Capote in Kansas [Broché]

It's 1959 and Truman Capote is looking for a challenging project. A story about an unsolved crime in Kansas sends him and assistant Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird) on a transforming journey. This graphic novel gives a fictionalized account of Capote's time in Kansas researching the Clutter family murders for his groundbreaking In Cold Blood. Once at the crime scene, the flamboyant Capote must learn to fit in with the locals and find a way to get inside the crime. Writer Parks's last book, Union Station, was another true crime tale, and he has done his research for this, but he also introduces several unreal elements, including the ghost of 16-year-old murder victim Nancy Clutter, who becomes a confidante for Capote as the tale goes on. The book attempts to deal with the writer's ambivalence over his involvement in the aftermath of the crime, but the sometimes flat script isn't done any favors by the art, which has a good sense of place but a poor grasp of likenesses, making the characters often difficult to identify. Capote was a complicated, colorful figure, but this book only scratches the surface of the demons that drove him. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

Grade 10 Up–Cleverly reprising the genre blur that Truman Capote created when he wrote In Cold Blood as a nonfiction novel, Parks and Samnee present and represent the author's fact-gathering trip to the Midwest in the early 1960s, traveling with his soon-to-become-famous friend Harper Lee. There he dealt with locals who found his New York City flair and personal foppishness either silly or offensive, interviewed the Clutter family's murderers, and struggled with memories of his own awkward childhood. Samnee's black-and-white art captures both the internal and external lights and shadows of small-town America–its diner, prison cells, neighborhhoods–and Capote's own psychology–his admiration and jealousy of Lee, his memories of boyhood, his loneliness far from his adult home. In keeping with the more-than-fact angle of this graphic novel, a sweet girl ghost floats through these pages as well, a reminder of the humanity behind the story that increased its author's stature in the world of letters.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

Capote in Kansas is spellbinding, an Eisner-worthy accomplishment that should be on everyone's reading lists. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

It's a moving piece of work, a true testament to the power of words and pictures, when combined as one. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

Murder. Not intricately plotted "whodunit." Not fiery passionate fury. But dirty, sad, disturbing actions from real people.

That's what Truman Capote decided to use for In Cold Blood-his bold experiment in the realm of the non-fiction "novel." Following in that legacy is Capote in Kansas, a fictionalized tale of Capote's time in Middle America researching his classic book. Capote's struggles with the town, the betrayal, and his own troubled past make this book a compelling portrait of one of the greatest literary talents of the 20th century. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

Fourth Rail:

"With Samnee's amazing artwork and Parks' ability to craft a fully realized world and cast of characters, Capote in Kansas is spellbinding, an Eisner-worthy accomplishment that should be on everyone's reading lists."

Ninth Art:

"What makes CAPOTE IN KANSAS work is that it focuses on one particular aspect of the tale - how Capote was able to construct the narrative of IN COLD BLOOD. The question posed by the graphic novel is doubtlessly one that the creators had to ask themselves: How do you do justice to a story? What sacrifices do you have to make to find a story in the complexities of everyday life? And, in the end, what price do you pay for telling the tale?"

"A major factor in CAPOTE IN KANSAS' success is Chris Samnee's art... this book signals his arrival as a major talent."

Read About Comics:

"Capote in Kansas: it's entrancing, something that you can't tear yourself away from even as it unfolds towards its inevitable conclusion."

Precocious Curmudgeon:

"Is it strange to praise a graphic novel for its restraint? ...it's a quality that I genuinely admire, and in the case of Capote in Kansas, it makes for deeply satisfying reading." --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .