The Gothic South Rises Again Apr 1, 2007
by AmateurHistorian
This was the book that made Truman Capote's initial reputation, and it has enjoyed a revival with all the films about Capote's In Cold Blood period. Unfortunately, it's one of those books that doesn't look quite so good in retrospect. It starts off fascinatingly, but then deteriorates into what nowadays looks like stereotyped Southern Gothic. Weird characters, weird settings, weird events, extremely unlikely coincidences, and dream sequences that increasingly don't get differentiated from "real" experience. By the end of the book the whole thing is pretty much a mess. Interesting to read as a period piece, but nowadays we wonder "What got everyone so excited about this the first time around?"
