In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of In Cold Blood
Book Review: Book Review
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is a little dry, hard to read at times. If you are from Kansas and like history you can get through it.Book Review: Brilliant, unblinking, ambivalent---a classic of journalism
Summary: 5 Stars
In my News Reporting and Writing class, my professor recently brought up the topic of using tape recorders in an interview. While they may be good for "covering your ass" if you forget a certain point your interview subject made, one must also keep in mind that not everyone is comfortable about being recorded---and making your interview subject comfortable is one of the foremost principles in good interviewing.
Truman Capote apparently thought that way too about tape recording. According to my professor, one thing Capote was always proud of about his famous book IN COLD BLOOD was that not once did he feel the need to take out either a tape recorder or even a notebook. In one interview, Capote, admitting to a terrific memory, said, "I can repeat almost verbatim any conversation up to as long as eight hours. I could never have written IN COLD BLOOD if I had ever produced a pencil, much less a tape recorder."
Knowing about Capote's research methods will only enhance your appreciation for IN COLD BLOOD, a brilliant "nonfiction novel" in which Capote seems to get into the heads of all of the major characters. It's uncanny, reading what is essentially a piece of journalistic reporting that reads just as vividly as a well-written novel. Not only can Capote conjure up a sense of place, as he does with the small town of Holcomb, Kansas (in which the senseless, horrible slaughter of four members of the Clutter family occur); he brings to remarkable life real-life characters such as Dick Hickock and Perry Smith simply from one-on-one interviews (and some research). Throughout the course of this book, you really get to know these people, for well and ill. By the end, as Hickock and Smith are finally hanged for their crimes, you may even feel a little bit of sympathy for them.
But only a little bit. Capote is remarkably even-handed throughout IN COLD BLOOD; like a good reporter, he leaves subjectivity at the door and simply tells a compelling, complex story. Hickock and Smith are not made out to be martyrs of any kind, and Capote doesn't manipulate his prose in order to make it seem like they are. He recounts some of the unfortunate backstories of both these men, but Capote only sets these facts down for the record, not as a way to excuse their crimes. Instead, he tells the story and allows the reader to make his/her own judgments.
Capote's objectivity extends into the thorny issue of the effectiveness of the death penalty. Capote makes no blanket statements about that either, but, throughout the book's final section ("The Corner"), it is an issue that is clearly on his mind. You hear nuggets from people who stand on both sides of the issue, at least in regards to Hickock and Smith. Again, the author does not state, or even imply, a preference for one side or the other. What Capote does---and what, I think, makes IN COLD BLOOD a valuable work in furthering a discussion of the issue---is higlighting the human factor that always makes the death penalty such a difficult issue. Dick Hickock and Perry Smith may have deserved their deaths, because their crime was well-nigh inhumane; but Capote, through his journalistic and stylistic brilliance, always reminds us of their underlying humanity. Their crime may have been monstrous, but Capote never paints them as monsters; they have feelings, and they have hopes and dreams like most of us. Whether that makes their deaths any less excusable is a point that Capote, perhaps unsure himself of where he stands, allows the reader to think about after the book has been finished.
And IN COLD BLOOD is so remarkable, so compelling, and so extraordinarily written that it will be hard for anyone to put it down until it has been finished. Even after you've finished though, you might be hardpressed to forget it. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Brutal Event in Journalistic Focus
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is essentially a detailed and well-crafted piece of journalism with the level and quality of detail to bring it into horrific focus. One gets access to all sides of the murders of a family from the effect on the close relatives and friends to the emotional states of the murderers themselves and their final demise at the end of a rope. No one can escape this book without a large emotional wallop that will leave one's mind reverberating for some time. The book additionally invites questions concerning the limits and boundaries of journalistic integrity. When does the journalist step beyond his role as observer and become part of the story? And...Should the journalist do so and thus change outcomes? Disturbingly provocative in many ways.Book Review: Capote Makes Murder Boring.
Summary: 1 Stars
I like a good murder story, but I was ready to chuck this book across the room several times.
So much of this book is useless and has nothing at all to do with the murder. I don't know how many times I read that one of the killers had issues with his kidneys and wet the bed as a child. How is that relevant to the story? I was honestly going to scream when at one point one killer's sister sends him a letter and starts telling him how tall each of her children is and how much they weigh.
By the time you actually get to hear about the gory details regarding how the crime was committed, you don't care anymore, you've had to go through so much useless filler to get to that point.
In short: bored me to tears.
Book Review: Capote at His Peak
Summary: 5 Stars
Entering the pantheon of American classics, this work is a bone-chilling account of four murders. Almost random in their occurrence, the murders are perpetrated by an odd pair of ex-cons out to rob what they thought was a rich man living on a vast ranch in the midst of the rolling, lonely wheat fields of Kansas.
What distinguishes this account from all other such works is its writing and its plethora of factual information. The author and his assistant, Harper Lee, worked very hard to record minute details of life in the prarie, the strivings and disappointments of the victims, and the winding, twisted lives of the killers. More than that is the fine writing encountered on every page. Soaring descriptions of wheat plains, sunsets, the lonely wind blowing at night, and the sad events of November 14, 1959 sear the reader with unforgettable impressions.
This work also opened up an entire new genre, the nonfiction "novel," imitated by the likes of Norman Mailer in "The Executioner's Song" and Erik Larson in "The Devil in the White City," among many others, but not equaled. Capote was a trailblazer and one of America's greatest writers. No one can take his tremendous achievements away from him, no matter what they say about his famous personal failings. His wonderful "The Grass Harp" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" are indisputable classics as well. It's simply sad that Capote was devoured by his own fame.