I suppose I began reading this as a sort of pre-game to Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (the premise of which centers the publication of third section of Answered Prayers, "La Côte Basque, 1965,” in Esquire magazine in November 1975. The barely veiled roman à clef caused much uproar in high society, who felt betrayed by Truman's pen. In reading the work in full, I realized 1.) this outrage was misguided, as reader contempt is largely leveled at "La Côte Basque's" men, the useless aberrations known as husbands.

The second point of intrigue is "Unspoiled Monsters," the unsung introductory chapter canvassing the international literary scene that is flush with queer decadence, not without its nostalgia:

"Creative females are not often presentable. Look at Mary McCarthy!—so frequently advertised as a Great Beauty. Alice Lee Langman, however, was a swan among the swans of our century: a peer of Geo de Merode, the Marquesa de Casa Maury, Garbo, Barbara Cushing Paley, the three Wyndham sisters, Diana Dudd Cooper, Lena Home, Richard Finnochio (the transvestite who calls himself Harlow), Gloria
Guinness, Maya Plisetskaya, Marilyn Monroe, and lastly, the in- comparable Kate McCloud. There have been several intellectual lesbians of physical distinction: Colette, Gertrude Stein, Wilia Cather, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles; and, in altogether another category, simple endearing prettiness, both Eleanor Clark and Katherine Anne Porter deserve their reputations."