Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous.
Review: I absolutely loved this novel. Chilling and suspenseful. I disagree with one of the above comments, Capote was right in choosing sides. His rhetorical purpose was to empahasize the savagery and cruelty of capital punishment itself. Maybe Perry (and certainly not) Dick do not deserve our sympathy, but their fate certainly deserves a second glance. I fully recommend this novel and plan to read it many more times.
Rating:
Summary: Justifies Its Reputation
Review: I've heard about this book my entire life. It is supposed to be a classic and essentially the first of a new genre. After finally setting aside some time to read the book I now understand why it has gained so much praise. I found it hard to put down and read it cover to cover in just a few days.
What makes In Cold Blood really stand out is Capote's ability to create sympathy for his characters-all of his characters. He brings out the humanity in each of the individuals he brings to the fore. About the victims you feel the unutterable waste of senseless annihilation and concerning the perpetrators you feel less anger than confusion, they hardly seemed to know what they were doing. Capote also does a good job showing the interrelationships between his characters and the other people in their lives-past and present. In the end you're left with a beautiful, panoramic impression of human lives that clashed together for the worse.
The take home message I received is that there are no intrinsically good or wicked people; everyone is acting the way you'd pretty much expect them to act given their backgrounds and occasionally bad things occur because a rare and unusual constellation of circumstances prevail. At worst, his antiheroes are damaged: the sort of human detritus that gets washed ashore from the dingy backwaters of a river grown too large.
Rating: 
Summary: "In Cold Blood"
Review: In Cold Blood ia a book that is good for anyone who enjoys reading a murder mystery. The book, written by Truman Capote, was very hard to put down since he kept the reader wondering what would come next in the investigation of a family who was unexpectedly murdered by a shotgun This was a true story that happened in a small town in Kansas.The murder,investigation, capture, trial, and excecution are all events that keep the book interesting. Questions such as who and why made me wonder who could it have been. There were so many characters and possible suspects that it was also fun to try to guess who did it before the book revealed it. It was definately a facinating book and I think anyone who reads it would like it and want to finish ut.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing book
Review: In Cold Blood is by far the best book I have read since I read The Mitten in elementary school. The novel reflects Capote's genius.
Rating: 
Summary: Review -"Ladies of the Club" Book Club, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Review: Many critics agree that a new genre was born when Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood. Capote takes a true crime report and presents it in the form of a novel. With his background as a reporter and writer for New Yorker Magazine he developed a unique writing style.
In order to gain insight and details of the Clutter family, the victims of the murders, Capote lived in their Kansas town and interviewed the Clutter's friends and neighbors. From those interviews he is able to paint a picture of what life was like for folks in the small rural community of Holcomb, KS. We are given a chance to become familiar with the Clutters to the extent that the reader feels sorrow and horror at the brutality of their deaths.
Keeping with his writing in the style of a novel, Capote also gives us a portrait of the killers. Through his interviews with the two murderers, their families, and their associates, Capote again portrays in depth the history, the psyche, and the motive of these killers in his page-turner prose.
It is Capote's writing style that draws the reader into his story. His writing is smooth and flowing when he tells us of the life of the Clutter family. But when he shows the reader the murder scene his sentences are short, choppy, and almost breathless. The reader feels that he is actually viewing what went on in that farmhouse on that gruesome night.
Our book club was intrigued with the true-crime story, but was even more interested in the author's writing style. We gave this book high marks and we are looking forward to reading more by this talented author.
Rating:
Summary: In Cold Blood
Review: Murder is the one word that describes this novel. A tale of mystery, suspense, and betrayal are the key points that this book illustrates. In Cold Blood is a novel about a farm family with a good reputation throughout a small town in Kansas. In one moment, more than half of that family is forever silenced by the sounds of a shotgun. In one instant, the Clutter family is lying dead and covered in a pool of their own blood. Who is the murderer? Why did the killer commit this autrocity? These are the two main questions one must ask himself. Howver, with no logic or visible evidence to the murder, how does one solve a mystery with no clues? In Cold Blood symbolizes the perfect crime and the most challenging mystery to solve.
Rating:
Summary: Cold blooded killers in Kansas--film at eleven
Review: Our book club recently took on IN COLD BLOOD as part of our "Southern author" series. The book before that was equally as good-MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, and that was followed by the riveting and jaw-dropping novel of Jackson McCrae, his now famous BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Of the three (which we all liked) BLOOD was the most spellbinding. And why not? I took a few minutes to read through the other reviews for Truman Capote's: In Cold Blood. It really disappointed me to learn that the people who have taken the time to read this book are focusing on such unimportant aspects. I've read that people gained a better understanding of the legal system, were able to see inside the heads of two very mentally ill people, enjoyed being fascinated about the diversity of our society and the triumphs of law enforcement. Yes, this is all well and good, but would it really hurt so much to dig past the bluntly obvious? Of course it does all of that, but much, much more. Studying criminal psychology, I read many accounts of murders and dreadful crimes. Not once have I ever come across something of this nature retold with such delicacy and beauty as In Cold Blood is built with. Capote has portrayed a terribly gruesome murder in just enough of the right light for the reader to stomach it; to envision it; to judge it, with fairness and reality; to gain appropriate perspective of the shape a mind takes when overcome by illness and, in other instances, confusion in dealing with something a small town has never seen before. As a sidenote, one thing that especially surprised me when reading this book was the mention of the sheetmusic for 'Comin' Through The Rye' resting on the piano during the part when the detective is visiting the murder scene...I was interested to note the connection between In Cold Blood and the murderous reputation associated with The Catcher in the Rye. Anyway, if you haven't read this one yet, don't do it because you have to...because an English teacher is pushing you...do it because you'd like to witness the work of a masterful author who has the skill and ability to portray the events surrounding a gruesome murder with beauty and elegance.
Rating:
Summary: Pinnacle of the True Crime genre
Review: The smelly, hairy armpit of every bookstore is its True Crime section, shelved with scores of Ann Rule-styled mass-market paperbacks with black covers and fluorescent-lettered titles intended to shock, promising pages of murder and mayhem illustrated by grainy black-and-white photos, ultimately delivering banality in a glossy package. However, Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," although sharing the purpose of the company it keeps, is a diamond in the rough. With sharp psychological insight and prose that is lithe and sophisticated without assuming an opulence that risks overdressing its grisly subject matter, Capote writes like he sincerely cares about not just the victims and the murderers, but everybody involved in the investigation of the case and then some. The case is fairly simple: On a November night in 1959 in the tiny western Kansas prairie town of Holcomb, two ex-convicts, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, entered a farm house belonging to the Clutters, one of the richest and most respected families in the county, tied up Herb Clutter, his wife Bonnie, his son Kenyon, and his daughter Nancy with cords and killed them with a shotgun. The motive is not difficult to deduce from the outset; by introducing the killers early, Capote fashions the book not as a mystery but as a study of criminal behavior. In leading up to the crime, the narration alternates between the domestic tranquility of the Clutter family, a picture so innocent and wholesomely American it belongs on a Christmas card, and the sinister machinations and bizarre delusions of the killers as they travel hundreds of miles to Holcomb to do their deed. After the murders have been committed, leaving the town horrified and puzzled, the book follows Dick and Perry's cross-country trips in search of the next big score while special agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe the crime scene for evidence (the killers cleverly leave almost none) and interrogate the few witnesses who have anything to say. Capote manages to relate something valuable about every person the investigation encounters, from a gas station attendant to the woman who runs Holcomb's post office, so the book reads like a novel of rich characterization. An inevitable breakthrough in the case leads to the arrest of Dick and Perry, who have not covered their tracks well. From here, Capote examines the relevant details of their trial, in which they are convicted, and their appeals while they await execution on Death Row. Even to the very end we are continually informed that the book's devotion is to its killers' life stories, given clinical treatment during the trial in which we hear (off the record) professional psychoanalyses that attempt to explain how a man might become a monster. Although "In Cold Blood" could be criticized for apparently sympathizing with the killers, it manages to acknowledge their humanity without apologizing for or attempting to justify their violent actions.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: There are occasions when inspiration reaches a good writer and energizes him or her to become a great writer; a master. For Ernest Hemingway it was visiting the simple, strong people of Cuba's fishing villages. For John Gunther it was the courage and affability shown by his son during the boy's struggle with brain cancer. For Pat Frank it was being asked, "What do you think would happen if the Russians hit us when we weren't looking?" For Truman Capote it was massacre of the Herbert W. Clutter family. Mr. Capote did not actually know Mr. Clutter or any member of his family personally. He read about their puzzling murders in a small New York Times article. The hipster novelist and short story scribe, always looking for a new muse, caught the next train for the Clutter's hometown of Holcomb, Kansas, notebook in hand, to see what kind of work the case might inspire. Throughout the six years Mr. Capote spent researching and writing his "non-fiction novel," he carefully observed the community of Holcomb; witnessed the search for, capture and eventual execution of the Clutters' murderers (Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two excons who were given misinformation about a safe Herbert Clutter supposedly kept in his office. Mr. Capote interviewed both extensively) and found literary gold. In Cold Blood is an American masterpiece. From the warm, vivid caricature of Holcomb to the extensive biographies of Dick and Perry to the stark portrayal of death row, the novel displays our country at its best (The Clutters' wholesomeness; Perry's childish sense of adventure; the intimacy of Holcomb) and at its worst (The decadence and abuse of Perry's childhood; Dick's utter callousness; the vengeful execution of the duo). The imagery that makes up In Cold Blood is bound to become deeply insaturated into the psyche of any reader both because of its poignancy and because it is so masterfully verbally painted. The story is told from the golden pen of an author who has obviously, carefully measured every scene, paragraph and sentence for its impact. Be it the significant weight of the subject matter (Localism, stability, adventure, greed, murder, capital punishment and the links that connect all are all explored), the personal connection Mr. Capote felt by being in Kansas and knowing the "characters" or some other inspiration, the author exhumed magnificent, spell-binding skill and style, that was evident, yet not fully emerged, on his previous works. For In Cold Blood, the chemistry flowed, the stars aligned, the doors opened and a master was truly born. The novel is truly a monumental classic.
Rating:
Summary: Just perfect!
Review: There are only a handful of "perfect" books out in the world. You know what I mean: Books that have a great dramatic arc; books that make "sense;" Books that bring everything together; Books that seem "Classic" even though they might have been written only a few years ago. A few come to mind. Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN is one. McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD is another. And, yes, IN COLD BLOOD is yet a third. There are a few more, but then, everyone has their opinion, so I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say that this Capote book will NOT disappoint you with its great yet disturbing story. And lest you think that we're (as a society) numb to murder, violence, and the workings of a sick mind, think again, for Capote's brilliant work will still make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It sounds cliche to say "Classic" but that's just what it is.
|
