In Cold Blood

I just finished my fifth book of the summer. (Three more to go to attain that ever-dorky goal of having read eight books this summer.) I decided that, after a raunchy trilogy and new young adult book, it was time for a classic with a little more depth.

I liked how Capote beautifully presented the scene, the case, and the murder. I can easily see how film-makers adapted this into a film. (And apparently I have seen this movie, although I can't recall much about it, other than Phillip Seymour Hoffman played Truman Capote.) I ended up enjoying the introduction and Clutter family so much that I didn't want their murder to come.

Capote also nicely presents the criminal perspective, although the detail is a little too specific and in-depth for me. I think that their ensuing voyage post-murder is important, but a lot of other side-facts and back-stories are not. I even sympathize here that Capote is trying to really develop the personality of the murderers -- it's necessary to go deep into detail.  But some of the factoids and anecdotes still seemed superfluous and expendable.

Not that Death Row.

One other gripe. The ending. In the same fashion as Capote went into detail about the murderers' lives, as went ensuing descriptions of other death row inmates. (That's deaTH row, not DeaF Row, for clarity's sake.) Capote described of the crimes and rationales of other inmates for about 30 pages too long before finally wrapping up the horrifying story.

Read it if you have a little bit of time on your hands -- it's a dense read. Only 320-ish pages, but extremely detail-laden and dialogue is used more sparingly than paraphrasing with a dialect. Good for vacations, reading by the pool, extremely hot summers.