Book Report: In Cold Blood

I never understood all of the cultural references to Breakfast at Tiffany's until I read the book and, like countless readers before me, was seduced by Holly Golightly, even when knowing it would never work out. Subsequently, I watched Capote, then read the "movie-tie in" book, In Cold Blood. Perhaps this is slightly out of order, but maybe I'm a little out of order myself.

Although the book, unlike the movie, removes Capote from the narrative, I couldn't get Philip Seymour Hoffman out of my head when reading it. I would picture his pasty white face and his thin, greasy hair as he read to me. I think Philip Seymour Hoffman is kinda gross. A note-(Oscar, even) worthy actor, but still gross. Readers who have watched Once Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest before reading the book, and are conflicted by descriptions of the brawny red-haired McMurphy and the image of a decidedly non-ginger Jack Nicholson, might understand what I'm getting at. I guess the moral is that the book is always better than the movie, so read that first. Especially if Philip Seymour Hoffman is in the movie.

I suppose the book's primary goals were to both illuminate the senseless, brutal and (if you have read the book) sheer stupidity of the crime, as well as to somewhat humanize the killers. The former, is obviously easy, and was probably Capote's primary goal when he tackled the story. The latter, is more complex. As the book progresses, the closer the men get to death, the more about their lives Capote reveals, and subsequently the closer the reader feels to the characters. I think the reader would naturally feel sorry for Dick and Perry, not because they were going to hang, but because they were losers who were never really given a chance by anyone their entire lives. It is easier to condemn an anonymous man, and Capote erases that anonymity by giving character, familiarity and a great deal of tragedy to the lives of killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Their deaths then demand a consideration of the title. Granted, Perry and Dick killed the Clutters in cold blood, but were Perry and Dick not also executed in cold blood? Perhaps this is what Capote wanted the reader to feel, that all killing, "righteous" or not, is in cold blood.

I could probably go on...I feel the English Lit undergrad in me rousing from a long slumber...perhaps I'll let him out to play a little longer next time.

"All plots tend to move deathwards." -D.D.