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emma's Reviews > In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
by
by
emma's review
bookshelves: classics, mystery-thriller-horror-etc, nonfiction, non-ya, owned, 4-stars, reviewed
Feb 16, 2018
bookshelves: classics, mystery-thriller-horror-etc, nonfiction, non-ya, owned, 4-stars, reviewed
I do not, as I have said many a time, feel things very often. I am just shy of being a sociopathic monster, mainly because I consider myself to be way too cute and charming for that. (Except sociopaths are capable of charm...huh. Back to the drawing board.)
Anyway. Even in my actual, real life, I try to experience emotions as infrequently as possible. This is only truer for the books I read.
In Cold Blood is a true crime narrative detailing the crime, investigation, and trial related to the murder of four members of the Clutter family, and therefore I wasn’t planning on feeling anything if at all possible. Because, duh, emotions related to that aren’t exactly going to be the equivalent of “eating cotton candy while at the top of a Ferris wheel at a fair in the beginning of summer” or “hearing an infant laugh for the first time.”
And yet, by page 50, Truman Capote had me feeling overwhelmingly fond of the Clutter family.
I knew what was going to happen to them. Even if I hadn’t known the book’s synopsis going in, I would have felt the building tension.
Somehow, though, even though I knew what was coming, I was really hoping the Clutters would be okay.
Mr. Clutter, the tenet of his community. Mrs. Clutter, who finally felt she might be overcoming her lifelong struggle with mental health. Nancy, the sweet, kind teenager who overbooked herself because she didn’t want to say no to anybody. Kenyon, nerdier than his older sister, but smart and kind and passionate.
As I read about their lives on and before November 15, 1959, I hoped they would be okay. Even as Perry Smith and Dick Hickock entered their home late at night, I hoped they would somehow leave a survivor.
What I expected out of this book was an exciting, impressive rendering of a horrible crime. I got a lot more. I was made to care about these people, and to feel their loss. I empathized with their loved ones, their community, their police force. I could have read about the Clutters for much longer than I did.
Unfortunately, the Clutters and the crime itself only took up about a third of the book. The remaining two thirds followed the investigation and the trial, but more than that, it followed the killers.
I felt no pity for Dick Hickock. I don’t think I was supposed to, or I hope I wasn’t. Because that guy was a piece of total sh*t. I’m someone who believes that people can be partially exonerated by their circumstances, but Dick Hickock had no circumstance that could make up for what a f*cker he was.
Perry Smith, on the other hand. Even for him, who suffered all his life, I was only able to feel partial pity. A sickening kind of pity - it nauseated me to read about him.
Maybe if this book felt more focused on the Clutters, I would have given it five stars. I don’t know. It’s still a four star read because it’s so impressive. It’s no wonder that this book to some extent birthed the genre of true crime as it is today. The exhaustive research and attention to detail is pretty much astonishing, and the writing is for the most part beautiful.
But the later parts of the narrative were sickening, and hard and unpleasant to read. Not just for their content, but for the treatment of the people it followed. I don’t know. It felt like it strayed a lot from the Clutters. Maybe it wasn’t ever supposed to be their story - maybe it was Perry and Dick’s all along. But I’d prefer to think it wasn’t.
Bottom line: I love true crime. I love classics. This feels outside of both of those genres. Genre-defying. I don’t even know what it is. It’s good. Hopefully that’s enough.
-------------
PRE-REVIEW
i am so glad that i'm sticking to my plan of reading a classic a month. (i'm so proud of myself you'd never guess it's THE SECOND MONTH OF THE YEAR.)
i always forget how much i love classics until i pick them up??? they're classic for a reason.
whatever. i digress. this is a great book and i'll review it at some point hurray
Anyway. Even in my actual, real life, I try to experience emotions as infrequently as possible. This is only truer for the books I read.
In Cold Blood is a true crime narrative detailing the crime, investigation, and trial related to the murder of four members of the Clutter family, and therefore I wasn’t planning on feeling anything if at all possible. Because, duh, emotions related to that aren’t exactly going to be the equivalent of “eating cotton candy while at the top of a Ferris wheel at a fair in the beginning of summer” or “hearing an infant laugh for the first time.”
And yet, by page 50, Truman Capote had me feeling overwhelmingly fond of the Clutter family.
I knew what was going to happen to them. Even if I hadn’t known the book’s synopsis going in, I would have felt the building tension.
Somehow, though, even though I knew what was coming, I was really hoping the Clutters would be okay.
Mr. Clutter, the tenet of his community. Mrs. Clutter, who finally felt she might be overcoming her lifelong struggle with mental health. Nancy, the sweet, kind teenager who overbooked herself because she didn’t want to say no to anybody. Kenyon, nerdier than his older sister, but smart and kind and passionate.
As I read about their lives on and before November 15, 1959, I hoped they would be okay. Even as Perry Smith and Dick Hickock entered their home late at night, I hoped they would somehow leave a survivor.
What I expected out of this book was an exciting, impressive rendering of a horrible crime. I got a lot more. I was made to care about these people, and to feel their loss. I empathized with their loved ones, their community, their police force. I could have read about the Clutters for much longer than I did.
Unfortunately, the Clutters and the crime itself only took up about a third of the book. The remaining two thirds followed the investigation and the trial, but more than that, it followed the killers.
I felt no pity for Dick Hickock. I don’t think I was supposed to, or I hope I wasn’t. Because that guy was a piece of total sh*t. I’m someone who believes that people can be partially exonerated by their circumstances, but Dick Hickock had no circumstance that could make up for what a f*cker he was.
Perry Smith, on the other hand. Even for him, who suffered all his life, I was only able to feel partial pity. A sickening kind of pity - it nauseated me to read about him.
Maybe if this book felt more focused on the Clutters, I would have given it five stars. I don’t know. It’s still a four star read because it’s so impressive. It’s no wonder that this book to some extent birthed the genre of true crime as it is today. The exhaustive research and attention to detail is pretty much astonishing, and the writing is for the most part beautiful.
But the later parts of the narrative were sickening, and hard and unpleasant to read. Not just for their content, but for the treatment of the people it followed. I don’t know. It felt like it strayed a lot from the Clutters. Maybe it wasn’t ever supposed to be their story - maybe it was Perry and Dick’s all along. But I’d prefer to think it wasn’t.
Bottom line: I love true crime. I love classics. This feels outside of both of those genres. Genre-defying. I don’t even know what it is. It’s good. Hopefully that’s enough.
-------------
PRE-REVIEW
i am so glad that i'm sticking to my plan of reading a classic a month. (i'm so proud of myself you'd never guess it's THE SECOND MONTH OF THE YEAR.)
i always forget how much i love classics until i pick them up??? they're classic for a reason.
whatever. i digress. this is a great book and i'll review it at some point hurray
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Reading Progress
May 10, 2017
– Shelved
February 13, 2018
–
Started Reading
February 17, 2018
–
Finished Reading
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message 1:
by
Jessica
(new)
Mar 13, 2018 04:23PM
i have been planning on reading this for so long! im glad you enjoyed it :)
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Great review emma! I consider myself a charming sociopath.
Jessica wrote: "i have been planning on reading this for so long! im glad you enjoyed it :)"it was good as hell!! hope you like it too
Erin wrote: "Great review emma! I consider myself a charming sociopath."thanks erin!! it's the best way to be
I didn't feel that overwhelmingly fond of the Clutter family, though I didn't dislike them. I think they, and especially Herb Clutter, were narrow-minded and overly convinced of their own rectitude, though it seems they weren't preachy. Herb Clutter thought it was impossible for Nancy to marry Bobby Rupp because she was Methodist and he was Catholic? Really?? And I think that Capote intended to portray the family as not being absolute saints, as being the type of people who might get on other people's nerves. Remember the postmistress Myrtle Clare's reaction to hearing news of the murders? "Herb Clutter, running here, running there...now he's DEAD" paraphrasing. It doesn't seem that she's an unalloyed fan of Herb Clutter. Just saying. Murdered people aren't automatically saints.
I think the reporter straightforward style of the book heightened the horror for me. Does anyone know: Did Capote directly interview the muderers? The point about delving in to the psyches of the two murderers was very deliberate. He wanted to reveal how ordinary they were. If they were portrayed as monsters it would be easy for us to dismiss them. This would have made for a forgettable story. One great force of the book is the time he spent telling us how human they were. Therein lies the horror. I do think this is a masterpiece in created a new genre in writing.
