It is debatable whether Truman Capote used words or flesh and bones in order to construct his characters. I was not shocked upon learning that the book’s events actually took place at some point in the 1950’s. The sublime narration and effervescent descriptions were surreally real, too good not to be true. If you want to escape real life without so much escaping its normal settings, if you want characters that transcend papers limitations, characters whose breaths you can almost feel against your cheeks, then In Cold Blood is your safest bet.

“Why worry? What was there to ‘sweat about’? Man was nothing, a mist, a shadow absorbed by shadows.”