The Swans of Fifth Avenue

The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin is a 2016 historical novel that tells a fictionalized version of the social and literary rise of writer Truman Capote, his friendship with a group of wealthy New York women he dubbed the “swans,” and the subsequent breakdown of these relationships. At the center of the story is the friendship between Truman and Babe Paley, the most “perfect” of the swans. However, after Truman publishes his infamous short story, “La Côte Basque 1965” in the November 1975 issue of Esquire magazine, the swans turn against him, angry at the fact that he has exposed their gossip to the wider world through lightly fictionalized versions of people in their circle. The story unfolds as the swans look back on their glory days, when Truman was at the center of their lives—especially Babe’s.

The page numbers refer to the 2016 Delacorte Press e-book edition.

Content Warning: The book features antisemitism, anti-gay prejudice, sexism, suicide, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, domestic violence, and implied sexual assault.

Plot Summary

After a brief, fairy-tale preface, The Swans of Fifth Avenue opens with a conversation among several of the titular swans at a luncheon on October 17,1975. They commiserate over their shared disgust with the story their erstwhile friend Truman Capote has just published in Esquire magazine. Not only has he exposed their “dirty laundry” to readers all over the country and far from their social circle, he has also caused the death of one of the story’s main characters. As the swans discuss their next moves, they think back on how Truman came into their lives in the first place, and how he came to exercise such power over them.

The early chapters then chart Truman’s meteoric rise as a literary star, thanks to the success of his early novels, Other Voices, Other Rooms and The Grass Harp, alongside his growing intimacy with the “lead swan” herself, Babe Paley. Truman and Babe trade stories about their pasts, which are not always the stories known to the wider world, and Truman gains further insight into Babe from the fashion editor Diana Vreeland. For Babe, Truman is a confidante and kindred spirit, someone she trusts absolutely and who helps alleviate the isolation of her marriage to the powerful William S. “Bill” Paley—also a friend of Truman’s.

When he is not dining with Babe and the other swans at Le Pavillon, or traveling with Babe to the Paley homes in Long Island and Jamaica, Truman works diligently on the novella that will become Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Still, as he falls asleep with his partner in their basement apartment in Brooklyn Heights, he worries about being left behind.

While having lunch with the swans at La Pavillon shortly after returning from the Soviet Union, Truman notices the entrance of Ann Woodward and her mother-in-law, and insists that the swans tell him about how she murdered her husband and got away with it. Although all the swans participate in the telling of the story, Truman’s reaction gives one of them, Slim Hayward, pause, and she warns Babe about getting too close to him.

After a second interlude from the 1975 luncheon, where Slim—now Lady Keith—recalls having warned Babe about Truman, the next several chapters cover the success of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Truman’s relationship with Bill Paley. Babe throws a party to celebrate the new book, but both she and Truman confess to each other the next day that they feel empty and dejected. They spend the day together to cheer each other up, and end up sharing a bed at the Long Island house, in a scene that is both utterly intimate and sexually chaste. Soon afterward, Bill Paley invites Truman to his club and asks him to facilitate an assignation with a woman he met at the party. After weighing the demands of Babe and Bill’s friendship, Truman agrees to give Carol a call, as well as several other of his swans.

On the night of October 17, 1975, C.Z. Guest, another one of the swans, answers the phone at her home in Palm Beach, Florida. She is the only one of the swans who takes Truman’s call. After their conversation, C.Z. thinks back to how she started to feel nervous around Truman after she read In Cold Blood.

In Cold Blood—Truman’s masterpiece that describes the killings of the Clutter family in Kansas and the capture and eventual execution of the murderers—was published in 1966, to wide acclaim. The next section describes the swans’ reaction to the book, which makes them realize that Truman is an intellectual as well as a social force. Babe identifies with the murdered wife, Bonnie Clutter, and feels the loss of Truman’s company now that he is busy promoting his book. In order to celebrate his growing acclaim—and his growing bank account—Truman conceives of the Black and White Ball, with more than 500 guests that include not only the swans, but also younger socialites, the Kansas detective and his wife, and even Frank Sinatra, newly married to Mia Farrow. Truman’s partner Jack disapproves of these plans, since they take Truman away from writing, but to no avail. The Ball—and the process of talking about the Ball the day after—occupies the last two chapters of this section, which ends with Truman falling asleep with his head in Babe’s lap.

Back in 1975, the swans continue to drink at La Côte Basque and threaten to turn on each other. They think back to the ball and ask themselves when it all changed, which leads to a longer meditation on aging and wealth. As they leave the restaurant, photographers take their pictures, but are quickly distracted by the arrival of other, younger celebrities.

The final section of the novel is concerned with decline: the decline of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Truman’s increasing dependence on alcohol, and, most importantly, Babe’s lung cancer diagnosis. Truman, increasingly strapped for cash, is trying to make good on his promise to write Answered Prayers, and publishes a story from it—“Mojave”—in the June 1975 issue of Esquire. This story does not attract any particular controversy, but Babe finds the depiction of the married couple at the story’s center to be unsettling.

“La Côte Basque 1965” has much greater fallout. Although Truman initially claims to be delighted by rumors that its publication caused Ann Woodward to die by suicide, he quickly descends into despair when none of the swans, not even Babe, will take his calls. While the other swans have their luncheon, Babe, now weakened from cancer treatments, reads the story and shares it with Bill. After a brief reconciliation with Truman, Babe dies in 1978. Truman, who was not invited to her funeral, goes anyway and watches from behind a bush. The novel ends after Truman’s own death in 1984, when Slim and Bill meet for lunch at La Côte Basque and spend the afternoon together. The fairy tale that opens the novel also comes to a close, as the sprite bids farewell to the swans.