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Summary: A THRILLER, HAD ME SCARED OF THE DARK!!!
Review: Maybe it's because I was only 16 when I read this book, but I was scared to death for over a month after I read it. Truman Capote is an excellent storyteller who captivates the reader from the beginning by using the true accounting facts in which he personally investigated himself. Capote shows true empathy for the two men who were responsible for all the chaos that took place back in 1959. By doing so, he shows the truth behind the lives of the convicts themselves and the truth as to what happened the night of the murders. I recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who love TRUE CRIME books!
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Summary: Captoe and Murder in the Heartland
Review: Far from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Truman Capote's riveting account of the 1959 slaughter of a family of four in Holcomb, Kan. (pop. 270) remains one of the essentials in true-crime publishing history. In masterful story-telling fashion, Capote's powerful writing puts us at the scene of the Clutter house that bloody weekend of Nov. 14, 1959, as Perry Smith and Richard Hickock go from attempted robbery to the merciless slaughter of four people. So compelling is Truman's style that, by the time Mrs. Clutter is the last to be killed, we have a sense of relief that, for her, the horror of knowing she will be the last to die is over. In the wake of the murders, Capote takes us on the trail of the killers from the nation's Bible Belt to Mexico and Las Vegas before, finally, back to the scene of the crime and the gratuitous trial. And at the gallows, where Smith and Hickock meet their final justice, Capote manages to put us there, so powerful the feeling of the pending executions. Capote interviewed both killers for his book and reportedly had a sexual relationship with one. Maybe myth, but Capote did say once he would never have written "In Cold Blood" had he known its emotional cost to him. Little wonder. In the end, we have four victims of a truly senseless slaughter and two killers who fashioned their own noose, all for a radio and 50 bucks. Still, Capote never topped himself with anything he wrote later.
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Summary: A Sensational Masterpiece On a true account murder
Review: Truman Capote once again gives us another great American Classic to be proud of! In Cold Blood relates the story of 4 victims killed "instantly" by a shotgun. This book describes the family and their normal life and the process to which the criminals committed the crime and later were charged with murder. Truman Capote gives us a great sense of one of the most known murders in American History.
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Summary: In Cold Blood
Review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote4 is a book about a family that was murdered. Truman Capote explained how the families grow up, and the background of those around them. THe story takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. The author also goes in deep of the killer's background. I could never image how much these people put into planning a murder.
The Clutter family members killed in 1959 was father Herbert William, mother Bonnie, daugher Nacy, and son Kenyon. This was a good well known family. The book talks about how they grow up and there relationshiips with others. This family was a good well known church going family as well. The relationship between herbert and Bonnie was very different.
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Summary: Brilliant novel about the true story
Review: I saw the movie "In Cold Blood" a few years ago and became instantly fascinated with the story. A wonderful family died for what amounted to no reason at all, yet it also makes for a fantastic story. Truman Capote wrote the book with such depth that I am amazed. If you're into reading about real-life crime stories, "In Cold Blood" is by far worth the read.
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Summary: Good True Crime Book
Review: I don't usually read true crime books, but being that this one is so famous, I had to give it a try. It was very well written, and held my attention from the first page to the last. It is true, as some of these reviewers say, that there is alot of detail. But I would argue that it adds to the story, making everyone in it come to life with every read. Even if, like me, true crime is not your thing, this book is worth a read.
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Summary: Stunning Achievement
Review: My first experience with "In Cold Blood" came in high school. This book was often read in an advanced English class, a class I registered for in part because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. The teacher often came under criticism for assigning the book. I did not touch the book or open the cover until 20 years later--the good teacher decided to skip the assignment during my year. And in hindsight I can only conclude, "What a waste of my junior year." This book is brilliantly written and is nothing short of a masterpiece. Not since reading Joseph Mitchell or John Fowles have I been so mesmerized with beautiful prose. This book, while portraying the grizzly facts of a pointless and brutal murder in Kansas, juxtaposes many feelings and impressions. I could not help but feel the tremendous loss to a community when the Clutter family dies. I could easily understand how some community members would come to look at each other suspiciously. I appreciated the few charitable and Christian people who show compasion to the jailed and accused murderers. But maybe most important, I came to see and understand the murderers in this story (Perry being the most important). While I am certainly not a bleeding-heart liberal, this book portrays Perry's story in a compelling way. I could not help but feel outraged by the "M'Naughton Rule" that yielded what appears to be, through Capote's eyes, a horribly unjust trial (even though he is clearly guilty!). And pulling all of these story lines and juxtaposed feelings into a tight narrative is Capote's masterly prose. This book is brilliant. I wish I had not waited twenty years to buy and read "In Cold Blood." The book certainly deserved a spot on my book shelf long before now.
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Summary: disturbing panorama of a multiple murder
Review: After years of hearing about the book, seeing the movie twice and seeing the fairly decent made-for-TV movie, I finally got around to reading the book this summer. This is an excellent book and it gives the reader a sense of intimacy with all of the main characters and a fairly good relationship with many of the minor characters. That, for many of us, is a strange feeling. It is strange because we are at least given the opportunity to get to know two men responsible for a brutal, unnecessary quadruple murder. I cannot give the correct literary history of this book. However, I believe it may have broken new ground with this intimate portrayal of the two men. I am sure many a reader has found themselves sympathizing with Richard Hickok and Perry Smith-especially Perry Smith. There is plenty of background on each and, in the case of Smith, lots that could lead a liberal-minded person to see him as a victim. Many, I'm sure, have applauded this sympathetic insight. Many others, I'm equally sure, have condemned the equal billing of guilty murders and innocent victim. Either way the author derserves credit for having taken this approach. It rests ultimately with the reader to sort out where his or her emotions should properly settle. The structure of the book is generally helpful to the author's purpose. We meet and get to know the victims, we get a brief introduction to the murderers, the murderers enter the household, the murderers leave the household, the murderers get away. We are in the dark about what actually happened. We spend a lot of time following the murderers and reading about their youth and early adulthood. Eventually a major break in the case occurs and the murderers are caught. Only after they are interogated does the missing piece of the story get revealed. This is a good literary move because it brings us back to the brutality of the murders and reminds us of the dark side of Smith and Hickok. From there we go through the trial, conviction and death sentence. It is at this point that the reader is reminded that this book was originally a series of magazine articles for, I believe, The New Yorker. The remainder seems to have been added on because it doesn't quite fit the flow of the book up to that point. We are briefed on the endless delays, appeals, a retrial, further delays, etc. During this time we actually have a couple of new characters introduced into the story. They are the co-inhabitants of the Kansas State Prison death row. I was never sure if these additional characters added to or detracted from the storyline. This book with make you examine your own feeling about good and evil, the death penalty, and society in general. It did not change my points of view but it gave me cause to reaffirm them.
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Summary: 5 Star Reviews? For this book?
Review: ... The book I read was long, drawn out, boring to the point of tears. I literally had to put it down for a couple of weeks at a time, or I'd have never finished it. There was too much detail... way too much detail. If I had read one more instance about a pie being baked the day of the murder I would have screamed. Capote is more than sympathetic toward Perry thus the book is not written objectively. He comes to the point of almost saying that the Clutter family was responsible for their own deaths. But even HE can't cross that line. Perhaps this would have been a better read had Capote not gotten the hots for Perry Smith. He tried so hard to make Perry look misunderstood, pitiful, and less culpable than Hickcock. For all the hype ..., I was sadly disappointed in this so-called Classic.
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Summary: Chilling True Story-
Review: The actual reading of In Cold Blood wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, but I find that it becomes more scary as the story stays with you. Capote does an outstanding job of telling a
horrific, true story while writing it to read like a fictional novel. Capote introduces us to the town of Holcomb, Kansas, a place where people don't lock their doors and everybody knows everyone. You will be introduced to each member of the Clutter family & learn how much they were liked and respected in their community. In alternating chapters, you will also meet the two killers, Dick Hickock, and Perry Smith. The murders are disturbing and horrifying, and the heartlessness with which
they are done is unthinkable. Apparently, Capote traveled to Holcomb, Kansas to do research for writing this book. He has been criticized by some as being biased in his views as he befriended the two killers, and some claim Capote lost his objectivity. The book was written as an anti-capital punishment stance, but it isn't the focus of the story. Instead, it is a look at both sides of a horrible crime, from all angles. The truth is chilling and as they say, in this case, truth is stranger than fiction.
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