In Cold Blood

Entertaining, strangely dated true crime novel. The book is strongest when it describes the strange, aimless life of a couple of scoundrel drifters who end up committing a horrific murder. That part of the book is entertaining and novelistic, which raises awkward questions about veracity. But then the book meanders into details of the trial and awaiting execution and it gets fairly tedious. Still it's an interesting depiction of late-50s small town Kansas, and the more narrative parts are fun reading.

I read this book after my nephew read it in high school and he mentioned there was a homosexual angle, the idea that Capote was in love with one of the killers or maybe had a relationship with him. The relationship between the two male killers is fascinatingly portrayed, but so dated through the veil of 50s propriety. There's a lot of talk between the two killers about sex with women. But then also the men are clearly fairly intimate, and Capote frequently has one calling the other "honey" (sometimes derisively, sometimes sweetly). It's all kind of weird and coded. As for Capote's own relationship with the murderers there's really nothing about that on display other than an author's natural affinity for his subject material.