Jack Dunphy, Dear Genuis: A Memoir of My Life with Truman Capote
Dunphy, Jack. Dear Genuis: A Memoir of My Life with Truman Capote. First Edition. 1987. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition.
This memoir blurs the line between fact and fiction, but it is a matter of style, not substance. The gist is true. The twist is that Dunphy inserted a fictional character, a Catholic priest, into the story. This literary device received mixed reviews back in 1987. However, no one understood Truman’s vicissitudes like Jack Dunphy. He gets the mix of good and bad exactly right. Dunphy, also a writer, points out Capote’s failings—the exaggerations, the drinking, the ultimate descent into madness—but knows these tragic flaws were inextricably linked to Capote's great talent. When Truman confesses to Jack that he can’t write without the assistance of alcohol, Dunphy knows what this means. Capote, drunk or sober, is done for either way. At the heart of this story is an unsurmountable hurt inflicted upon a young Truman by his vain, narcissistic mother, who, when she was not ignoring Truman, disparaged him.
“Power is so poisonous, even the power of a mother over a child. People in power rot before your eyes.”
--Jack Dunphy