Summer Crossing (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Berendt, John. "Introduction" in Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms (2004/1948) Random House. ISBN 0-679-64322-2 p. xi.

In a way it is fitting that "Summer Crossing," a novel Capote did not want published, and Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel serve as odd bookends to a remarkable literary life.The big question is why didn't Capote want "Summer Crossing" published. Robert Linscott, Capote's editor at Random House told him it was too conventional, that it was good, but it did not reach the level of excellence Capote had achieved with his short fiction. In fact, Linscott told Capote that any writer could have written it. Although some may argue that there are not nearly enough of these moments to make reading the book worthwhile, I would argue that its rough and ready nature is what makes it so alluring. You cold or something?' he said. She strained against him; she wanted to pass clear through him: 'It's a chill, it's nothing'; and then, pushing a little away: 'Say you love me.' Grady McNeil is something a bit different by way of a heroine, and she seems to have very little knowledge of what she wants and what she needs, but she is enticing enough for the reader to be completely absorbed in her world.

Grady, the child-woman can be tedious, a fashion magazine come to fitful life. The fleeting evocation of her mother's history is much more sharply observed, as if the young Capote, despite himself, was precociously attuned to disappointment: 'The mother of a top-flight debutante has at her hands a social version of atomic revenge; but then she was cheated out of it, for there was the new war, and the poor taste of a debut in wartime would have been excessive: they had instead given an ambulance to England.' The novel tells the story of a spoiled young socialite whose romantic dalliances grow increasingly serious after her parents leave her alone one summer while traveling.Summer Crossing is the first novel written by American author Truman Capote. He started the novel in about 1943 and worked on it intermittently for several years before putting it aside. For over 50 years Summer Crossing was thought to be lost but it was eventually rediscovered among Capote's papers and was published in 2005. As the summer heats up, so does Grady's and Clyde's romance. The couple is soon wed in Red Bank, New Jersey. Once married, Grady meets Clyde's middle-class family in Brooklyn, and only then is the couple truly faced with the stark reality of the cultural divide between her family and his. Grady then realizes at her sister Apple's home that she is six weeks pregnant. Summer Crossing tells the story of Grady McNeil, a debutante in New York City, as she experiences her first summer in the city instead of going to France with her parents. It is a love story and a tale of self-discovery. While I haven't read Breakfast at Tiffany's I have seen the movie, and this book clearly lays the groundwork for that plot. Yes! Never underestimate the power of a woman! But can this marriage be saved? I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to read it yourself. Con lui Grady trascorre l’estate, anche se "era sempre stata consapevole che lui non poteva essere cucito nella trama concreta del suo futuro. Anzi, forse era proprio per questo che aveva scelto di innamorarsi di lui: quella storia doveva essere il fuoco dell’anno prima, destinato a riflettersi sulla neve che presto sarebbe caduta".

However, I still prefer Breakfast over this one because this has a thinner plot, less interesting conflicts and fewer memorable characters. Capote did not want this to be published because he thought that this was "thin, clever, unfelt" (Source: Wiki). After all, this was his first written novel. His first published work that made him known was his Other Voices, Other Rooms. Summer Crossing is set in post-World War II New York. The focus is upon a seventeen-year-old girl, ‘a young carefree socialite’ named Grady McNeil. Her parents go off to England – thus taking the ‘summer crossing’ of the novel’s title – and leave her alone in their Fifth Avenue penthouse for the summer. The blurb succinctly described how this impacts upon Grady’s life: ‘Left to her own devices, Grady turns up the heat on the secret affair she’s been having with a Brooklyn-born Jewish war veteran who works as a parking lot attendant. As the season passes, the romance turns more serious and morally ambiguous, and Grady must eventually make a series of decisions that will forever affect her life and the lives of everyone around her’. Labrecque, Jeff (November 18, 2011). "Scarlett Johansson to direct Capote's 'Summer Crossing' ". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved September 12, 2013.Why, oh why, couldn't Grady be more like her older sister Apple, married, with child, nice house, go getter husband? Apple, which happened to be the only thing Lucy could eat during her pregnancy, leaves her supposedly older and wiser daughter to look after Grady. So it goes. No writer has ever stamped so methodically on the flames of his own talent. After the sombre fireworks of In Cold Blood, published when he was in his early forties, there are really only embers. So it's good to be reminded by the publication of this first stab at novel writing how much flair he had when he started. He had talent to burn.

The second crossing is Grady's from adolescent to woman. She is seventeen. Going to Paris is of no interest to her whatsoever. Mrs. McNeil thinks that young Peter Bell is the reason for Grady's reluctance to leave the city for the Summer. However, Grady only considers Peter her best friend. che racconta l'incontro d'estate ,in una New York afosa e affascinante, tra Grady e Clyde.Grady è una ragazza viziata, ribelle, con la smania di crescere e di fare nuove esperienze di una impulsiva diciassettenne,Clyde è più grande, ha 23 anni,è un veterano di guerra, uno che sbarca il lunario come posteggiatore , con l'aria da duro , più esperto, ma in fondo... Grady McNeil, a 17-year-old upper class Protestant débutante, steadfastly refuses to accompany her parents on their usual summer ritual of travel, in this case to France. Left in the city for the summer by herself, she pursues a covert romance with Clyde Manzer, a Jewish parking lot attendant, whom she had noticed several months earlier. Grady spends time with Clyde and meets some of his friends, and in turn the couple visits the Central Park Zoo together. There, Clyde mentions his brother's bar mitzvah as a way of introducing the fact that he is Jewish. His prose here and there is glorious, and the seventeen-year-old central character of Grady McNeil feels like a lighter drawn version of Holly Golightly: dazzling in the eyes of those around her, but spiraling into a mode of self-destruction. Apple suggests they call a doctor to fix things. However, Grady reminds her of a friend they lost who bled to death on a public toilet.E Peter : "Da quella volta che mi facesti piangere: eravamo a una festa di compleanno e tu mi rovesciasti un sacco di gelato e di torta sul vestitino alla marinara.Oh eri una bambina molto cattiva." Clyde moves into Grady's parents penthouse apartment. Hormones and pheromones are erupting left and right. Bodily fluids are exchanged on a regular basis. In that maddening state of love, what's a star-crossed couple to do but go over to Jersey and get married at 2a.m.? What infinite energies are wasted steeling oneself against crisis that seldom comes: the strength to move mountains; and yet it is perhaps this very waste, this torturous wait for things that never happen, which prepares the way and allows one to accept with sinister sincerity the beast at last in view..." But her privileged society life of parties, debutantes and dresses leaves her wanting more. And excitement comes in the form of the highly unsuitable Clyde, a Brooklyn-born, Jewish parking attendant. When Grady's parents leave her alone for the first time in their New York penthouse one summer, their secret affair intensifies. As a heat wave envelops the city, Grady gets in deeper and deeper and cares less about the consequences. Soon, though, she will be forced to make decisions - choices that will forever affect her future once the long, sultry summer comes to an end. Read more Details Summer Crossing" refers to two distinct crossings during a long hot summer in New York. Lucy and Lamont McNeil are making an Atlantic crossing to see what the Germans have left of their European holdings.