In Cold Blood

That we already know the outcomes of Dick and Perry does NOT take away from Capote's magnum opus.

The gruesome and gory details of the killing is set against the humanness of Perry. Do the killers deserve the death penalty or should we be better than and show empathy?

It is an absolutely heartbreaking and gut wrenching tale of forcing the reader to view criminal actions and the people who do such actions in a completely different light. That it has automatically been put in my Top 5 must read books speaks volumes. I implore you to give this book a chance.

Capote finds humanity in such a senseless, cruel tragedy of a quadruple homicide of a family in an otherwise innocuous small town in America. From exploring the different perspectives involved in the case - the police, the people, and the perpetrators -he not only weaves a compelling narrative of a seemingly impossible task of capturing murderers with almost no clues, but manages to engender empathy for everyone involved: the criminals included.

Without sensationalizing or glorifying their actions, Capote gives insight into how they came to be through carefully researched documentation and interviews. It is not a way of engendering sympathy for these men, as for every ‘sympathetic' trait Capote includes, he is quick to remind the reader of their depravity - but it is his way of asking the reader to understand what made these men act the way they are, whether it was a stroke of bad luck or the way they are. It is through the inclusion of juxtaposing traits and tragic history that plague these men, that Capote only offers a complex question that has a subjective answer unique to the reader. Are these men born of sin or are in need of guidance? Capote takes no sides, but gives only the facts needed to understand the question asked.

The prose in this novel is so masterful, immersing me in the story almost forgetting that these were not fictional people in a fictional world; filling the environment with so much detail, giving many individuals personalities to flesh out the community that was rocked by such a horrific disaster. The most minute of details are given notice by Capote, with prose that weaves in exposition masterfully within the story. His research is evident, but his passion for the story even more so, as the story pours with detail without feeling overabundant.

Though it may not have been the first true crime novel by a technicality, its reputation as being an entirely new kind of novel for the time I think is probably quite deserved. Regardless of genre, it is such a fine example of form that I think every reader owes it to themselves to experience In Cold Blood for themselves.

Capote deftly balances the details of the true story within a literary structure in such a masterful way that it avoids reading like non-fiction, and the narrative always feels artful and never like journalism posing as storytelling.

I've read a few articles speculating about the amount of artistic license Capote employed, but I feel like it's almost irrelevant. The finished product is such a feat of storytelling, and it is exhilarating to witness the different threads and points of view intertwining as you find yourself in a living, breathing, vivid world.

Indeed, it appears to me that any artistic license was made to ensure that this novel - as a whole and complete artifact - faithfully captured the essence of the time, place and people rather than slavish data entry of facts.

Capote brings the entire 343-page novel full circle in merely a few pages at the end, delivering an emotional punch that is at once sorrowful and hopeful. Those last four pages are as close to perfection as I think I have ever read.