Book Review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (48 in 2012? #35)

          There are only two responses one has when reading a “classic” for the first time.  You either see the genius that warranted the title or you don’t get it at all.  Once dubbed a great novel the book loses any right to a middle ground.  I’ve never heard anyone read Hamlet or Great Expectations or To The Lighthouse and say, “It was alright.”  In Cold Blood, widely considered the novel that launched the true crime genre, is easily considered a “classic” in most book circles and I would find it hard to believe that anyone would read it and not see why.  Truman Capote may have created a genre, but this novel transcends any label.  It’s a great novel period.  Capote’s ability to give us the known facts and then weave in what we can only assume occurred turns his book into a complete story that is truly impressive.  Capote goes beyond a mere story about a horrible crime and gives us a deep character study that delves into the mind of a killer.
            What makes In Cold Blood such an amazing novel is the way it depicts such a horrendous crime then goes back and makes the reader feel sympathy for the killers, or at least one of the men involved in the crime.  We will never know for sure what exactly happened in that house, who was responsible for exactly what action.  Even Capote’s wonderfully retelling couldn’t fill in those blanks.  But we do know that these two men are responsible, yet the picture Capote paints leaves us feeling for men who didn’t seem to feel for anyone else.  In Cold Blood is as much about what circumstances create criminals then it is about a specific crime.  It tells us why about a crime that seemed to have no apparent why even if the answer is hard for most of us to digest.
            Of course, at the same time Capote is building the back story of the killers, he also gives us a wonderful depiction of the victims and the quiet town they lived in.  He is never unsympathetic towards the horror of the murders.  We may understand better why they were committed but he also makes sure we never lose sight of how tragic they were, what kind of horrendous effect it had on a whole community.  We may grow to feel bad for the killers and the circumstances that led to their actions, but we never feel the punishment is undeserved.
            In Cold Blood may have launched a whole genre, but it still remains the perfect true crime novel.  It is as complete a depiction of a crime as one could imagine.  It shows the horror of the crime, the effect it left behind, and the psychology of the killers.  And it does it all with wonderful prose and compelling structure.  Capote created a classic that still stands up even though it deals with a crime that occurred 53 years ago.  If you haven’t read In Cold Blood, you really should.  I promise you won’t “not get it” or think it was “all right.”  This is a classic that deserves the title.