Bruce Rusk answers “I read Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' two...”

Sitharaam Jayakumar asked this question about In Cold Blood:

I read Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' two months back. It is only recently I have made a shift to non-fiction books. But for all practical purposes this book reads very much like fiction. I later googled and found that Bobby Rupp had never met Truman Capote. There is also a lot of criticism saying many facts have been misrepresented. So how much credence can be placed on the facts described in this book?

Bruce Rusk Capote definitely took artistic liberties with things like conversations and personalities, but the meat of the story is factual and most of it can be…moreCapote definitely took artistic liberties with things like conversations and personalities, but the meat of the story is factual and most of it can be easily corroborated as true. If you are a purist, then you have to accept that he did embellish certain things, but understand that none of them alter the critical points of the events. In any case, it makes a cracking good read. I personally don't care if some minor things were invented since the core story is based on police and court records and many, many hours of interviews by Capote with the people involved.(less)

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Sitharaam Jayakumar You are right. It is a great read and I guess any author has to dress up things a bit if his book has to make interesting reading, especially if it is ...more
Apr 15, 2016 12:56AM · flag

Greg Bruce, Jai, let's remember that right up front, Capote tells us that there will be four shotgun blasts and six deaths. And by the first few chapters, ...more
Feb 11, 2017 03:02PM · flag

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