I was prompted to pick up Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood by the movie Capote. I haven’t seen it yet, and didn’t want to until I’d read the book.
In a world where CSI strives to get just a bit gorier with each episode, and Hannibal Lecter’s “fava beans” quote is a joke, this narrative tale of a real murder from 1959 doesn’t shock. Two previously small-time criminals execute a family of four in rural Kansas, and for some reason the newspaper story in New York captures the attention of a writer for The New Yorker. Six years later, the story is serialized in the magazine, and then published in its entirety as a book the following year (1966).
Hmmm… not quite The Tipping Point or Blink, where New Yorkermagazine articles were expanded into books.
The tale was well told, but there is certainly a bit of projection and imagination (expansion, at least), as there are no gaps presented in this story which the author never lived, despite the legendary obsessiveness of his reporting. Clearly, this book meant much, much more when it was published than it does now. I finished it a few weeks ago, but I didn’t fire straight through it with no interruptions.
While looking for the links above, I did come across two others worth sharing. First, a 2002 Salon story looking back at the book’s impact on journalism. Second, a fine package from LJWorld.com (speaking of journalism), which combines articles on the legacy of the book in Kansas, as well as the original newspaper reporting of the murder and trial. The first headline? “Garden City family slain over weekend, from the The Associated Press, Monday, November 16, 1959. I didn’t go deeper in the package than that, but I’m impressed by the care evidenced in this stitching of history’s original reports and the ripples through time.