In Cold Blood

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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.

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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: 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.

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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.

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Summary: in my opinion: the only true classic in the true crime genre
Review: when In Cold Blood was released, the title was flashed in Times Square...to date, I believe no true crime book has ever achieved such a reaction from the reading public, and such honor. I read In Cold Blood more than once over the years, there is a depth and richness added to the telling of a horrible crime story, that goes well beyond reciting cold facts. Capote lends a special psychological insight to the reader, as one reads about not just the crime, the act, but the people that were involved. Capote makes it possible to reconstruct the lives of the dead innocents simply from the life residue they left behind and he allows us to venture safely into the dangerous animalistic minds of the killers. In Cold Blood impacts you not only intellectually, but emotionally---and that is what the great craft of writing is all about.

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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.