other news, Grady has a sister named Apple in the book. Was that a normal name at some point? I thought Gwyneth was just being a loon, but I guess maybe some people have always named their children after fruits. Huh.