Reviews

Ce court roman de Capote est ma première approche du personnage, avant d’attaquer De sang froid, qui est dans ma PAL depuis longtemps.
Bref et intense, ce récit assez dépouillé est majoritairement composé de dialogues. Truman Capote rend visite à Jack Pepper, homme simple mais obstiné, qui enquête depuis des années sur une série de meurtres. Convaincu d’avoir LE coupable, mais manquant de la moindre preuve concrète, Jack Pepper en fait une affaire personnelle, et finit par fréquenter son suspect. La situation est étrange, l’accusateur qui sympathise avec le coupable présumé, mais que tout le monde respecte. Un suspect qui se lie volontiers avec l’homme dont l’unique but est de prouver sa culpabilité. Situation peu voire pas crédible, si on ne tient pas compte des non-dits, des regards en dessous et des faux-fuyants. On sait, mais on ne dit pas. Le charisme du suspect et sa réputation lui valent la sympathie et le soutien de ses concitoyens. Les relations entre Pepper et le narrateur Capote s’estompent au fil du temps. Pepper étant peu à peu écarté de l’affaire, et Capote accaparé par ses propres occupations. La fin du roman rassemble des notes extraites du journal de Capote et résume une plus longue période en quelques pages. Le dénouement peu surprendre et frustrer, car on reste dans le non-dit, le non-aveu, et finalement, on ne sait pas !
Cette histoire troublante et le style de l’auteur m’ont fortement donné envie de me mettre enfin à son autre roman De sang froid.

taliaa_'s review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

marionimbach's review

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dark tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

3.0

briannexmorgan's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I was left thinking about this book for days after I was finished! I loved it and definitely recommend.

auntie_terror's review against another edition

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4.0

The finale was decidedly haunting. [Prtf]

2000ace's review

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5.0

Handcarved Coffins was originally published in the December, 1979 issue of Andy Warhol's Interview, in a column entitled, "Conversations with Capote." Through a law enforcement officer he met while working in one unnamed state (probably Kansas), Capote was introduced to Jake Pepper, a detective employed by the state bureau of investigation in another unnamed state. Pepper contacted Capote because he thought the case he was working on might be of interest. Three years later, Capote came to the town where Pepper was working, and learned details about one of the most bizarre strings of murders ever experienced in any small town anywhere.

Several local people received tiny handcarved coffins made of balsa wood. Inside, the erstwhile victim found a candid snapshot of him or herself that had been taken without their knowledge. Even though a few recipients showed their strange artifacts to others around town, including police officers, no one knew what they meant.

Nine months after showing his handcarved coffin to Jake Pepper, a farmer was beheaded by razor wire strung across the road at exactly the correct height, so that when he drove his homemade jeep with no windshield by a particular spot, pffffft. No head. A lawyer and his wife got in their car to go to work, and were attacked by nine rattlesnakes that had been given shots of adrenaline. Another couple burned to death in a fire, along with friends who were visiting for Christmas. The town coroner, a flinty, dried-up little man who kept a beautiful wife at home strung out on morphine, was poisoned with liquid nicotine.

The identity of the killer and his motivation for murdering such a disparate group of people by such bizarre methods are equally fascinating. While this is not Capote's finest work, it is an absorbing piece of American journalism. Written in a style that is part redaction, part stage direction, and part great-American-novelist-at-work, this is a story that the reader will never forget.

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