Saturday 6 September 2008

In Bed with Murderers

After recently seeing the film Capote, I thought it was high time I read In Cold Blood. Before a late lunch and a bushwalk this afternoon, I lay curled up on the couch reading it.

Last year I read Tony Parker's fantastic book, Life After Life: Interviews with Twelve Murderers. It didn't take me long to finish; all I wanted to do was read it. "I'm going to bed with my murderers," I'd say to PJ before retiring with the book.

I am having a similar experience with In Cold Blood. I know what happens and how it ends, yet the writing is still so compelling. Oh the details! My favourite style of writing is Creative Nonfiction, and I can definitely see why Capote is called the grand daddy of the genre.

This is the rock that PJ and I sat on in the bush. We climbed a hill that overlooks the path I walk each morning and we sat in awe of where we live. We talked, among other things, about our writing in relation to the world, our output, our egos, our ideas. We talked about life during life and death during life and the ethics of Danish artist Marco Evaristti turning the body of a death row convict into fish food in the name of art.

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