tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post3139394202514464681..comments2024-03-18T16:41:34.785+00:00Comments on Vapour Trails: In Cold BloodSéamus Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-47973269259629878642013-08-13T22:49:31.944+01:002013-08-13T22:49:31.944+01:00In Cold Blood along with The Executioner's Son...In Cold Blood along with The Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer) is up there as one of the best "True Crime" / Faction books of the 20th century. As a bit of a nerd on capital punishment (yes, there is such a person) I judge these books by their accuracy in depicting the execution chamber. Both authors got it spot on, the journalists who were there can tell us what happened but only writers like Capote and Mailer can interpret what the executees were thinking and feeling. Compare this to the execution scene in "Le Pullover Rouge" by Gilles Perrault where we are told "the severed head bounced twice". Sorry Mr Perrault but severed heads do not bounce in sawdust.Gingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05451737739428845374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-12094564909145110992012-05-31T23:18:18.651+01:002012-05-31T23:18:18.651+01:00Hi Mef, thanks for your kind comments and also for...Hi Mef, thanks for your kind comments and also for pointing out my reliance on wikipedia for information about the private lives of authors, without any proper research. The odd thing is that I felt that this was something that I had known for years - I must look back over possible sources for my feeling this was so. <br />I'll have to employ an editor for these posts!Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-5967914128060198752012-05-31T13:32:05.628+01:002012-05-31T13:32:05.628+01:00Nice review -- I love Capote, and I completely und...Nice review -- I love Capote, and I completely understand the temptation to quote and quote and quote. And I'm happy to read as many quotes as you care to type in!<br /><br />Funny how that paragraph about the cats sticks in your mind; it's certainly one of the images that comes to me when I think of the book, too. I'm sure he didn't mean anything this appallingly literal, but I'll venture to suggest that the birds are the Clutters, the cars and their grilles are fate, and the cats are the press, specifically Capote himself and Harper Lee, who went to Kansas with him for the project. (Interesting that they're both tomcats; I've always wondered a bit about Harper Lee...)<br /><br />The one thing that really startled me was your mention of Capote cross-dressing. I've never run across that, though it's in his bio on Wikipedia (without attribution). <br /><br />When he died, I was surprised as I could be to find that my first reaction was "He *can't* have died! I haven't met him yet!" I didn't even know I wanted to meet him, but I missed my chance! I've read most of his work and some biographical stuff, and either never ran across mention of cross-dressing, or read it and forgot it. I don't mean to imply that I dropped it out of distaste or feeling it's unmentionable--I don't care what people wear, I just have an appallingly bad memory--but I only associate Capote and wearing dresses with Capote's part in spreading the rumor about J Edgar Hoover wearing women's clothes. I'd be interested to know where you found that item.<br /><br />I can't find my trove of Capote books at the moment, either, dammit. Maybe in a box in the shed, from the last move. Time to excavate...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com