Eden Gray

WARNING: SPOILER While it is a well written book, it is long winded and thick, with many unnecessary details where I had to force myself to keep reading. Capote repeats himself a lot and is really an exhausting read. You know who the killers are straight away, leaving the only question left of why and how they killed them, but with all the extra detail, especially in the first section, I lost interest very quickly. Another difficult part about this book is that it is split into four sections, not chapters, making the book seem very long with no apparent ending. Just reading the first section felt like I had finished the book with all of its detail and useless information, losing my interest and any questions that I had regarding the book. If I was not forced to read the book, I would have stopped reading it in the first section. It does get pretty good near the end when they included stories about other criminals, stories not related to the plot and loosely related to the killers. Those stories were interesting as they were to the point but I would not recommend this book to anyone. Capote claims that this book is non-fiction, however, he has changed so many facts throughout and knew one of the prisoners personally. He also had influence on the end of the book as he did have enough money and influence to prevent or prolong the hanging of the two killers, but he chooses not to as he needed them to hang in order for him to finish and publish his book. His bias comes through clearly with his anti-death beliefs and his favouritism towards Perry is blatant because Capote related to Perry. Capote manipulated his audience to feel sympathetic towards Perry even though he brutally killed the Clutters. His manipulation and deception, verisimilitude to the core, left me thinking what is true and what is false throughout the whole book, further making me disinterested as why read a book that claims to be non-fiction when it is clearly filled with false information.