A review by iarlais
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

dark reflective medium-paced

3.25

One of the most unique books I've ever read. Disregarding the binary of fiction and fact, Capote aims to walk inbetween as he weaves a fictionalised tale of true events. The ethics of it are, well, a little questionable I think. Now, it's not like there aren't other sources to find about the Clutter murders, but In Cold Blood would have been one of the most widely-read at the time, and it's a book upon which the murderers had a heavy influence, whether Capote intended that to be the case or not. Despite this, it doesn't portray them very sympathetically, at least in my own opinion. I saw critics attack this book by saying that Capote was trying to vilify the Clutters and create sympathy for Dick and Perry, but I don't really agree with that. The Clutters were just humans, Kenyon comes off as quite cruel and Herbert a religious bigot, but I didn't feel like the book attempted to justify their murders. As for Bonnie and Nancy, they seem to me to be completely pure beings who were the outright innocent victims of Dick and Perry. As for the death-dealing duo themselves, I didn't feel like either of them were portrayed that sympathetically. According to Perry and by extension Capote, Dick was a pedophile, so any sympathy automatically flees the window, there. Perry, while he isn't as sick, is certainly still pathetic. I honestly don't know what Capote saw in him. I don't think either of them deserved to die, but that's less because of Capote's telling of the story and more because I don't agree with the death penalty for anyone. 

The book itself is decent. The opening chapter is stellar, the way it cuts back and forth between the killers and the victims manages to build tension for a tragedy that is already known to the reader. It does suffer from some pacing issues, and I don't understand why Capote felt the need to tell the story of the other men on death row. Maybe he had a reason, but if so it passes over my head. I also would have liked the book more if it spared some time to focus on the public reaction to the executions of Dick and Perry, given how the whole Clutter tragedy became so infamous, it'd only make sense for the final conclusion of it to bring about some amount of public discourse. That all said, the prose is great, Capote has a wonderful knack for describing environments and building societies in a reader's head, and there were points where I felt like I was reading a very dark road trip story, as the two killers traverse from settlement to settlement, unaware that their death warrant was signed the moment they fired those four shots. 

If you're looking for a source on the Clutter murders, this isn't the most unbiased, but I think it's the best one out there. It's definitely flawed, but also gripping and thought-provoking. I think Capote did a good job.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings