horrible in the happenstance – but his stunning virtuosity is manifested more in the events before and after the crime itself. He exactingly paints the circumstances, the psychological makeup of Hickcock and Smith, the frenzied six weeks between crime and arrest (it feels like years pass) and the ultimate aftermath. That over time some have taken
exception with the accuracy of the subtitle (A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences) is trifling. Capote was a novelist, and if there was minimal deviation from the absolute veracity of the book, it’s a minor point. It doesn’t detract at all from his masterful account of the event. Capote was an incredibly gifted,
supremely talented writer from the southern United States. His first novel – Other Voices, Other Rooms – was published to great acclaim when he was in his early 20s; the fact that he was a social butterfly who craved the limelight, laden with drug and alcohol problems, certainly hampered his latter writing career. He would not fully complete another novel. With In Cold Blood he achieved the pinnacle of his prowess, stepping outside his previous fictional boundaries by marrying his exceptional writing talent with cold hard facts. His account is meticulously
researched, written without compare. It’s so intensely composed and masterfully woven that it is chilling and horrific on the one hand, and excitedly moving and emotionally powerful on the other. This book is a marvel of reporting, of insight, of literature, of re-telling. It launched a new literary genre,
spawned a gritty black-and white 1967 film adaptation by Richard Brooks (Robert Blake and Scott Wilson star as Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, respectively) and put tiny Holcomb, Kansas on the map, likely forever. That’s how good In Cold Blood
is, even 50 years on. Read it, marvel at the prose, prepare to be moved and astounded at Capote’s harrowing recounting. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
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