In Cold Blood

June 5, 2008

Here’s something you can do just for kicks: Go to a coffee shop (preferably Starbucks). Approach any customer, but try to choose the ones who look like those pretending to be so well-read. Tell them you’ve been reading a book called In Cold Blood (by Truman Capote), and that it’s about to get a film adaptation soon (a lie), and that it has detectives, serial killers, conspiracies, spies, narrow escapes, hot sexes, car chases, big boobied and quick witted women, martial arts, gadgets, and boozes. Make sure you’ve got some extra copies of the book with you. But, change the cover, and make it look like the airport reads Dan Brown’s books are. Paste images of eyes, running guys, binaries, bloods, guns, and torn objects. Show the extra copies, and say you’re selling them. Now watch them sell by the bucketloads, and laugh as you imagine the buyers’ horror-suffused faces when they finally find out what the book is really about. 

Though In Cold Blood sounds like a macho-fantasy book, its story is nowhere like that. Yes, there are detectives and murderers, but it is not a whodunit story and the murderers’ identities are revealed in the first pages. Instead, it is a psychological study of the murderers and the people who know the victims. 

If you like stories that stick to your mind, read In Cold Blood. If you want to know the nature of American violence, read In Cold Blood. If you want to read about why people are driven to kill without motives, read In Cold Blood. If you want to witness one of the finest writings ever seen in any book, read In Cold Blood. Regardless of who you are and where you stand, read In Cold Blood. 

I hope I’ve made that clear enough for you.

Posted by nightdreamer at 11:48 am | permalink

Previous Comments

Every book review should be read this way. Fucking hilafutin-riddled professional reviews always get in the way of convincing me to read books. So, will you lend me one? *cheapskate grin*

No, seriously, I wanna read this now. Psychological study of characters completely won me over.

Posted by CM at June 5, 2008, 4:52 pm

Why not. If we get to meet then I wouldn’t have much trouble lending you the book.

Actually I felt like an ass writing spitefully about the typical coffeeshop crowd. Heh. ^_^

I forgot to add that this book is based on a true story. The movie Capote is worth seeing too, as it offers the behind-the-scenes of how the book came into existence.

Posted by nightdreamer at June 5, 2008, 4:59 pm

Yeah I remembered I wanted badly to watch Capote after you wrote somewhere that people need to watch it. It is on my to-see list. Totally.

I WANT BOOK!

Posted by CM at June 5, 2008, 5:43 pm

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