[REVIEW] Deborah Davis, Party of the Century

[rfmcdonald]

Author Deborah Davis's new book Party of the Century is an engaging look at Truman Capote famous 1966 Black & White Ball, held in the ballroom of New York's Plaza Hotel and funded by the wealth earned by Capote from In Cold Blood. Davis goes into considerable and enlightening detail on the structure of New York and international high society in the mid-1960s, describing how the new electronic news media and inexpensive transportation combined with Capote's connections and talent for publicity to make his ball become a news story worldwide. The most surprising and telling thing that emerges from Davis' book is the suggestion made by multiple witnesses that, as a party, the Black & White Ball was a failure, its diverse guests not mixing and its glamour sadly lacking. Davis' flavourful telling seems to confirm that Capote's magic only went so far.