currently reading

It reads like a really long New Yorker article. I kept reading it because it's supposed to be good, but it's not really in a style that I usually enjoy. It's like Citizen Kane -- you need something to explain why it's good, or you might miss it. (at least, for me). It's historically important because no one had been writing nonfiction like this before. But now this style of nonfiction is so common, that there is nothing special about this book. It's like reading the Lord of the Rings and thinking how unoriginal it is -- it was strikingly original when it first came out, but now it has been mimicked so many times that its greatness will only be appreciated by those who are familiar with the history of the genre.

I picked this up at the Meetup last night and I'm adding it to the pile of "Books picked up at the Meetup that I'm sure I will read someday, really, I mean it."

Reading this scared me half to death at times, esp. when I read it about midnight. However, it is well-written and very compelling. I don't normally read true crime so I don't know the genre but the delicate balance between the horror of the crimes and the life and personalities of the killers was well done. Caopte doesn't judge any of them but lets the story speak for itself. The very end was esp. poignant.

RELEASE NOTES:

For Meetup