Review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

This is one of the few times I have seen the movie first and then read the book. Not that I saw "In Cold Blood" but I recently saw "Capote" and "Infamous." Both movies are about the author writing the novel in question and both are brilliant films in different ways. Since I knew a lot of the story going in, I was able to concentrate more on the way the book was written rather than being carried along by the facts.

I gather that at the time this was a new style of writing but now it reads like your every day true crime novel - albeit better written than most of that genre. Capote manages to give a sense of reality to the victims - the small things he notices or conveys about them makes their senseless deaths even more poignant and distressing. He lets the locals speak for themselves and shows how their sense of community was replaced by fear that the killer or killers were known to them. Had the killers not been caught, there is no telling what that fear would have done to the community.

At the same time, he shows the killers as real people with real problems and a lack of self awareness and self control which makes their actions even more horrifying. Their story also shows their stupidity - if they hadn't returned to Kansas, they likely never would have been caught.

Throughout the book, Capote, a shining example of the East Coast intelligentsia, never comes across as patronizing or judgemental. He portrays the characters with honesty and simplicity. The book certainly didn't focus on the killers in a way to make them sensationalized or seem like heroes. Nor are the Clutters rushed off the stage as mere props to start the story.

I wouldn't read this book again but I did appreciate Capote's style when I did read it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Source of this copy: Library