That's a Wrap!

                Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this book club project. From reading the novel, to the blog posts, to the final presentation, I feel like I’ve gotten a clearer and better understanding of the book itself. In Cold Blood can be very dense at times, and the way Capote writes the novel can also be very complex. Having the blog posts every week to sort out my thoughts on the events of the book was very helpful, as well as being able to read other people’s perspectives. When there was something I was confused, or was just having a hard time keeping up with the events of the book, reading it in simpler terms of the blog was very beneficial.

                In our final presentation, we put Capote on trial as an author. His inclusion of Perry’s apology, which had been proven as false by Dewey who was present at the execution, caused us to question everything else Capote included in the novel. Discovering all of the different allegations against Capote, like hiring the lawyers for Dick and Perry, and that Harper Lee may have been a coauthor as opposed to just a research assistant, and the fact that he included the psychiatrist’s diagnosis of Perry which was never actually stated at the trial was really interesting. I was skeptical from the beginning about whether or not the book would actually be factual due to Capote’s involvement in the lives of everyone for almost six years. He became close to Perry, Dick, Dewey, and countless others, that it is my opinion that it was not possible for his to remain unbiased.

                There was also the matter of his relationship with Perry, which has been confirmed on several occasions. It is no secret that throughout the novel he tries to gain sympathy for him by including his background information, and of course, as aforementioned, his fabrication of Perry’s apology. By the end of the novel, and especially afterwards I found myself seriously questioning Capote, and judging the book overall, which I never would have done if I was simply just reading the book; the blog posts and project made me consider other things as well.

                In Cold Blood helped me confirm my opinion that no book can ever be presented as strictly fact. Someone has to have done research and been involved, and people cannot be trusted to leave their opinions out and remain unbiased. Therefore, though Capote claims to have pioneered this new journalism or creative nonfiction, I do not believe it can necessarily be called nonfiction. Unless it is a list of pure facts, I would be hesitant to put it under the genre of nonfiction, especially after reading this novel.