Diana Trilling’s account of her and Lionel’s train encounter with Truman Capote is such a strange little document, care of Alexander Chee.

The repetition of the phrase “little creature” to describe Capote is so off-putting. It would somehow be acceptable once but twice it becomes dismissive and condescending. Of course, this also documents the secrecy and fear around discussion of topics like homosexuality in America at the time, even among cosmopolitan people in literary circles.

It’s an eye-opening and depressing little document.