6. read a review

"...you have written a dull unreadable book which could have been written by any staff writer on the New Yorker — (an undercover reactionary periodical dedicated to the interests of vested American wealth). You have placed your services at the disposal of interests who are turning America into a police state by the simple device of deliberately fostering the conditions that give rise to criminality and then demanding increased police powers and the retention of capital punishment to deal with the situation they have created. You have betrayed and sold out the talent that was granted you by this department. That talent is now officially withdrawn. Enjoy your dirty money. You will never have anything else. You will never write another sentence above the level of In Cold Blood. As a writer you are finished. Over and out. Are you tracking me? Know who I am? You know me, Truman. You have known me for a long time. This is my last visit."

July 23, 1970
William Burroughs



This letter-review written by one of the major American writers of the postmodernist's era to Capote. Probably the most personal and devastating review ever.  I won't judge the judgment of one of the great writer to another great writer my knowledge in literature is not enough, but I do not share this opinion, I think this book neither dull nor unreadable.
By the way it's curious the critics say ''in the cold blood'' is a culmination of Truman's creative life and he had never excelled himself anymore, so those proved to be Burroughs' words oracular