I’m not Truman Capote so I’m not going to take as long as he did to write his book In Cold Blood and ponder 7 years over a review. Let’s just get it over with.
In Cold Blood is a faction novel: fiction based on facts. It tells the story of a horrible murder that happened in Holcomb, Kansas, on the night of Friday 13th 1959. Is that where our superstition about Friday 13th originates from? (No, it’s not.) That night, the much loved Clutter family was slaughtered in cold blood by two young man that had met in jail: Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The book concentrates on the events leading up to the killing, the quest to find the murderers, their trial(s) and eventually their execution.
I’ve had the book on my shelf ever since I saw the biopic Capote in which Philip Seymour Hoffman plays an awesome leading role as the author. But I never picked it up for fear of being bored… Because of the movie I already knew what had happened, see. But I’m glad I no longer procrastinated! I buddy read it with the Boekgrrls in November 2009; exactly 50 years after the crime. And it was quite a powerful experience.
Knowing about the case was no problem at all: the events are revealed at the beginning of the story. That’s partly what’s good about the book: although the outcome is public knowledge, it is still interesting to read. Most times… it is a bit slow in some parts as well.
I admire how Capote skips around the actual murder for quite some time; getting us to know Herb Clutter, his wife Bonny, daughter Nancy and son Kenyon. Meeting Dick and Perry ‘warming up’ with some petty crimes. The author guides us through the days preceding and following the massacre, showing us the town and its people, following the detectives that are hunting down the killers. And then finally, the moment of horror.
In Cold Blood is supposed to be the first in a genre that is now well-known: ‘true crime fiction’. Capote was looking for inspiration as a writer when he read a small newspaper article about the case in Holcomb. It took him 5 years of ‘investigating’ and another 2 to finish the book. Its suggests to be factual (presenting letters, reports etc.), so many of the people involved criticized him for not being completely true to the case. Capote himself replied that it was obviously a novel = fiction.
An interesting question is why Capote was so immensely fascinated by this case that he worked on it for so many years. I recall from the movie that the author seemed extremely ‘attracted’ by the perpetrators, especially Perry. And the weird thing is that even I felt sorry for him at times — or even sympathy, no matter that he was such a ruthless killer. On of the strongest scenes in the book is Perry’s confession to KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) officer Albert Dewey.
*** spoiler alert *** The suggestion that Perry Smith would have suffered from schizophrenia is pretty convincing. Unfortunately for him at that time in Kansas state the Durham rule was not yet in practice. This act decrees that “an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act is the product of mental disease or mental defect“. I must say that I’m against the taking of any life, which means I do not approve of the death penalty in any case – not even in a horrible crime like this.
Bookish connections
Capote’s childhood friend Harper Lee accompanied him to the Midwest as his research assistent. I recently read her most acclaimed novel To Kill a Mockingbird which she wrote a few years after the Holcomb tragedy. It has nothing to do with this case, but it does deal with legislation and justice, telling the story of a murder courtcase in Alabama. Capote is depicted in the book as the boy Dill. But Lee is never mentioned in Capote’s In Cold Blood.
BTW from the movie Capote I had gotten the impression that the author himself would play a role in his book as well, which he does not…
Perry’s childhood during the Great Depression, his family travelling the country in search of work, also brings to mind John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which I had read just before In Cold Blood:
‘Tex John Smith Family picking berries in Oregon. 1933’ Was the caption under a snapshot of four barefooted children wearing overalls and cranky, uniformly fatigued expressions. Berries or stale bread soaked in sweet condensed milk was often all they had to eat. [His sister] Barbara Johnson remembered that once the family had lived for days on rotten bananas, and that, as a result, Perry had got colic; he had screamed all night, while Bobo, as Barbara was called, wept for fear he was dying. [p.177]
Because of some quotes about the role of women, the story also made me think of the October Boekgrrls’ buddy read: Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, which is set in fifties as well. Since I’m participating in the Women Unbound challenge, I’ll give this topic its own heading.
The role of women
Bonny Clutter was a very troubled housewife (according to this book = according to Capote? The people in the village? Her family?). Bonny herself believed that a pinched nerve was the cause of her problems. But to the contemporary reader it is obvious that she was depressed; which might be postnatal depression as is suggested in the book, but I rather believe her unfulfilling everyday life must have amplified it. In the past she had been living in Wichita for 2 weeks, having her own apartment and a job. Doctor’s orders. And it seemed to help…
[..] but she had liked it too well, so much that it seemed to her unchristian, and the sense of guilt she in consequence developed ultimately outweighed the experiment’s therapeutic value. [p.26]
So she turned into a woman that:
[..] had reduced her voice to a single tone, that of apology, and her personality to a series of gestures blurred by the fear that she might give offence, in some way displease. [p.23]
Then there’s Nancy’s attitude to her father Herb Clutter.
‘[..] Can’t you make your father understand that?’ No, she could not. ‘Because,’ as she explained it to Susan, ‘whenever I start to say something, he looks at me as though I must not love him. Or as though I love him less. And suddenly I’m tongue-tied; I just want to be his daughter and do as he wishes.‘ [p.19]
I don’t have any intelligent thoughts about this but I do think it says a lot about the way women wore culturally imposed and emotional straitjackets at the time. It seems to have been engraved in our x-chromosomes — and the leftovers sometimes pop-up… Because although it’s 50 years later and I’ve been raised by a feminist mom, I’m embarrassed to say that the feelings described are not completely unfamiliar to me. (Can I get another Honest Scrap Award now, please? ;)
Other thoughts on the book…
I did think the Clutters were a bit too good to be true — except for poor Bonny of course, who was such a troubled, incompetent mother & wife :\
If I had not known the book was based on facts and written relatively short after the real events, I would have sworn to have come upon an anachronism:
[..] Nancy had cleaned up, put all the dishes in the dish-washer, [..] [p.49]
OMG my well-to-do grandparents (or should I say my grandma?) first got a washing machine about a whole decade later! Let alone I would know anyone who had a dish-washer at that time… But hey, I wasn’t born yet either ;)
Movie connections…
In Cold Blood has made such an impression that I was reminded of it during several movies I saw shortly after. That happened because of the schizophrenia in the horror movie Bug and the bloody massacre in Jennifer Lynch’s Surveillance.
But it doesn’t end here; the bookgroup read will result in a film follow-up real soon! Some Boekgrrls are coming over to watch the 1967 film In Cold Blood with me. It got 8 stars in the Internet Movie Databse so I’m having no worries about being bored because I already know the story ;)
10 reacties
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woensdag 10 februari 2010 bij 15:57
Amanda
Truman Capote scares the crap out of me, probably because of this book. I can’t even read books like Breakfast at Tiffany’s because of this book. Not that I’ve read In Cold Blood. It just SOUNDS too gruesome and disturbing for me.
woensdag 10 februari 2010 bij 17:44
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
I really want to read this book, but haven’t found a copy yet – I may just have to buy a copy soon. Thank you for reminding me about it.
woensdag 10 februari 2010 bij 21:38
Ash
This is a book I desperately need to read. I read the first section of it for a class last semester and really enjoyed it. I didn’t know about the connection with Harper Lee though! That was really interesting.
donderdag 11 februari 2010 bij 02:51
Bellezza
Personally, I enjoyed the film more than the book in this case, and that hardly ever happens! But, I do love a good murder mystery…
I’ve bee seeing so much of Yates around lately. I really must open my brand new copy of Revolutionary Road after seeing you mention it here.
donderdag 11 februari 2010 bij 06:28
stacybuckeye
Your review is much better than the one I recently wrote! I am looking forward to watching to movie as well.
donderdag 11 februari 2010 bij 07:40
Janny
Great review! The book made a great impression on me as well. Writing the book sure must have changed Capotes life. Imagine, working on your book about this massacre for 7 years. It must have.
vrijdag 11 juni 2010 bij 21:36
apr_47
My daughter and I recently finished the book. Both of us had seen the movie some years ago. Though I was abhorred by the crimes these two committed as well as those who were in Death Row with them, I enjoyed the book and his narrative style. I have read Helter Skelter more than 20 years ago but this is better and more concise.
I did find that Truman Capote wanted us to sympathize with these two when he brought up their life-story towards the end. He demonstrated how judge Tate wouldn’t let the doctor bring to the trial his own personal observations of the accused and the probability of why their crime could be explained.
zaterdag 12 juni 2010 bij 11:13
gnoegnoe
Hi apr_47, thanks for stopping by! It seems like a good project to read this book together with your daughter. I’ve never read Helter Skelter and considering your remark I don’t think I need to. There are so many other good books waiting for my attention! :)
I’m not sure about the ‘sympathizing’ part… Capote only brought it up in the end (after we had get to know the (split) personality of the perpetrators) and it seems only fair to bring up the fact that at least Perry was seriously mentally ill. In humane societies such a person cannot be held responsible for his actions the way a sane person could. But that’s 2010 for you ;)
Of course their crime was horrible beyond comprehension.
zondag 10 oktober 2010 bij 10:48
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maandag 1 augustus 2011 bij 06:38
Dan
Hi — great review of the book, but I noticed 2 typos:
1. The murders took place after midnight on Sunday November 15, not Friday evening (the 13th). Two of Nancy Clutter’s friends discovered their bodies the next morning when they came to pick them up to go to church.
2. Herb Clutter’s wife spelled her name “Bonnie”, not “Bonny” (her headstone also has the correct spelling).
Love the website — keep up the good work!