Rating: 
Summary: Moments of brilliance, moments of ugliness
Review: In my opinion, the first chapter of this book, 'Unspoiled Monsters' is superb and worthy of anyone's attention that is interested in Capote. The following two chapters are less focused, and while they are at times memorable, they come off more as a nasty, grotesque end-note to the author's glittery life amongst the literati and heterosexual rich.
This book is worth owning to complete your Capote collection, but don't expect too much.
Rating: 
Summary: Somehow disappointing
Review: Nothing in this unfinished novel that compares to Breakfast at Tiffany's or Music for Chameleons (to state some of the most famous). However, it sure keeps an amusing tone and female characters are well depicted.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfinished Prayers
Review: Nowhere is the waste of Truman Capote's later life and talent more obvious than in these fragments of the novel that, according to the author, was to be his "masterpiece." (Always beware of writers who claim masterpiece status for works they have not actually managed to write.) Far gone on alcohol and drugs at the time, Capote was unable to bring this ambitious work to completion---but based on these bits and pieces,it is difficult to imagine that, had he finished it, the novel would have had much merit other than as a bestseller of the H. Robbins-J. Susann glitzy/trashy variety. Occasional passages of real beauty are undone by frightening lapses in style and taste, unlikely plotting, and silly gossip stories about the once-famous. On a talk show Capote once said he felt that publishing these excerpts was "a form of suicide." He was right. Those who are tantalyzed by what "might have been" in this case are naive: Capote gives us quite enough to show what would have been, and why, most likely, he chose never to finish it. This book has little value as fiction, but will be of great fascination to those who wonder what happened to Capote in his later career.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing, Brilliant
Review: The existing, published chapters of Answered Prayers constitute the most intelligent, edgy and well focused prose in American literature. The stories are dark and intimate, deep confession in the purest American tradition.Capote took hell for writing these chapters. The doors into society he worked all his life to pry open were slammed shut, as his most famous friends read their lives printed in Esquire, where these works were originally published serially. Detractors that say his stories are innacurate should note this reaction from those he depicted. Another chapter originally meant for Answered Prayers is Mojave, published in Music for Chameleons, and is excellent as well.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, Brilliant
Review: The existing, published chapters of Answered Prayers constitute the most intelligent, edgy and well focused prose in American literature. The stories are dark and intimate, deep confession in the purest American tradition. Capote took hell for writing these chapters. The doors into society he worked all his life to pry open were slammed shut, as his most famous friends read their lives printed in Esquire, where these works were originally published serially. Detractors that say his stories are innacurate should note this reaction from those he depicted. Another chapter originally meant for Answered Prayers is Mojave, published in Music for Chameleons, and is excellent as well.
Rating:
Summary: "Unspoiled Monsters" is the ONE
Review: The first novella of this posthumous collection, "Unspoiled Monsters", is the best work Capote ever did, AND the most influential. I'm glad it's out there.
Rating:
Summary: A sad end
Review: This is a sad end to a literary career destroyed by drugs, alcohol, and personal stupidity. Consisting of cafe' society gossip and scandals, this will appeal to no one but the Capote fanatic. As Capote's reputation for accuracy when spreading tales was abysmal, you won't learn anything from this. Far from being enjoyable, I wondered why he wasted his talents on such tiresome froth. One chapter consists of nothing but two society matrons spreading vicious slander. Sad, so sad.
Rating:
Summary: Unsatisfying crap
Review: This may be one of the most unsatisfying books I have read, which is a disappointment because I have enjoyed a couple of other Capote books, written before he succumbed to his own excesses and ego. This is so disjointed and lightweight that parts of it had me sighing in disgust, rueing the waste of a great talent. Capote seems to wear his crassness as a badge of honour, and while there is certainly nothing wrong with being proudly gay or even proudly wierd, he flaunts his strangeness in a way that becomes less endearing and more towards the annoying. It strikes me that Capote would have been a very frustrating person to know in real life - aloof and supremely selfish, a state most likely exacerbated by his addictions. The foreword to this "novel", written by its editor, hints at how difficult Capote was to deal with. Those points aside, all would have been forgiven if this had been a coherent, or at least interesting, piece of work. I found it self-indulgent, lazy and pretty much a waste of time. Its only value is perhaps as a cautionary tale for those who feel like wasting their talent.
Rating:
Summary: Must be taken in context
Review: Yes, this book, if left to stand on its own, would have some major problems, especially for one as talented as Capote. That said, given the extreme nature of the author and the fact that he IS one of America's major writers, "Answered Prayers" must be taken in context of his other work . . . and life. Okay, it's not "In Cold Blood" or "Other Voices, Other Rooms," but it is, as some have said, a rather colorful "suicide note,"--a new form, if you will. Given the fact that Capote took all these famous people, many of whom helped make him, and wrote about them to the extent he did was not the best move. But if you think about it, it was perfectly "Capotesque." What a way to go out, especially for someone who lived the life he did (or didn't). This is an unfinished work, but even so makes for some of the most interesting reading out there. Just look at it in the context of Capote's life and don't expect "Proust"--thank God. Also recommended: "In Cold Blood," McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood," and Gerald Clarke's bio on Capote.
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