Review: In Cold Blood

I must admit that I approached this novel with many a bias and preconceived notion. I was curious about the claims that the author, Truman Capote, had created a new type of book-- the nonfiction novel.

Let's use a word nerd alert to get down to the marrow of those two words:

nonfiction |nänˈfik sh ən|

prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography or history.-and-novel |ˈnävəl|a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.

How can a novel which is by definition a fictitious tale with realistic leanings be nonfiction? Can one possibly glean enough fact, setting, character descriptions, and plot to flesh out an entire novel worth reading? I suspected not.So how do I feel now that I have read the book? I have several thoughts... here a  few.The tone of the novel is journalistic in nature with a sympathetic overtone interwoven towards the victims -- and also the killers. I'll admit that this was off putting for me. The title for the book is a duplicitous moniker. "In Cold Blood" refers to the way the Clutter family was brutally murdered, but it also reflects the opinion of the author regarding the judicial treatment and sentencing of the murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickok. When reading a book about a horrific mass murder, one does not expect to cultivate tender feelings for the people holding the guns. And yet, Capote tries his darnedest to incite empathy for the tough, neglected, even abusive past of these two individuals.
A greasy, charming, sticky fingered ladies man -- Hickok is always at the ready with a dirty joke and a hot check. He is apparently ashamed of his tendency to rape young adolescent girls, but that doesn't seem to impede his impulse to do it... several times. He is classified as knowing right from wrong, but due to a car crash that could possibly have damaged his brain-- he now only lives on his impulses with no thought for the consequences. His parents are present but poor. 
Perry Smith has a troubled past to be sure. His parents --former rodeo performers turned cross country impoverished gypsies-- separate after his mother turns to alcohol to assuage her anxiety. After a particularly bad fight, the mother sweeps off with the children. The father does very little to reclaim his children over the years. The mother finally drinks herself to death, but not before turning all of her children over to the state. Perry's sisters and older brother are reprimanded to an orphanage. Perry has a horrific experience at a catholic institution where a nun tortures him for wetting the bed. He later begins to act out his aggression and is sent to some sort of detention center where he is again abused. He becomes ill and hospitalized --only then does his father find him and take him in. (But they have a tumultuous relationship that ends in Perry nearly killing his father and abandoning him for the merchant marines.) Perry's character is the oddest combination of an uneducated intelligent poet type with an unchecked thinly veiled murderous rage. His demeanor is disarming, his crippled physicality mollifying, his internal dialogue is haunting. He truly scares me. A shrouded menace that beguiles it's prey into believing itself nurtured and safe...

Capote also gives us some psychiatric jargon to back up his feelings that these two praire-billy slaying thieves were simply overly vilified mentally inept victims themselves. However, this doesn't ring true-- with this reader at least. They had hard lives, physical and emotional trauma, and yet I couldn't find it in my heart to leap on the weep wagon for them after reading the descriptions --personal interview descriptions-- of what they meticulously did to the entire Clutter family. I will not go into those details here, but the level of callus premeditated apathy for human life is appalling.
The book is well written and does softly tread the line of novel and fact. I believe there to be several embellishments but none that detract from the horror or heart of the story set before you. I was held captive, suffered, and was sentenced along with the characters in the story. To put it lightly, I was enthralled and would read many a more book written in this style.
This book was a heavy hitter, and the actual facts made it that much more serious and engaging. I rate this book a 4 because I haven't stopped thinking about it since I put it down.