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Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

04/10/08

Read in April, 2008

After I read it, I looked up pictures of the Clutter family, and just stared for about five minutes. They endured what is probably everyone’s worst fear.

Having never heard anything of the Clutter murders prior to reading this book, the experience of reading it was intense, gripping, and suspenseful from beginning to end. Capote, with his impartial writing style, relayed facts and details in such a way as to give a complete character illustration of everyone involved: from each of the Clu...more After I read it, I looked up pictures of the Clutter family, and just stared for about five minutes. They endured what is probably everyone’s worst fear.

Having never heard anything of the Clutter murders prior to reading this book, the experience of reading it was intense, gripping, and suspenseful from beginning to end. Capote, with his impartial writing style, relayed facts and details in such a way as to give a complete character illustration of everyone involved: from each of the Clutters, to the investigators, lawyers, and even the murderers themselves. He did not reveal his personal sentiments or biases, or even presume to know right from wrong. In what he coined a “non-fiction novel,” Capote brilliantly combined the elements of a fictional murder novel with factual journalism and psychological analysis to show the moral dilemmas surrounding the act of murder.

In the section about the Clutter family life during their final days before the murders, Capote’s description of their daily routines and habits made what was to come even more troubling. Nancy and Kenyon were going through the typical hardships of adolescence; Nancy had a boyfriend of whom her father did not approve and was the most popular girl in school, while Kenyon was self-conscious, nerdy, and socially awkward. Herbert and Bonnie’s marriage was a bit shaky; Bonnie had a mysterious and fleeting mental illness, and Herbert was very busy with his farming business and did not have much time to tend to her. However, despite their problems, they maintained a strong family bond, were well-liked by the entire community, and we get a sense that things were looking up for them.

After the murder takes place, as if to intensify the suspense, Capote does not immediately reveal to us exactly how or why Perry and Dick committed the crime, but instead takes us on their journey as they attempt escape through the deep South while the investigators begin to try to solve the crime. We learn much about these two characters through their interactions with each other, letters, diary excerpts, and interviews with family members. We are brought deep into their psyche, learning everything from their personal hygiene habits to their mannerisms and quirks. In an uncomfortable yet brilliant way, Capote allows us to sympathize with the murderers, if only for a moment. What exactly went wrong with them? Did Perry Smith’s childhood of abuse, neglect, and displacement lead him to have moments of extreme callousness and violence? Dick, who had a seemingly normal childhood and a loving family, was in a car accident which left him with a permanent head injury. Was his head injury the cause of his downfall, or was it some other unknown character defect? Even though they were capable of evil and cold-heartedness, they also had goals and insecurities as well as the capacity for creativity, love, and fear. The murders were a tragic “psychological accident” (according to Alvin Dewey), the collision of two personalities gone terribly wrong with an innocent family who was in the wrong situation at the wrong time.

The final section of the book, from their first of many trials to their execution, presents us with the moral dilemmas surrounding the punishment of crime. Capote does not make any definitive conclusions, but poses many questions: Is execution right or wrong? Why the long delay (approx. 6 years) between the guilty verdict and the execution? Was a fair trial possible or necessary, given the horrific nature of the crimes committed? It is impossible to summarize the impact of this book in a few paragraphs, but it will definitely stay with me for years to come.
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Rolls rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

03/12/07

Read in October, 2006

recommends it for: Tru crime fans - get it?

Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is a highly disconcerting read. After painting an idyllic scene we'd expect from the Midwestern setting evil makes it's presence felt. The blood is chilled and the heart gripped as a result.

As everyone must know by now this is considered the first nonfiction novel. Meaning that all of the bare facts of this story actually took place. A family of four was indeed murdered in their home by two unknown assailants on 14 November 1959. What made this book ...more Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is a highly disconcerting read. After painting an idyllic scene we'd expect from the Midwestern setting evil makes it's presence felt. The blood is chilled and the heart gripped as a result.

As everyone must know by now this is considered the first nonfiction novel. Meaning that all of the bare facts of this story actually took place. A family of four was indeed murdered in their home by two unknown assailants on 14 November 1959. What made this book innovative was the fact that Capote handled these facts not as a journalist but as a novelist. Rather than restrict himself to just the "who, what, where, when and why" of the fourth estate he let the fiction writer in him fill in the gaps left by the facts at hand. Scenes like Bonnie Clutter's last sad night on earth could and would only be attempted by a novelist.

While Capote never makes it possible for us to forgive the murderers (not that he or anyone could) he goes a long way towards making them sympathetic. It is the film's ("Capote") claim that he fell in love with Perry Smith while writing this book. Perhaps. Smith does indeed come off as a fully rounded person while Hickock seems less interesting to him (and consequently to us). What counts though is that he makes them human. After reading about the nature of this crime that in itself is a huge achievement.

Finally I just want to point out a person who played a huge part in this story but always fails to attract the attention accorded to the murdered, murderers or Capote himself namely Alvin Dewey. Dewey is the relentless Javert of this tale and it is through his eyes we see the facts unfold. Capote's drawing of him as a man "morally" wounded by the evil inherent in the murders of this poor family touches the heart. His refusal to let the murderers get away with their heinous crime galvanizes the spirit in turn.
This is where the true greatness of this book lies.

I started this book one night at two in the morning and read til I finished it at nine a.m. It is the very definition of a page turner. Once you are told what happened it is impossible to put this book down until you find out why....less

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Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

01/19/08

bookshelves: crime, film, journalism-in-book-form, modern-fiction, non-fiction, north-american

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: people who like a good crime story with some lyricism in it

I don't know why I waited so long after seeing and liking Capote to read the book on which the film was partly based, but I'm glad I finally got around to it, as In Cold Blood is a magnificent read. The first ever true-crime novel (or 'non-fiction novel' as Capote himself called it), In Cold Blood tells the story of the quadruple murder that shook the Kansas community of Holcomb in 1959 and which Capote then spent six years investigating, talking to the bereaved villagers, t...more I don't know why I waited so long after seeing and liking Capote to read the book on which the film was partly based, but I'm glad I finally got around to it, as In Cold Blood is a magnificent read. The first ever true-crime novel (or 'non-fiction novel' as Capote himself called it), In Cold Blood tells the story of the quadruple murder that shook the Kansas community of Holcomb in 1959 and which Capote then spent six years investigating, talking to the bereaved villagers, the detectives who worked on the case and the murderers themselves, with one of whom he may well have fallen in love; his sympathy for him shines through loud and clear. The amazing thing about the book is that all these different characters have their own voices, and they are all different and convincing -- a feat all the more impressive when you know that Capote conducted his interviews without a notepad or a tape recorder. The result of all these interviews is a kaleidoscope of impressions, a piece of journalism which somehow manages to read like high literature -- a page-turner which succeeds in conveying both the horror and the poetry of the crimes and lives described, and does so in Capote's trademark Beautiful English. No small feat, that.

The opening chapters of the book are brilliant. Capote introduces the reader to the reasonably prosperous town of Holcomb, its cheerful inhabitants and the mostly happy lives the Cutter family were leading before Perry Smith and Dick Hickock showed up and killed them. He then describes the murder scene and the early investigations, and shows how the community succumbs to paranoia and mistrust, as the locals are convinced the murderer is someone from their midst. Finally, he focuses on the murderers themselves, two seemingly likeable lads who for the longest time seem to get away with their crime. Clearly, neither of them has a conscience, but what they do have is dreams, hopes, plans and grudges, all of which are described in great detail and from several different points of view. The only thing that is not described in great detail in the first two thirds of the book is the gruesome murder itself. Capote wisely refrains from letting Smith and Hickock explain the hows and whys of the massacre until they are finally arrested, which makes the story gripping; you really want to go on reading to find out why exactly the Cutters had to die and which of the two men pulled the trigger and therefore is the greater villain. When you finally do find out these things, the answer is both surprising and right; such is the ingenuity of Capote's writing that you can't guess but don't feel cheated afterwards, either.

Sadly, the story somewhat goes off the rails once the murder case has been solved. Rather than quickly wrapping the story up after Smith's and Hickock's arrests, as he probably should have done, Capote takes his time to focus on their trial, their life on death row and their equally notorious fellow inmates, whose stories may have meant something to contemporary readers but which rather detract from the main story now. He also uses this part of the book to debate the issue of capital punishment, which is interesting but again detracts from the main story. Therefore, I found the final eighty pages of the book a bit of a let-down. Thankfully, though, the first 250 pages are excellent -- the best mix of fact and fiction I have ever read, I think.
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Lara rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

05/23/08

Read in May, 2008

This was a fantastic read - very quick moving and gripping from the start. People warned me it would be very violent and even scary, but I actually thought it was more thought-provoking and deep than anything... Once I got used to Capote's love of run-on sentences and sometimes awkward sentence structure, I really enjoyed getting to know each character through my own reaction to their experiences and comments. Sometimes writers explain the characters too much and leave little to the imaginatio...more

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Josie rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

03/13/08

Has a copy to sell/swap

This was a really good book! It's about the true story of the murders of 4 family members in Holcomb, Kansas town (a small town) and it's honestly one of the scariest books I have ever read! Don't read this one at night! Truman Capote gives an account-by-account re-telling of the murder of the Clutter family from the events leading up to the murder to the prosecution of the murderers. Very good! What makes it all the more creepy is the fact that it is a true story.

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Endah rated it:

(review of isbn )

11/11/08

Read in January, 2008

Buku kesembilan karya penulis Truman Capote ini di kalangan pemerhati sastra sering disebut sebagai sebuah bentuk sastra baru: novel nonfiksi. Truman Capote yang lahir pada 30 September 1942 ini memerlukan waktu tidak kurang dari 6 tahun untuk menyelesaikan In Cold Blood ini.

Aslinya, buku ini pertama kali terbit di Amerika Serikat pada 1965. Terjemahan bahasa Indonesianya oleh penerbit Bentang berdasarkan buku yang sama tetapi edisi 2002. Di negaranya, buku ini termasuk salah satu buku terb...more Buku kesembilan karya penulis Truman Capote ini di kalangan pemerhati sastra sering disebut sebagai sebuah bentuk sastra baru: novel nonfiksi. Truman Capote yang lahir pada 30 September 1942 ini memerlukan waktu tidak kurang dari 6 tahun untuk menyelesaikan In Cold Blood ini.

Aslinya, buku ini pertama kali terbit di Amerika Serikat pada 1965. Terjemahan bahasa Indonesianya oleh penerbit Bentang berdasarkan buku yang sama tetapi edisi 2002. Di negaranya, buku ini termasuk salah satu buku terbaik sepanjang masa.

In Cold Blood adalah buku yang dibuat berdasarkan kisah nyata yang terjadi pada 16 November 1959 di Negara Bagian Kansas, AS.

Satu keluarga pemilik pertanian ditemukan tewas dengan kondisi mengenaskan di sebuah desa kecil, Holcomb. Mereka adalah Mr. Herbert Clutter beserta istri dan kedua orang anaknya. Keempat korban malang ini dibantai secara sadis di dalam rumah mereka sendiri. Sherif setempat menyimpulkan, bahwa motif pembunuhan tersebut adalah perampokan. Tetapi apakah benar demikian jika melihat nilai harta yang berhasil digondol kabur si pelaku pembunuhan itu hanya sebesar 42 dolar saja.

Peristiwa itu tercatat sebagai salah satu pembunuhan paling sadis di Kansas. Tak membutuhkan waktu terlalu lama, para penyelidik yang dipimpin oleh detektif Dewey ahirnya berhasil menggulung para pelakunya, Richard "Dick" Hickock dan Perry Smith. Para juri di pengadilan kemudian sepakat menjatuhkan hukuman gantung bagi mereka berdua.

Sebagai penggemar kisah-kisah suspens dan detektif, bagian paling menarik menurut saya adalah ketika kedua cecunguk ini diinterogasi. Kita seolah-olah diajak serta meneropong benak para pembunuh ini; mengungkap masa lalu dan latar belakang psikologis keduanya. Secara detail Capote menceritakan kehidupan Perry dan Dick yang pada dasarnya tidak bahagia. Mereka adalah anak-anak keluarga miskin broken home yang kurang kasih sayang.

Penelusuran ke masa lalu ini menjadi memikat sebab ditulis dengan penuh ketelitian, berimbang, dan emosional.. Perlahan-lahan rasa kasihan dan simpati saya timbul kepada kedua kriminal ini. Meskipun ini sungguh-sungguh sebuah kisah nyata, namun dengan cerdik Capote berhasil membuatnya bagaikan sebuah novel fiksi. Tokoh-tokohnya hadir dengan karakter-karakter yang kuat; melekat terus dalam ingatan pembacanya.

Motif mereka membunuh semata-mata karena uang. Kabar tentang Clutter pertama kali mereka dengar di penjara Lansing dari mulut Floyd Wells, teman satu sel Dick. Wells bercerita bahwa ia sebelum dipenjara ia pernah bekerja pada Mr.Clutter. Wells yakin Mr. Clutter adalah seorang kaya raya dan pasti memiliki brankas di suatu tempat di rumahnya. Dick mencatat semua ocehan Wells dalam otaknya, lengkap dengan "gambar" denah rumah Mr. Clutter. Dick sesumbar bahwa jika ia bebas dari Lansing ia akan merampok Mr. Clutter demi lembar-lembar dolar di brankasnya.

Wells tak pernah menduga Dick akan benar-benar menjalankan rencananya. Ia mengajak serta Perry Smith, seorang pemuda keturunan Indian yang menggemari sastra yang juga dikenalnya di penjara Lansing. Lewat informasi dan "kesaksian" Wells ini, sherif akhirnya berhasil menangkap Dick dan Perry.

Pada bagian-bagian awal cerita, saya agak direpotkan dengan kalimat-kalimat panjang (berikut anak kalimat yang banyak pula, mengingatkan saya pada Romo Mangun almarhum) Capote. Tetapi, lambat-laun, setelah bisa "menyesuaikan diri" dan masuk ke dalam alurnya, justru saya menemukan kenikmatan tersendiri selama membacanya dan tak ingin berhenti sampai terungkap misteri yang menyelimuti kisah kelam ini.

Capote melengkapi bukunya berdasarkan bahan-bahan dan data yang diperolehnya dari berbagai sumber, baik berupa catatan resmi atau pun hasil wawancara dengan orang-orang yang terlibat langsung. Konon ia dibantu oleh sahabatnya, Harper Lee (penulis novel keren To Kill A Mockingbird).

Eksekusi hukuman mati bagi Perry dan Dick baru telaksana pada tengah malam 14 April 1965. Mereka digantung di Lansing, Kansas setelah gagal melakukan berbagai upaya pembatalan hukuman mati lewat pengadilan banding dan Mahkamah Agung Amerika Serikat.
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Kassi rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

09/09/08

bookshelves: favorites

The classic true crime book written by the famed Truman Capote earned its place in history as the first book of its nature - an attempt to combine journalism with storytelling for the purpose of creating a compelling tale. In this sense, the book doesn't disappoint at all. It was well chronicled and sometimes even overly inclusive of the facts, testimonies, and articles published from various accounts surrounding the murder that this book covered.

I was greatly interested in the pyschological...more

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Philip rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

08/20/08

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was published in 1966, and is based on events that happened almost fifty years ago. The events were real. This is not a work of fiction. The Clutters, an appropriately surnamed Kansas family, have their own complications within their rambling homestead. What family doesn’t? Clutter the father is a farmer. Who isn’t in these parts? Life is not so productive of late. Whose is? The two younger children, a daughter and a son, stil...more In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was published in 1966, and is based on events that happened almost fifty years ago. The events were real. This is not a work of fiction. The Clutters, an appropriately surnamed Kansas family, have their own complications within their rambling homestead. What family doesn’t? Clutter the father is a farmer. Who isn’t in these parts? Life is not so productive of late. Whose is? The two younger children, a daughter and a son, still live in. The others have left, happily.

And then, in November 1959, the four Clutters are found gagged, apart from the mother, all with their throats cut and their brains blown out by shotgun fire. The community is in turmoil. No-one can explain why anyone might have wanted to kill a whole family in Holcomb, a small, poor, rural community in the mid-West Bible belt.

Hickock (Hicock) and Smith are two lads on the move. Their families might be dysfunctional. On the other hand they might not. Their socialisation might have been lacking. On the other hand it might not. For whatever reason, individually and collectively they prey on others, prey in a way that renders them culpable, detectable and ultimately punishable. They know thieving is wrong. So, one of them says, we’ve stolen lives, so it must be serious. It was the two of them that pulled the trigger, that blew brains out, that slit throats, that did not quite commit rape. There are limits. And all for forty dollars and a transistor radio.

I give nothing of this book away when I reveal that the two lads did commit the murders – exactly how no-one ever admitted – and that, after years of litigious wrangling, both were hanged. The strength of In Cold Blood is not what happens, but how it happens.

Truman Capote offers us a vast book in just four sustained chapters, each of which is sub-divided as the narrative shifts between aspects of the different protagonists’ lives. Throughout, the style is much more complex than mere journalism, but the clarity with which it communicates is at times breathtaking. We hear from those directly involved, both victims and perpetrators, their families, the police, the judiciary, the neighbours, the lawyers, the passers-by, the acquaintances, the cellmates. The detail is forensic.

It is essential that the reader is constantly reminded that this is not fiction. Truman Capote offers dialogue where a journalist would report, offers interpretation where an historian would defer, offer opinion where an observer might decline. And so In Cold Blood becomes and absorbing, multi-faceted, mid-twentieth century reworking of Crime And Punishment. The crucial difference that the intervening years have generated is that where the latter concentrated on the individual circumstances and motives of the perpetrator, In Cold Blood explores the social and the contextual alongside the psychological.

And this is where the book becomes deeply disturbing, because it seems to suggest that the individuality that contemporary society seems to demand of us might itself promote a degree of self-centredness, of selfishness, perhaps, that might give rise to nothing less than contempt for others. In the forty years since the publication of In Cold Blood, it could be argued that such pressures might have increased. Frightening, indeed.
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Mel rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

08/08/08

bookshelves: classics, nonfiction

In Cold Blood was an experiment in form—and the expansion of a genre. The author, Truman Capote did five years of painstaking research before committing what he learned to the page. The story of how the text came to be is almost as fascinating as the tale of the Clutter murders itself.
Capote insisted that there should be no authorial presence in the text, and yet his voice drips from each page. The protagonist is Perry Smith, the murderer who Capote is quoted comparing himself to. In the bo...more In Cold Blood was an experiment in form—and the expansion of a genre. The author, Truman Capote did five years of painstaking research before committing what he learned to the page. The story of how the text came to be is almost as fascinating as the tale of the Clutter murders itself.
Capote insisted that there should be no authorial presence in the text, and yet his voice drips from each page. The protagonist is Perry Smith, the murderer who Capote is quoted comparing himself to. In the book our sympathies lie with the murderer—with Capote—with the outsider. And the text is successful in this, the reader, this reader, walks away wondering if there but for the grace of God go any one of us.
And yet, Capote is not present. It would be impossible for Capote to have put himself into his book without taking away from the story. He was colorful, egocentric, and well, generally speaking, the center of attention. The impression gotten from the articles written about Capote and his work was that he was not well received in Holcomb. There were reports of Truman at hotels in pink lingerie… In 1959, in Kansas, one can assume that wasn’t very acceptable. Had he made himself someone within the text – how would that have changed the mom-and-apple-pie presentation he gives us? It’s not his story – he isn’t a character in it and I think wisely chose to allow the character be who and what they were – it gives the story a sort of insular integrity – these people, in this community…that Truman was not in any way connected to. The power of the story lies, at least in my opinion, in his physical absence.
The structure of the text is compelling there is a starting point and an ending point. What happens in between is relative and although factual, it is contextual. The book is not linear at all and yet not once does the reader feel lost in time or space. What amazed me about Capote was his transitions from the murdered’s point of view to the murderers, to the detectives—seamlessly. I’m not sure how aware I was of this until I watched the movie, which isn’t seamless. It is clear why this text is one of the hallmarks in the genre of creative nonfiction.
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Angela rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

07/07/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Angela by: DADDY!

After finishing Other Rooms Other Voices I found I really liked Capote.. so far in this book I can already tell how fascinated he is by these murders... and the murderers.. cant wait to finish it.

poor cutter family.. didnt know what hit them.. i wish i could live back in these days, where everyone knew each other, lived on open farms and worked the land.. sounds like a lot of fun.. maybe not.. who knows

... well now I've finished it... capote sure picked a strange way to relate this tale....more

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Rebecca rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

06/23/08

Read in June, 2008

In Cold Blood is a book I wouldn't normally have chosen because a) I'm afraid of everything and this for sure sounded like a scary topic and b) it's a true crime story, which makes it even more frightening in my mind. However, I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about Truman Capote (sorry, wasn't one of the billions who went to see the movie about him a few years back), including that he was the first true crime author. As a journalist, I also really liked seeing how he was able to put all of hi...more In Cold Blood is a book I wouldn't normally have chosen because a) I'm afraid of everything and this for sure sounded like a scary topic and b) it's a true crime story, which makes it even more frightening in my mind. However, I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about Truman Capote (sorry, wasn't one of the billions who went to see the movie about him a few years back), including that he was the first true crime author. As a journalist, I also really liked seeing how he was able to put all of his interviews together into a flowing story (and a super long one at that!).

In Cold Blood is about two criminals who think they've found a good gig when one of their inmates tells them about a farm job he used to have. The inmate tells them that the farmer spends $10,000 a week to run his business and the two assume the farmer, Mr. Clutter, keeps all that cash in a safe on his property. Once the two are released from jail, they drive 300 miles to the Clutter farm with the intentions of robbing the place and leaving no witnesses. When they get there they learn what anyone from the Clutter's town knows about the family: Mr. Clutter never has any cash on him. The locals joke that he'd write you a check for $1.50 because he never carries that much cash on him. Unfortunately, the lack of cash doesn't save the family and all 4 family members are shot in the head. It was a crime that rocked the nation in 1959 because it happened in such a small town, where people were presumably more safe than in big cities.

Capote interviews everyone in the town and the two killers after they've been caught and he paints a vivid picture of the town and these criminals. You almost begin to feel sorry for the two criminals who had such hard lives up to this point. But once they describe the murder to detectives (more than halfway through the book), you can't help but be horrified by them. Up until this point you only had a vague idea of what happened based on what police thought. Hearing it straight from the murderers was difficult because they didn't seem to understand that they'd done anything wrong. One of them, Perry Smith, even says, "I thought he was a very nice, gentle man. I thought so right up until I slit his throat."

I read this book at home alone at night and ended up not being able to sleep because it gave me the creepies. It was really well written and I recommend it, but if you're a scaredy cat like me, make sure someone is home with you so you can discuss it and get out all those worries....less

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Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

02/18/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: not-overly sensitive adult who doesn't live alone and has neighbors close enough to hear you scream

I am torn when it comes to rating this book because it was very well written, and provocative and memorable, yet it definitely disturbed me quite a bit while I was reading it. I would find myself getting scared at night (especially when I would wake-up with my young infant alone in our dark, quiet house). It is not overly graphic or inappropriate at all, but simply the subject matter: real-life mass murder, is enough to keep you on edge. I read it in just a few days so that I could get it ove...more

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Mona rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

06/15/08

bookshelves: history, mystery-suspense, nonfiction

Read in May, 2008

Holcomb, Kansas made national headlines on November 15, 1959, when the four members of the Clutter family were found bound and murdered in their farmhouse on the outskirts of the small town. Six years later, two ex-convicts, Richard ("Dick") Eugene Hickok and Perry Edward Smith were hanged for the murders. Capote's In Cold Blood is, mainly, the story of these two criminals.

Capote, who began researching the book soon after reading an article about the murders in 1959, traces...more Holcomb, Kansas made national headlines on November 15, 1959, when the four members of the Clutter family were found bound and murdered in their farmhouse on the outskirts of the small town. Six years later, two ex-convicts, Richard ("Dick") Eugene Hickok and Perry Edward Smith were hanged for the murders. Capote's In Cold Blood is, mainly, the story of these two criminals.

Capote, who began researching the book soon after reading an article about the murders in 1959, traces the whereabouts of Dick and Perry before and after they commit murder. He explores the mindset of each, their respective backstories, their feelings about the crime, and their final thoughts before execution. Capote also details the Holcomb townspeople's reaction, as well as law enforcement's search for the killers. I thought the characterization of Perry was especially interesting - born of two rodeo performers, he had a difficult childhood, served in the military, and became permanently disabled during a motorcycle race. At the same time, he was an avid reader, and liked to draw. About Mr. Clutter, Perry said, "I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."

The achievement of In Cold Blood is not the comprehensiveness with which the subject is approached, although that is certainly present. Rather, Capote manages to humanize every single character here, from Dick and Perry, right down to the Holcomb woman who runs the post office. Although nonfiction, In Cold Blood is written as a story, and it is easy to get sucked into thinking of it as simply a story. Indeed, that is why I found it so absorbing when I started it back in January, and why I found it too disturbing, haunting, and real when I finished it in May, shortly after a family friend's brush with a couple of criminals who had broken into his house.

My criticisms of the book are few. I've since learned that Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) was a childhood friend of Capote's and helped him research the book, but at least in the library copy I had, there was no reference to her contributions (this may have been a fluke of the edition I was using, as some other reviewers have said the book was dedicated to her, but I checked mine and there was no reference to her). I suppose that I am used to the nonfiction books of today, which make it a point to footnote each source used, so it was difficult to get used to a nonfiction story without footnotes (this, of course, contributed to the story-like atmosphere of the book). Other than those quibbles, I cannot find much to criticize. ...less

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Jenn rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

08/23/08

Read in August, 2008

Let me start off by saying that I listened to the audio version narrated by Scott Brick. I found him to be an amazing narrator. He gave each of the main characters their own voice without being overly dramatic or cheesy. There was a subtle uniqueness to each voice that only added to my enjoyment of the book. He is the first narrator that I can picture myself listening to based on his presence and not necessarily based on the book.

Should we invest in literature based on true stories that ...more Let me start off by saying that I listened to the audio version narrated by Scott Brick. I found him to be an amazing narrator. He gave each of the main characters their own voice without being overly dramatic or cheesy. There was a subtle uniqueness to each voice that only added to my enjoyment of the book. He is the first narrator that I can picture myself listening to based on his presence and not necessarily based on the book.

Should we invest in literature based on true stories that focus mainly on the perpetrators? Is it wrong that Perry Smith and Dick Hickock are as memorable to me than the Clutters--probably even more so? That may be true for a lesser book than In Cold Blood, but reading this book is completely worth while. It's a book that I've always been curious about but never read. I am, overall, a fan of the "murder mystery" genre, but I tend towards fiction rather than stories based in truth partly because I hate the fact that the victims might be exploited and the criminals glorified. But the sheer genius of the writing style in this book place it in a unique genre of its own.

I don't think that I have fully digested this book. It may take me a while. As a result of reading it I had a wide range of feelings. Some include: sorrow for the family and friends of the Clutters; a desire to understand why it happened; anguish for Dick's parents and, to a lesser degree, Perry's family; amazement at the evil there is in the world; and a deeper realization that there is very little in the world that is black and white.

And after reading this on the heels of Camus' The Stranger, I feel an essay coming on. How interesting to read two very different accounts of two similar characters. And by similar I am speaking of Perry Smith and Meursault, who both commit senseless murders without remorse. The similarities, to me, are astounding!

This was a fascinating read. I don't know that it is ever possible to document an event and the people involved in it in a completely unbiased way. But realizing that, this book is a very well-written and worthy attempt....less

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gaby rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

11/07/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: men, women, and children (over 15)

this book was a nice stop along the way in my run of 60's "new journalism" - EKAT, in cold blood, armies of the night, fear and loathing on the campaign trail.

the book is really restrained, calculated, and incredibly deliberate. every single word feels carefully chosen and mulled over. i guess you can do that when you spend SIX years writing a book.

i thought it was pretty amazing that, for an author as notoriously narcissistic and self-congratulatory as capote is rumoured to...more

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Sarah rated it:

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07/06/07

bookshelves: released

Read in June, 2007

I saw the 1967 Richard Brooks film in a violence in film class at UCLA. In Cold Blood and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are the only two films that have stuck with me for these ten years. So when I was given a copy of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote through BookCrossing, I felt compelled to read it for two reasons: I've enjoyed other books by Capote and I still remember the film. Were it not for those two reasons, I would have skipped the book as I'm not normally a fan of the true-crime genre.

The ...more

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Shannon rated it:

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05/23/07

Read in May, 2007

We've all heard quite a lot about (from?) Truman Capote these past 12 months. Between Philip Seymour Hoffman's Capote and what's-his-name's (Toby Jones') performance in Infamous, it's rather difficult to even crack the spine of this over-explicated text without hearing the faint cackle of new-york-high-society-types, or picturing Mr. Capote himself, before a crowd, holding the book (a tome, in my mental image) above his head, in that fantastic anecdote about the primacy of ...more

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Taka rated it:

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08/23/07

bookshelves: american_lit, japan_jul07-present

Read in August, 2007

Capote's style is a menagerie of 4-parts precision, 2-parts lyricism, and 4-parts stiffness, which is not my favorite cocktail to say the least. I did appreciate the concise aspect of it, though.

As for the story, the fact that it is a "non-fiction novel" - a category Capote made up - sheds the verisimilitude of an usual fiction and makes you reel from the naked force of truth, esp. when reading the murder scenes. To know that these people actually existed, and to know how and why t...more

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sandra rated it:

(review of isbn 0679745580)

04/07/07

bookshelves: my-library

Read in April, 2006

Whoa. Unbelievable book. I had never read any Capote and was blown away by his style. His vocabulary is astounding. One example was the use of the word “hegira” in a sentence when he told of the murderers flight across country after committing their crime. It doesn’t just mean journey, rather it’s defined as Etymology: the Hegira, flight of Muhammad from Mecca in A.D. 622, from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah, literally, flight
: a journey especially when undertaken to escape fro...more

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