Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #603081 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Truman creates a genre
This book is very deserving of its status as a classic. In this true crime story Capote almost single handedly created a distinct genre - true crime. It's easily as gripping as a novel, yet one is always aware of the fact that everything described here actually happened, adding to the book's tragic and often upsetting content. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement is that Capote doesn't dehumanise the killers - they are real people, not just ogres. When reading the book my feelings lurched from revulsion and alienation to a sense of sympathy and forgiveness for the killers. It seems to me that the real villain of the piece are not necessarily the killers - although their actions are quite horrific - but the society which excluded and forgot them with terrible consequences. Fifty years on, while things may have improved, change in America is still too slow.

A masterpiece in crime writing
Like another reviewer I also became interested in this following the fantastic film Capote and this is the 3rd TC book I have read - all great by the way.

I read this book over several weeks yet every time I picked it up I was able to get straight back into the story. I think this is slightly due to the style of writing giving out accurate information in a chronological order similar to a long running news story.

Capote's writing is always brilliant whatever he writes about. There is no word wasted here, no over the top descriptions just a very gripping true story told from every angle. He doesnt judge anyone involved but gives enough detail to make you sympathise 'almost' with the killers.

Before reading this book the only story I knew of Kansas was the Wizard of OZ which also evokes the huge plains where farming is the main source of income, windy and lonesome with god fearing, hard working farming folk making a living. Then one night this terrible crime takes place. Capote relives each and every minute of the crime, the getaway, eventual capture and the court hearing and outcome. A great book in every way.

A classic, a literary masterpiece
It started with a few sentences in the back of The New York Times about a seemingly senseless murder in Kansas. Truman Capote read this brief article and decided to invent a completely new genre of writing, the non-fiction novel. This book is the result of Capote's research with Harper Lee and moved the murders of the Clutter family from the back of The NY Times to the front of the bestseller lists.

The book starts by introducing us to Herb Clutter and his family. Capote builds a description of a decent, kind, generous, respected, and hardworking family. Although Capote built a reputation as a flamboyant character, he shows enormous respect for the Clutters. Inter-weaved with his description of the Clutters is his description of the two men, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, who are about to destroy this family. The suspense builds as the killers get closer and closer. Capote then skips ahead to the discovery of the bodies and we are left knowing what happened but not how or why.

The next section of the book inter-weaves the movements of the killers with the story of the investigators trying to discover their identity. Slowly we learn more and more about the nature and background of these two sociopaths. Meanwhile, the investigation struggles forward until a lucky break leads to the capture. At this point, we finally learn what happened the night of the killings in the words of the killers themselves. The final section details the trial and ultimate punishment of Hickock and Smith.

The book is brilliantly written. Although there have been questions about the complete accuracy of the story (Capote never took notes during interviews and the book has no footnotes) it is still a compelling and frightening book. The combination of creative writing with journalism created a new genre of writing and makes every other "true crime" book read like a high school project. Capote pulls his readers into the story creating empathy for the victims (the dead as well as the living) while letting us see into the minds of the killers as well as Hickock and Smith were ever able to see into themselves. This is a book that is a classic, a literary masterpiece even if it isn't an example of perfect accuracy. It is a must read.