In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Truman Capote | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 0141182571 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Yorkshiresoul on 12/12/2006
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Yorkshiresoul on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I've grabbed a few of the modern 'classics' in order to broaden my reading experience, the first one I picked, Jack Kerouac's On The Road was bloody awful, and so In Cold Blood, purchased at the same time, languished on my shelves for some months before I picked it up.

This is a much better book though, Capote exhaustively interviews everyone involved with the brutal mass murder of a family in rural 50's Kansas and then recreates the events that led to the crime, the crime itself, and how the murders affected the murderers and the community.

Capote tells the crime and its fall out as a story, slowly building up the characters of the doomed family and their almost conscience free killers. He does not dwell on the murders themselves in a glorifying fashion as many true crime writers seem to, but takes you deeply into the day to day lives of all the people involved.

This is a sad and disturbing tale, the two murderers seem so comfortable with their crimes, so blase about what they have done. In researching their backgrounds we might expect to find all the things that we know makes up the psyche of a killer, the poverty, a miserable and abused childhood, poor education and lack of opportunites in life, but whilst one of the boys ticks all the boxes in this respect, the other just seems to be a normal boy who simply chooses to do evil, this is the uncomfortable truth that Capote confronts us with.

Capote's research assisstant for this novel was Harper Lee who had won acclaim acclaim with 'To Kill A Mockingbird', perhaps that should be the next on my classics hit list.

Journal Entry 2 by Yorkshiresoul at Adelphi Pub in Leeds, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Released 17 yrs ago (12/12/2006 UTC) at Adelphi Pub in Leeds, West Yorkshire United Kingdom

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RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing at Leeds Bookcrossers.

Journal Entry 3 by rem_DYI-991976 on Wednesday, December 13, 2006
I never read this one despite it being recommended to me by several folks over the years so was pleased to see this on the table last night.

Journal Entry 4 by rem_DYI-991976 on Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I recently watched the film Capote. Which triggered the thought process of, I have a copy of that In Cold Blood somewhere around here. Of course, I picked this up the week before moving house last December so it then took a week of looking for the damn thing to find it. I am very glad I did though. Capote as a film tries a little tarring of Capote's character but also tries a little whitewashing of Hickock and Smith. This book is a useful counterweight. It's funny but reading about the two killers here made me think of Brady and Hindley in this country, very different background but same set up. Two timebombs combined = a nightmare combination. Capote's book manages to brilliantly encapsulate the small rural town that Hickock and Smith breezed into and killed a family in. He doesn't assume you know a place like Holcomb and so he offers a full word picture that means on the other side of the Atlantic, 40 years later I still feel like I know what it was like. The buildings, the attitudes, the day to day routine that just collapsed under the weight of the media.

Capote no doubt did coerce testimony from the boys and no doubt after years of appeals and missed execution dates he did want the whole thing to be over and the boys to be hanged so he could publish. Considering his bias/motivations though he wrote a fair account that allows little sentiment to cloud the facts for the most part.

This review also added to my book journal.

Journal Entry 5 by gaelpixie from Leeds, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Picked up at Leeds Meetup.

Journal Entry 6 by gaelpixie at Moor Music Festival in Skipton, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (8/12/2010 UTC) at Moor Music Festival in Skipton, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at the Moor Music Festival, in the Northern Green Gathering marquee.

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