TRUMAN CAPOTE'S IN COLD BLOOD

The latest in the Bookmarked series is an examination of the book that left an indelible legacy while launching a new genre.

In Cold Blood was a popular sensation even before it was published, via the publicity surrounding its serialization in the New Yorker, to whom Capote had suggested a piece about the effect of the murders on the survivors and the community. The author expanded his reporting—with crucial assistance from childhood friend Harper Lee—into a very different book, one that focused more on the murderers and seemed to romanticize one of them. Its veracity was questionable, its impact and influence undeniable. St. Germain acknowledges the impact of the book on his academic career and writing as well as its prominent place in the literary landscape. “Capote spiked a vein,” writes the author, “and out came a stream of imitators, a whole bloody genre, one of the most popular forms of American nonfiction: true crime.” St. Germain also notes how Capote created America’s “love affair with killers,” which brings up a deeply personal wound: His mother was murdered, by his stepfather, and he spent his formative years as a writer trying to avoid the subject before tackling it head-on in Son of a Gun, his outstanding memoir. “As a piece of writing, a piece of art, [In Cold Blood] is almost perfect,” writes the author. “As journalism, it’s a sensationalized, unethical disaster. As an act of documentary, a historical account, it’s appallingly biased….I hate its legacy. The problem isn’t that Capote fell in love with a murderer. The problem is that everyone else did, too.” Taking readers through the book, the movie, the journalism and documentaries surrounding it, and his own trip to Kansas to bear witness, St. Germain effectively shows how Capote glorified the killers and where he invented certain elements to advance the story.

Compelling literary analysis featuring a unique personal perspective on the material.