In Cold Blood [Paperback]

Turman Capote (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140187014
• ISBN-13: 978-0140187014
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,532,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the south, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin. Truman Capote died in August 1984.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Cold Type..., March 25, 2006

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Cold Blood (Paperback)

Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' is enjoying a resurgence of popularity thanks to the Oscar-winning film depicting the author's life and work during the writing of this phenomenal piece. At one point in the film, the character Capote makes the statement that when he thinks about how good this book will be, he can hardly breathe. Perhaps it is because it is part of our history now, I don't consider the book to be that good, but it was a work fairly close to groundbreaking in its impact - it was a new genre, the narrative telling of a non-fiction event as if it were a fictional novel.

The narrative centres upon the murder of a Kansas family by two men, Perry Smith and Dick Hicock, who are in many ways far from typical killers, much less cold blooded killers. The family, the Clutters of Holcombe, Kansas, are far from typical victims, nor is this the kind of place such a murder would be expected. Capote does a remarkable job at an even-handed analysis and narrative treatment of all the characters, from the family itself to the townspeople and investigators, as well as the murderers themselves. Perhaps it is because he found an area of identification?

This is a psychological thriller of a sort - at least it would be, were it not a true life tale. Getting into the minds of the criminals and the investigators was no easy task for Capote, but what comes forth on the page is very crisp and insightful reporting, without the kinds of embellishments one might expect from a figure such as Capote when dealing with middle-America folk.

The question of why for the killing is still never fully resolved, despite Capote's attempt to set out all the story and psychological detail. Perhaps this is as strange as the interest Capote took in the subject in the first place, as well as the effect it had on him, and those around him, ultimately - while Capote himself never again finished a major project after this, that is also true of his assistant, Nell Harper Lee, whose book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (done about the same time as 'In Cold Blood') was also her last major writing.

A worthwhile book in many ways.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Classic I Remembered, July 21, 2009

By 

John F. Rooney - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Cold Blood (Paperback)

I recently reviewed the DVD of "In Cold Blood" for Amazon so I decided to reread Truman Capote's classic non-fiction novel (1965) to see if my favorable memories of it would be brought back. I was disappointed by the book, I think because my reader expectations and experiences have changed drastically in the intervening years. I have become used to fast-paced thrillers, movies and TV dramas that stick strictly to a main plot line. When I read a book like Capote's that tries to portray a crime within a larger cultural and sociological framework, digresses and adds all sorts of extraneous details, I become impatient.

The book's countless forays into biographies and its detours into psychology and criminology take away the book's narrative velocity. Capote was known for spare stories that stuck to the essentials, but here he strayed too far away from the main plot action.

The book is structured like this: 1. Before the crime, the town, the four Clutter victims and the two murderers. 2. After the crime and the criminals on the run. 3. The investigation. 4. The crime itself. 5. The trial, Death Row, and conclusion. Truman Capote never enters the story as a participant. It's interesting to look at two excellent movies retracing Truman Capote's research into the Clutter murder case: "Capote" with Philip Seymour Hoffman and "Infamous" with Toby Jones.

The book is extremely well-written but too detailed, trying to create a social environment. Dick and Perry, the killers, were very different. Dick was "totally masculine" while Perry had a strange streak of tenderness, compassion, and sexual ambivalence.

Alvin Dewey of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation leads a team of three others, and they are delineated in Part II, The Investigation. The lives of the killers are covered in far too much detail, especially Perry's miserable childhood. Dick's former cellmate Floyd Wells is the one who cracks open the case. After the murders the killers went to Mexico, back to Kansas, California, Florida, and ended up in Las Vegas where they were apprehended. In the questioning Dick Hickcock broke first.

The appeal process dragged on until 1965, a comparatively short time by today's standards. Hickock was 33 and Smith 36 when they went to the gallows on April 14, 1965 for the multiple murders they had committed on November 15, 1959, about five and a half years between the crimes and the punishment.

At key times the dramatic momentum of the story is broken. Don't expect a tightly focused, unbearably suspenseful, fast-paced narrative but rather a leisurely, loose somewhat rambling, more thoughtful and probing treatment of the sensational crime.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Classic Fades with Age, April 25, 2010

By 

DGMjr "D G Mattichak jr author of Loot" (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Cold Blood (Paperback)

Capote's 1965 book about the murder of a family in America's mid-west relates with great precision all of the details of the case as it happened in the late 1950s. What must have been shocking to 60s readers pales a bit in a modern context where far worse crimes have been exposed for public consumption which dates the book- unfortunately. Capote handles the characters well and tells the story competently enough but the book's sensationalistic aspect having deserted it leaves the reader to pick up too many of the flaws in the writing.

A good read and a classic for fans of old crime writing but no longer has the shock value that it had in 1965.