FX describes Feud: Capote vs. Swan as "the original Housewives," and it's easy to see why. The latest installment in Ryan Murphy's Feud anthology follows author Truman Capote and his group of high-profile New York women, whose scandalous stories he mines for fodder.
Several familiar faces portray Capote's entourage (aka "The Swan"): Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald. "I want idols to function as idols," Murphy told The New York Times. "Those women who are iconic, have a certain level of fame and success would understand what it's like to be a swan. I thought they would understand the gravity and pressure of being a star."
While the Swans were a big name in Capote's New York, they may not be well-known to audiences today. So if you need a refresher, you're not alone! Below are summaries of the two books that "Feud: Capote and the Swan" is based on.
The original book burning?
The first book you want to read is Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and the Song of an Era by Laurence Leamer. Limmer writes that the 2021 biography begins immediately after Capote's literary successes "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood," as the author attempts to write his next "masterpiece."
Because it took so long, Capote printed an excerpt from his forthcoming novel, Answered Prayers, as a "proof of life." His biographer warned him that the chapter was a "gossip vignette" whose thinly veiled themes were sure to be revealed. But as Limmer writes, Capote reportedly said they were "too dumb" to know their lives were being treated in print.
"Capote's Women" spends its time tracing the lives of the author and the Swan family until that November day when Capote's chapter was published and the pages of Esquire were filled with stories of murder, infidelity and other scandals. The story created a sensation among readers. Limmer wrote that the Swans were "deeply hurt" and believed Capote had "abused their friendship and betrayed them".
Capote died in 1984, less than a decade after falling out of favor in his once-thriving social circles.
a scandalous short story
Want to read the story that sent shockwaves through the Swans and New York's high society? Although Capote's unfinished novel was published posthumously and can still be read today, you should still pay attention to the 1975 Esquire excerpt "La Côte Basque 1965."
The article begins with a lunch date between the protagonist and Ina Kuhl-born woman, who chatters away before the author’s attention shifts to other patrons—including real people like Jackie Kennedy, and “the Stand-ins for real people who are clear to readers "even have a passing understanding of the Swans," Smithsonian Magazine reported.
Some of the scandalous details included a woman's alleged murder of her husband and a one-night stand between a married man and the governor's wife. The slice-of-life story permanently damaged Capote's reputation, but according to the New York Times, He defended himself with stories from his friends.
"What do they expect?" he once asked, according to media reports. "I'm a writer and I'll take advantage of everything. Do those people think I'm just here to entertain them?"
