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Title: Breakthrough
Review: I once read that "cold blood" referred to Capote's eyeview of the situation he wrote about, more so than the style of the crime described here. An interesting conception, but after my read, I don't yet see it. Capote first fills a landscape with a loved and admirable family, gradually inching in descriptions of the characters who will threaten them, without divesting the perpetrators (particularly Perry Smith) of their humanity. Even though one would have to live on the dark side of the moon for the last fifty years not to know how the plot thickens, the prose still keeps one on the edge of the seat. A solid time capsule of midwest mores, culture, the justice system, and even race relations in the late fifties. The restraint Capote shows would be welcome in today's sensational treatment of the day-to-day stories about runaway brides, kidnap victims, or some of the tragic murders in which shock and awe seems to outweigh the journalistic quest for fact or justice for those affected.
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