Summer Crossing is a novel of two stories: one within it and another behind it.

Truman Capote began writing Summer Crossing in 1943. Fearing that the novel was, “thin, clever, unfelt,” he claimed to have had it destroyed at some point during the 1950s. However, a number of writings, including the manuscript of this book, were recovered from the trash by a Brooklyn house-sitter. Upon the finder’s death, his nephew sent the papers for auction, but since the Truman Capote Literary Trust held publication rights, the physical manuscript was not sold. Subsequently, New York Public Library purchased the papers, which are now held at the Truman Capote Collection archive. The book was published in 2005.

Summer Crossing is the story of a high-society New York teen named Grady during a long, hot summer in New York City. With her oppressive mother and nippy sister in Europe, she embarks upon a romance with a parking attendant, Clyde. Set against the brutal heat and her suffocating family, it is difficult to tell which is more oppressive.

Though unpolished, Capote’s tender, decorative prose is beguiling and beautiful. His ability to capture the heavy humidity of a New York summer proliferates throughout the story like a dream in which you try to run but your legs are too heavy; an omniscient metaphor for Grady’s life. Short yet satisfying, Summer Crossing is precocious and absorbing until the abrupt end.

Further viewing for experts: Truman Capote with a cat.

Book #27: ★★★★★

“There are only two adjectives writers care about any more! “brilliant” and “outrageous”! and Hunter Thompson has a freehold on both of them,” reads the back-cover blurb on my copy of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Growing up a step behind Generation Y, or whatever they’re calling us these days (Generation URL?), one can’t help but wonder if video game culture and über-violence in film haven’t hardened us up a little since Hunter S. Thompson’s heyday in the 1970s. Any shock or outrage caused by his books surely died with him back in February 2005.

As well you know, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is the story of a drug-addled Dr Raoul Duke (Thompson’s nom de guerre) and his attorney Dr Gonzo as they descend upon Las Vegas to attend a Mint 400 motorcycle race. What follows is a haze of mescaline, LSD, acid, and ether-induced events. The real and surreal within the story are tightly entwined, just as Thompson’s autobiographical events are indistinguishable from the moments that are products of his own imagination.

While it makes no claims to be the Great American Novel, I still felt as though something was missing. There’s plenty of story but we’re left with a mere sliver of plot. It has been years since I watched Terry Gilliam’s film adaptation of Fear & Loathing starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, and I can’t say I remembered much beyond the spinning restaurant. Oddly, I enjoyed the first half of the film and the second half of the book in equal measure, and hated the rest. Maybe through an interactive, multimedia approach we could start a whole new breed of film and literary appreciation. Or perhaps I’d be worth little more than these three stars.

Book #26: ★★★★★

Confession the first: I took a film noir class at university and, for the most part, hated it.

Crime fiction has never grabbed me. I forget characters’ names (particularly if they have nicknames or their first and second names are used interchangeably); I inevitably lose track of who is on which side; and by the time a character is reintroduced, I seldom remember why they were involved in the first place. And what’s with the constant descriptions of every piece of furniture?!

Confession the second: It took me about 3 reads of the first 2 chapters before I decided not to give up on this book.

Enough of my shortcomings as a reader. Admittedly, I’m glad I stuck with it.

Farewell, My Lovely is the story of Philip Marlowe, a private detective who is corralled into the company of the less-than-obsequious Moose Malloy, who, in search of his lost love Velma, shoots and murders a black man in a bar. While in search of Malloy, Marlowe digs his teeth into a case involving jewel thieves. Inevitably, the plots merge.

Despite my resistance, Chandler’s descriptions, replete with stunning metaphors and turns of phrase, allowed me to cast aside my issues with over-exposition and enjoy the ebb and flow.

The verdict? I’m glad I gave it a whirl. Since Farewell, My Lovely is widely considered Chandler’s best work, however, I’m in no rush to delve further into his bibliography.

Book #25: ★★★★★