Post by annacarter on Dec 8, 2014 11:16:35 GMT
I believe there is a difference between true crime novels and violent fiction. While true crime novels can be gory and sensationalist, I find that the violence in purely fiction books is often glorified, something to give characters emotional baggage, or done to set up the antagonist. The violence in fiction books is often a plot point, something that has to happen to the character for them to develop and grow. Because the violence isn't the main focus in the story, the crime itself just a side plot, many fiction books play up the violence and make it fairly graphic. I used to read a lot of Stephen King books, and the violence he used in his stories and the way it was described was very visceral and sometimes hard to get through. While Capote certainly didn't sugarcoat his descriptions of the dead Clutter family or any of the other violent crimes in In Cold Blood, his writing felt much more clinical and impersonal, like reading a crime scene report.
I appreciated where the book ended. Sometimes people lose sight of how life continues on. Tragedy cannot and will not stop us, pain and suffering does not make us halt. We stumble, and pause, and sometimes find it difficult to pick ourselves up and continue, but we always do, eventually. It was nice to hear about Susan and Bobby. It was nice to know that they are happy and living and doing what they were meant to do. Though bittersweet with the knowledge that Nancy and Kenyon and the other Clutters did not get to finish their story, that they are no longer doing what they were meant to do, the others were able to continue, to be resilient, and to maintain hope.
I appreciated where the book ended. Sometimes people lose sight of how life continues on. Tragedy cannot and will not stop us, pain and suffering does not make us halt. We stumble, and pause, and sometimes find it difficult to pick ourselves up and continue, but we always do, eventually. It was nice to hear about Susan and Bobby. It was nice to know that they are happy and living and doing what they were meant to do. Though bittersweet with the knowledge that Nancy and Kenyon and the other Clutters did not get to finish their story, that they are no longer doing what they were meant to do, the others were able to continue, to be resilient, and to maintain hope.