Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1989 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
Controversial and compelling, "In Cold Blood" reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.

Customer Reviews

A Truly Great Book
This is one of the finest books I have ever read. It is gripping and vivid from start to finish and evokes fascination and emotion. It is also cleverly worked in the structural sense in that a picture of the killers, the murdered family, the police and the community is painted through quotations from actual people who were there at the time.

Capote is also a very gifted writer and his penmanship adds great poignancy and heart to the gruesome story.

Terrifyingly Magnificent.
'In Cold Blood' is one of the best books of all time. It should be required reading in all beginning college lit courses, if not in high school. I first read 'In Cold Blood' in high school (in the 80s), and I read it in one sitting- straight through the night- just because I couldn't put it down. I have recently purchased this newer edition, because this book is worth reading again.

To begin with, Truman Capote, for all his notoriety, was an incredible writer, and this book is one of his finest. The gritty and depressing existence of Dick and Perry that leads up to one terrifying night in Kansas is so vividly represented, you feel all the more frightened as you are reading it, because it seems you have become witness to the absolute terror and brutality perpetrated on an innocent family by these two men. Truman Capote not only presents in graphic detail the terror of this night, but he also reveals the personalities of Dick and Perry in such a way that, even though they are despicable human beings, you may feel a twinge of sorrow for them. The birth of each man's anger, and the inability of either one of them to integrate into society, was formed in childhoods of abuse. It truly is amazing how Capote got inside the heads of these pathetic men, capturing the pervasive sadness and despair, bizarrely coupled with hope for a "normal" future. The relationship of Dick and Perry is almost a symbiotic one. Separately, they may not have done what they did, but together, they are lethal. The gullibility of a person, who never felt like he belonged, combined with another person who thinks he needs to exact revenge on society- it's a sick combination of pack mentality and ignorance. Eventually, all of this culminates into a night of terror in Kansas wrought by these two men. The portrayal is so graphic in nature; no one could read it without being rendered silently stunned by the terror of it all. The sadness felt for this totally unsuspecting and wholly innocent family is overwhelming. Certainly there have been similar crimes, but the representation of it by Capote, and the intrinsic knowledge of these two men, makes you feel you had a front row view of the whole thing.

`In Cold Blood' is less about the particulars of that awful crime one terrifying night in Kansas; it is more about the insidiousness of what childhood abuse and feeling disenfranchised can do to a person. It would be easy to focus on the terror and sadness of this massacre, but the brilliance of Capote is that the focus is placed on the murderers and trying to engender compassion from the reader for them. With Capote's vision in writing, he almost gets us there. After the capture and imprisonment of these two men, you can physically feel the fear in their hearts for their own condemnation. Perry's fear of execution is especially haunting. This book is a must read for anyone who likes to read and makes no difference that it was written 40 years ago. It transcends all genres, because even though the story is terrifying, the writing is phenomenal, and you will NEVER forget it.

Deeply disturbing (but in a good way!)
It is difficult to argue that this book is not an incredibly powerful piece of work. A valid argument against it may be that it is not, in the truest sense of the word, 'literature'. It's an accurate, detailed account of events which actually happened. With this in mind, it is possible to read the book as an extended article of journalism rather than as a novel.
However, this would be missing the point somewhat. Yes, the book is non-fiction. Yes, it sometimes lingers for long passages on minute technical details - of either the crime itself, or the police investigation. And yes, knowledge that Capote, in his help with the convicted killer's appeals, played an active role in the story himself (albeit unmentioned in his book) lends a slightly surreal aspect to the work. But these points are simply dwarfed by the massive waves of emotion which run throughout the story.
The ironic thing is that Capote brilliantly creates this emotional reponse by writing in a very deliberate, very cold, very un-emotional style. He presents the story to us just the way it happened, fact layered upon fact. It is between these layers that we find the true heart of the book. Hidden in these places are the tragic circumstances that drove Perry and Dick to become men capable of not only committing murder, but of doing so and carrying on their lives seemingly without remorse.
Capote presents only factual events, gleaned from his meticulous research into the case and extensive interviews with those involved. The fact that these events are true makes it all the more unsettling when, as readers, we realise that our sympathies are with the killers. We find ourselves questioning our own perception of ourselves, and our fundamental taken-for-granted values of right and wrong. Indeed, Capote's detached matter-of-fact prose makes us question the very validity of such concepts as "right" and "wrong".
Therefore, the debate as to whether this book is "literature" or "journalism" isn't important. What is important is that this work is one of the most disturbing things you could ever read. Put simply, it will haunt you. It will dig uncomfortably under your skin, and stay there. And, factual or not, that is exactly what good "literature" should do.