On the road with Harper Lee?

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Even though I come into this book influenced by "the movie" I still feel I can see the Harper Lee influence on every page. (Did Truman Capote and Harper Lee have a mutually competitive relationship like Perry Smith and Dick Hickock? It feels like you are in the car with these guys at times, like a Jailbird 'On The Road'). One of the locals shoots a mockingbird and the trial scene is quick but detailed and the prosecuting lawyers fill their speeches with biblical references in the same way the FBI build their case to try and finger the killer(s). It is poetic too, Capote mentions a Juror's bored face "so that bees would fly in and out of his mouth" and I am certain Capote gets bored at the end; there is almost a panicky writing style in places but it is a book you can't pull yourself away from even though it is terrifying and morbid it carries on from Steinbeck and the poverty of working luckless men (Grapes of Wrath is also mentioned)... Weird too but now it makes me want to re-read Morley Callaghan's book More Joy in Heaven. Takes me back to High School.



View all my reviews