What a relief!

Well first i am totally relieved to have finally finished it! I dont know whether it was because i kept reading it when i was tired or otherwise but I'm sorry to say i found the last quarter of the book really boring! While i'm not totally in agreeance with Jess I found that the ending really dragged out and had quite a few aspects that really irritated me...Overall i decided that i think the story of Capote writing the book was more interesting than the story itself. While i haven't seen any of the movies about Capote himself i think its an interesting concept that he went to Holcomb before the murders were actually solved to write the story and like Gita i would have liked to have heard more of his "voice" , discussing how he sought out the people in the town and perhaps even their reactions to him. Was he just part of the problem that the town complained about, wanting to move on etc and get on with their lives. I know if a family i was close to had been murdered, having a writer in the town pursuing a 'story' would have been pretty trying. I also would like to know Perry and Dick's feelings towards Capote...did the fact he was writing a book about them give them a sense of immortality and fame that they knew would go on after they were executed??

I found the descriptions of Perry and Dick's lives moderately interesting, to me Dick seemed like so much more the 'bad guy' whereas i guess Perry was more scary in a sneaky kind of way. The type of person you might have a reasonably normal conversation before finding out he had just murdered someone...maybe thats what led to my nightmare of him hacking someone to pieces on my front porch! I did however find the descriptions from the psychologists a bit dull and almost as if it was from a psychology text book (unloved child--not given boundaries and role models-- lacks social skills--hurts animals--kills people) but maybe, as has been said by you all, that our views on violence and so different to when this all happened, we all have a greater understanding of what may lead people to react in such a way and that 'modern day murders' whether real or on the tele contain more twists and depth and therefore this story doesn't capture our attention....

I'm finding it really hard to write my ideas...its much easier chatting and bouncing ideas off one another but i think it's totally sweet that you've all posted!! Cheers to the superfriends!!