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Swan Song Paperback – June 26, 2019

by Greenberg-Jephcott (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,647 ratings
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To the outside world, they were the icons of high society — the most glamorous and influential women of their age. To Truman Capote they were his Swans: the ideal heroines, as vulnerable as they were powerful. They trusted him with their most guarded, martini-soaked secrets, each believing she was more special and loved than the next…until he betrayed them. ‘Writers write. And one can’t be surprised if they write what they know.’
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  1. Print length
    496 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    WINDMILL
  4. Publication date
    June 26, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 1.14 x 7.76 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    178609018X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1786090188
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ WINDMILL (June 26, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 178609018X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1786090188
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.14 x 7.76 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 1,647 ratings

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Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
1,647 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

gammyjill
5.0 out of 5 stars "No one MARRIES Pam Churchill..."
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
I loved this book. It's in first place for my favorite book of 2018, already, and I expect it to stay in first place. "Swan Song" by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott is a tour-de-force that has absolutely blown me away. Okay, I loved this book...but will you?

"Swan Song" is about Truman Capote and his six "swans" - CZ Guest, Babe Paley, Marella Agnelli, Slim Keith, Lee Radziwill, and Gloria Guiness. Of course, other ladies like Nelle Lee and Truman's mother, Nina (born Lillie Mae), and Katherine Graham, make appearances in the book, but most of Greenberg-Jephcott's writing is about the Swans. The book is long, and each swan is given her own back story and special relation to Capote. Most important to Capote were his deep friendships with Slim Keith and Babe Paley, but all the women "got" Capote. They not only "got" Capote but they were carried away with his implied promise of discretion when they gifted him with their own secrets, and, in some case, the secrets of others.

And many of those secrets were exposed in 1975 in his book excerpt, "La Cote Basque 1965", printed in "Esquire". Terribly pained by the public airing of what was really (and literally) "dirty linen", the six Swans cut loose Capote and he spent the last nine years of his life trying to recover their friendship, and his own mental equilibrium. He regained nothing and died in Joanne Carson's guest cottage in a crappy ranch house in Los Angeles in 1984.

Who were the "swans" Truman Capote loved so dearly and yet had no trouble betraying in print? I thought Babe Paley and Slim Keith were the most interesting, but then I've read biographies of Babe Paley and an autobiography by Slim Keith, so maybe I know them better than I know the others. Greenberg-Jephcott repeats the old chestnut about Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, who was famous for her affairs with other women's husbands. "No one MARRIES Pam Churchill" was said by women who were startled when Pam went after Slim's husband, Leland Hayward...and she caught him.

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott's novel is filled with glimpses of fascinating people of New York and European society and in the small towns of Alabama. The book is a biography of Truman Capote as seen through the eyes and actions of people important in his life. If you're not interested in the milieu Greenberg-Jephcott has written about, then perhaps you won't like "Swan Song". This is a book you should read every review on both Amazon and Goodreads you can.
20 people found this helpful
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Peony
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book in spite of the author
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2018
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The subject of the book was fascinating. The story of Truman Capote and his Swans, all fabulous woman. The author moves back and forth between their back stories and Truman’s life. There is a problem and its with the author. Mostly she write clear prose that moves along. However, sometimes I felt like she had thoughts to win a Pulitzer so her writing became filled with floating thoughts, hard to understand sentences that had to be reread. In a way her writing bothered me I still recommend the book
6 people found this helpful
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Michael Burke
3.0 out of 5 stars Gossip mongering about New York's 1960'S "People"
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2019
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If you're interested in the who and how the "Crême de la Crême" of the 1960'S New York, (who have now long since passed away) became"sooo bored out of their minds" with their yachts, jets, and the Italian Riviera that they managed their tedium by screwing like neurotic beavers........... then this for you.
If your interested in learning how brilliant a writer Truman Capote was (was he?) and how odious and obnoxious an individual the man was behind all his childlike charm.......... then again, this is for you.
I realized on re-reading the above. that,probably, the book should be a best seller.
7 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and Fascinating glimpse into the rarified world of High Society. Loved it!
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2020
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I absolutely loved this book! Truman Capote, his Swans, and this time period are absolutely fascinating to me. It was so well written that I felt like I knew these people and this was happening in front me. Bravo and I can’t wait for her next book!
One person found this helpful
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Rebecca Davies
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2018
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This book tells the story, in novel form, of the real women who were part of Truman Capote’s New York world. I had read Swans of Fifth Avenue before and I wonder how easy it would be to follow this book without the background.
6 people found this helpful
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Bermudiana
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, compelling novel.
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2018
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There is nothing I can add that has not been stated in Jill Meyer’s review. I, too, loved, loved, loved this book, although my reading of Truman Capote’s work has been somewhat limited and I really remembered little about his Swans except for their names. Nevertheless, I was enchanted and, ultimately, touched and saddened by this beautifully told tale. My treasure for 2018.
4 people found this helpful
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Antonio Arch
5.0 out of 5 stars Both Hard Copy and Audiobook are Pure Magic!
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020
very year one book comes along and stands out; I usually end up talking about that one book and nothing else. I doubt very much that there will be a book that comes along to knock this one off its pedestal and am pretty confident that 2019 will be historically known as “the year of Swan Song”.
Truman Capote has always held a certain fascination for me and I wasn’t sure that I would appreciate a dramatization that filled in parts of his life that weren’t known. This book is so good that I suddenly find myself scrambling to remember what I remember as fact from reading biographical material because Swan Song is so believable, credible and possible. I can just hear him talking to limousine drivers and neighbours just the way that he does in this novel.
If you are interested in Capote, I highly recommend this book. Not because it is based in historical fact, but because it is so delicious that you’ll wish it was!
One person found this helpful
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M
2.0 out of 5 stars Tedious book about unlikeable people
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018
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For the most part the book was well written but after awhile it tended to drag.

I wish the author had chosen other subjects. None of these people were very likable and there isn't anything in this book that hasn't already been talked about ad nauseum in various gossip columns and memoirs.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

thewomanintheattic
4.0 out of 5 stars Change of perspective
Reviewed in Germany on August 14, 2021
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Truman Capote is one of the great literary loves of my lives, so I’m very protective of my him, and that’s one of the reasons why it took me a while to warm to ‚Swan Song‘.
The Swans were a group of beautiful, stylish socialites that flocked around Truman Capote - or he around them, that’s very much up for debate - but those friendships ended rather abruptly when he started to write about all the secrets they’d trusted him with. Most of them never spoke to him again after parts of what would later become the unfinished ‚Answered Prayers‘ were published in the Esquire.
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott now takes this part of Truman Capote’s life and makes it the center of a novel that is full of glamour, wit and grit, but still, I’ll always prefer reading him in his own words.
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Beth
5.0 out of 5 stars A gossip’s inside look at the 20th Century fabulous
Reviewed in Canada on December 11, 2019
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If you like stories about the great and powerful fashionistas of the 1950s & 1960s, you’ll love this story of the friendship with the greatest gossip Truman Capote.
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MaireadH
5.0 out of 5 stars A whirlwind of scintillating descriptions and dramatic tales. A stunning debut!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2019
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'They told him everything…
He told everybody else.'

Swan Song is a book I have been looking forward to reading for quite some time. I purchased a copy a few months back and put it to one side to bring with me on my recent holiday. I started it on the plane and it was by my side until I turned that final page. What a riveting tale!!!

My all time favourite movie is the wonderful Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring the exquisite Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. This 1961 film is an adaptation of the novella of the same name from that most intriguing of writers, Truman Capote. Yet, I have still not read any of his own writing, which further enhanced my curiosity as I approached Swan Song.

Published last year in June 2018 by Hutchinson, Swan Song is described as ‘a dazzling debut about the line between gossip and slander, self-creation and self-preservation….a tragic story of the literary icon of his age and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans'

Swan Song encapsulates an era of extreme wealth, bringing to life individuals who achieved notoriety for many reasons, but who all had one thing in common, a friendship with the enigmatic Truman Capote.

1975 was the year when Truman Capote had a spectacular fall from grace, following publication of an article in Esquire magazine entitled ‘La Cote Basque 1965’. It was taken from his work in progress at the time, Answered Prayers, a novel that was never finished due to his untimely death. Truman was searching for the successes he had achieved with previous works, in particular, In Cold Blood. This was a non-fiction book which recalled the savage murder of four members of the Clutter family in 1959 and was considered by many as a striking expose of the dark side of postwar America. Truman continued to seek the fame and the accolades that followed the publication of this work, but he never achieved quite the same levels of adulation that he longed for.

In exposing the secrets of Manhattan’s rich and powerful, of the women he affectionately nicknamed his Swans, Truman Capote was the instigator of his own downfall.

Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott spent years researching this novel and with a blend of fact and fiction, she creates an incredibly vivid portrayal of many iconic figure of the time. Truman Capote counted many socialites as his close friends and they in turn trusted him with their innermost thoughts and secrets. Among these women, his ‘Swans’, were Lady Slim Keith, Lee Radziwill. Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guinness, CZ Guest and Babe Paley.

In an act that could only be described as ‘social suicide’, Truman Capote’s expose on the lives of these women in Esquire, was a step too far. They lost complete faith in him, they closed ranks on him, they refused to have any interaction with him. He had shared with the world their confidences and in doing so he lost their friendship. Capote was distraught. for some reason unable to understand their sudden aversion to his company. His downward spiral from grace is cataloged throughout the novel, as we are catapulted back in time to a different world, a different era.

Having never read any books on Truman Capote before, I found Swan Song to be an extraordinary read. The attention to detail and the amount of research is evident throughout with an expressive and intense dialogue. As stated, I am not in any way an aficionado of the life and times of Truman Capote, so my review is purely subjective of my own experience in reading Swan Song. I adored the descriptions of the jet-set lifestyle. I was completely engrossed in the story, the lives, the wealth, the backlash, the fall, the domino effect and the eventual death of a man Kelleigh Greenburg-Jephcott describes as a ‘boy genius’

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019, the Sunday Times is quoted as saying that Swan Song is ‘a dazzlingly assured first novel… This clever book, with the moreish astringency of a negroni, is a perfect summer cocktail', a description I would wholeheartedly agree with.

in 1966, Truman Capote hosted a Black & White Masked Ball in New York. This was to be his ‘piece de resistance’, the night he claimed his place among the elite of society. It was a night that was to remain forever documented in the annals of history, a night that was never to be forgotten….

‘Because of who Truman was, that evening will always be perfect – nothing could hope to rival it. But because of who he became, it can never exist again. He has taken it with him, and for that, above all else, we can never fully pardon him.
One cannot forgive the tainting of the sublime.’

Swan Song is quite a stunning debut, a whirlwind of scintillating descriptions and dramatic tales. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope you do too!!
23 people found this helpful
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Ruth Roxburgh
4.0 out of 5 stars Really good
Reviewed in Australia on April 1, 2019
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Great writing and fascinating characters based on real life people. Only con was for me like many tragic tales of substance abuse (couldnt watch Leaving Los Vegas) the decline went on too long for me.
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pickypicky
4.0 out of 5 stars Very impressive
Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2020
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Very impressive storytelling even for one who doesn’t care much about high society. Only the ending disappointed me. Not the way the story ends, but the way it’s told. Still a very good read.
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