June 8th, 2006
Harper Lee’s contribution to In Cold Blood
Next month, Capote will be released on DVD and this week Salon has a review of a new biography biography of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields that claims the To Kill A Mockingbird author contributed a lot more to In Cold Blood than most people know.
Reviewer Margot Mifflin says that Shields’ “most salient contribution” is that “Lee’s contribution to In Cold Blood was much greater than the film conveys”.
Why?
“Firstly, Lee served as a social lubricant for Capote, who impressed Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective Harold Nye as “an absolute flake” in contrast to his assistant, who “looked like normal folk.” Lead detective Alvin Dewey said, “If Capote came on as something of a shocker, she was there to absorb the shock.” More significantly, Capote relied on Lee not just for research, but also for characterization. “Nelle’s gift for creating character sketches turned out to complement Truman’s ability to recall remarks,” writes Shields, reporting on the duo’s first trip to Holcomb, Kan., to research the murders in 1959. “Many times over the next month, Capote’s telegraphic descriptions of a conversation would end with ‘See NL’s notes’ to remind him to use her insights later.”
The review also states, in reference to the recent film:
“Shields’ chapter on In Cold Blood is almost worth the price alone, and makes you wonder why the film’s producers didn’t comb Capote’s papers for material with Shields’ thoroughness.”
*Sigh*. Yet another book for the ‘To Read’ pile.
June 8th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
I have to put in cold blood on my read list. Harper Lee’s to kill a mockingbird is probably my favourite book of all time. Up there with 1984 and I got to do it in school. Then I also got to study the worst book of all time. No not the Bible Emma.
*Start Emma rant*
Emma is the most evil lot of paper ever.
Oh lets go have tea,
Oh she likes him,
Oh lets go for a picnic on box hill,
Oh Matron no reverand,
Isn’t tea drinking great
No she likes him,
Oh lets have a dance and drink tea,
Oh No I like him,
Lets have more tea
Oh good she likes the farmer and Darcy likes me,
Lets have tea
The END
*Emma Rant Off*
June 8th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Firstly Sinéad, you stole my prospective post, perhaps unknowingly, but shame on you anyway!
Secondly, In Cold Blood is terrific. Really terrific. I wish I could say I’d read it prior to seeing the film, but that wouldn’t be true. The film was affecting and exhausting, but the book actually made me cry. Not from sadness or pathos - although the book is hardly feel-good - but through some sort of dense intensity which just seemed perfectly constructed amd utterly poignant. Having read it, I bought Breakfast in Tiffany’s. Not as heavy, but it has that nice clever touch at the end. I mention Tiffany’s because I found the prose so similar to In Cold Blood. On that front, therefore, we should leave Capote alone. Still, I’d easily believe Lee deserves some credit for the text.
Third, I’ve remember reading a book review recently in which rumours that Capote composed substantial amounts of To Kill A Mockingbird were dispelled. Is this, by any chance, the same book?
Lee and Capote are an intriguing, if odd, coupling.
June 8th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Hey Sinead, it’s Kevin again. If you have the time at all, could you fix the queer grammatical structure I created in the last post - “I’ve remember”? What was I thinking?
Cheers!