History
The title is in reference to a quote by Saint Teresa of Ávila: "Answered prayers cause more tears than those that remain unanswered". According to Joseph M. Fox's editor's note to the 1987 edition, Capote signed the initial contract for the novel on January 5, 1966 with Random House. This agreement provided a $25,000 advance with a stipulated delivery date of January 1, 1968. Distracted by the success of his "nonfiction novel," In Cold Blood, the Black and White Ball, television projects, short pieces and increasing personal demons, Capote missed his 1968 deadline. In July 1969 the contract was renegotiated, granting a "substantially larger advance" in exchange for a trilogy to be delivered in January 1973. The delivery date was further delayed to January 1974 and September 1977. A final agreement in early 1980 would have yielded Capote $1,000,000 to have been paid only if he submitted the manuscript by March 1, 1981. This final deadline was not kept.
In May 1971, on The Dick Cavett Show, Capote referred to the book as his "posthumous novel", explaining, "either I'm going to kill it, or it's going to kill me".
The book is a somewhat sordid tale of the mixing of high and low social classes, drawn from his experiences as best friend and confidant to the most prominent female socialites of the era and their husbands. The first chapter of Answered Prayers, Unspoiled Monsters, which was published in Esquire, is largely based on Capote's friend, the real-life male prostitute Denham Fouts. Capote first envisioned it as an American analog to Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past'.
By 1975, Capote's increasingly outrageous public behavior, fueled by alcohol, drugs and sexual indiscretion led many to believe that he had no intention of ever publishing Answered Prayers and had given up writing to follow in the footsteps of his fabulous friends as a professional socialite. To prove that he was still a viable and productive writer, Capote sold four chapters of the novel-in-progress to Esquire in 1975 and 1976. This resulted in an uproar among Capote's friends and acquaintances, who recognized thinly veiled characters based on themselves. Both "Mojave" and "La Cote Basque" were exposes of the dysfunctional personal lives led by the author's main benefactors, CBS head Bill Paley and his wife Babe, then terminally ill with cancer. The Paleys would never socialize with Capote again and led an exodus of ostracizing friends.
From a literary viewpoint the chapters received a mixed reaction. Some, like Capote biographer Gerald Clarke, consider Answered Prayers to be the culmination of the factual novel form first employed by the author with In Cold Blood and a testimonial to his talent's ability to transcend substance abuse. Others, namely Norman Mailer, praised Capote's technique but questioned the seemingly frivolous plotline of escapades among an already outmoded jet set.
Read more about this topic: Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel
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