While on a trip to the beach, I stopped off in Monroeville to visit the Mockingbird shrine. While there, I bought this book at the museum and was SO excited about the information that was found in it. There are so many similarities between the fictional Maycomb and the Monroeville in which Nelle Harper Lee grew up! For example, Monroeville, like Maycomb, had a strange citizen who got into trouble with the law when he was young and was locked up in his house by his father for years. This young man was never seen outside his house again and was considered a phantom by the town children, including Nelle Lee. The book will be a delight to all fans of the novel. I also strongly recommend a trip to Monroeville -- it will be well worth the time and effort for any true fan.

If you are fan of writer Truman Capote's works, this is a biography that you won't want to miss. Told from the recollections of family and friends of Capote, Southern Years captures Truman's childhood years and gives us a brief glance at his roots and how he came to be who he was as an adult. We also get an interesting glimpse into Truman's friendship with To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee, who was a childhood and lifelong friend.

Most of the book is told from the perspective of Jennings Faulk, Truman Capotes cousin. Long summer days were spent as curious children growing up in Monroeville. Page after page detail the antics and schemes these young ones got into and you can see how many of the children's real life experiences were translated to the pages of both Capote and Harper Lee's novels. We also get a sad peek into some of the turmoil that Capote faced because of his troubled family life. Knowing his history will give you a better appreciation for his writing and will entertain you at the same time. This is an easy, light read and in many ways will bring you back to your own childhood days of playing outside in the summer time.

The stories were told beautifully. Truman was portrayed as a folk hero of Monroeville, kind of like an Anansi or Brer Rabbit. When I first bought the book, I thought it was going to be boring and scholarly, but not so. A movie could be made of the book. The sadness came through strongly. God gave Truman great abilities, but they were even greater, because Truman hurt.

If you are a true fan of Truman Capote like I am, you will truly enjoy reading Truman Capote's Southern Years. Told through the eyes of his cousin, this book gives you a lot of details of his life, both the good and the bad of it. It was both a hilarious look at his life, and a very sad one too. You get a glimpse of the pain that he suffered throughout his life, and while it doesn't go into it in great detail, it gives you a small glimpse into his homosexuality. Take it from me, once you read this book, you will want to read it again, and again.

This book is simply a rehash of information which has already been published. I am a big fan of Marie Rudisill's and loved FRUITCAKE and SOOK'S COOKBOOK. I advise she work on her own and not coauthor with Simmons again--her books with him just don't allow her wit and humanity to show through.

This book has so much detail in such few chapters. This story tells how Truman was first left to stay at Jenny's house..Also featuring the special tree house, the bone fence and the Sunday dinners. All these stories were wonderful. I've never read such interesting, real detail about Truman's life..this book is a must have for every Capote fan. Way to go Marie

THIS BOOK DECRIBES HOW EACH ONE A TRUMAN CAPOTE'S STORIES REFECTS BACK TO HIS CHILDHOOD WHERE HE WAS RAISED IN ALABAMA BY HIS ECCENTRIC AUNT SOOK FAULK..IN THIS BOOK MARIE RUDISILL CLEARLY DETAILS TRUMAN'S LIFE AS A CHILD..IF YOU ARE A TRUMAN CAPOTE FAN, YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK..SIMPLY FANTASTIC

I was drawn to this book because the man who provided these anecdotes about Capote's early years to the author, Marianne Moates, is my first cousin, Jennings Faulk Carter. He is Capote's first cousin also. The stories told by Carter mostly came on summer visits to his Alabama home by young Truman Capote who was partly raised by divorced parents in New Orleans and New York and his eccentric aunts and uncles in Monroeville, Alabama. There are many accounts of the childhood experiencenes of the threesome-Jennings Carter, Truman Capote and Nell Harper Lee("To Kill a Mockingbird") Although some of the stories are hilarious, there is an underlying theme of brokenness, divorce, and alcohol abuse that shaped young Truman Capote into a talented but confused, effiminate, alcoholic homosexual. The book was more interesting to me for the simple fact that it deals with some of my relatives and some of my childhool memories. I am saddened, however, that many of Truman Capote's adult problems seem to have come from a childhood full of strife, mistrust, conflict, substance abuse and family instabiliy.

Essentially the recollections of Truman Capote's cousin, Jennings Faulk Carter, this book recounts the childhood years that Truman spent in Monroeville, Alabama growing up with Jennings and Nelle Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." It contains descriptions of actual events that appear in Capote's later writings, and thus will be of interest to readers of his fiction, but the writing is pleasurable in its own right.

Fascinated by the number of good writers who have come out of such a small town (there are others), I drove two hours each way to visit Monroeville while on a business trip to Mobile several years ago. Even though it has grown substantially since Truman grew up there, it remains a lovely southern town, with wide verandas, shade trees and a courthouse that is not to be missed.