Customer Reviews

Shot in the Heart

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As someone who grew up in Provo, Utah, the site of one of Gary Gilmore's murders, I was aware of his infamy during my youth in that staunch Mormon community. I faintly remember the hype surrounding his execution, as well as the premiere of "The Executioner's Song" years later. Perhaps it is emblematic of one's youth, but I don't think I took his crimes or emotional composition seriously. In fact, after watching "The Executioner's Song" on television, my friends and I took a drive to the motel where Gilmore murdered a desk clerk; we did it more for the sensation of being at the scene of the past crime than to commemorate the victim or to ponder the mind of the killer.

Fortunately, years later, I was able to read "Shot in the Heart," which still carries a strong emotional impact many years after the reading. Mikal Gilmore's recollections, insight, and unflinching writing create one of the most powerful books I've ever read.

Gilmore opens the door to a home that transcends the labels "dysfunctional" or "abusive." He takes us inside the house--and sometimes the heads--of those who lived a nightmare, and shows, among other things, how that experience caused one of his brothers to bury his emotions and become a lonely wanderer while it pushed another into a life of delinquency, crime, and murder. The book is a fascinating, first-hand study of the impact of the family dynamic, social and religious judgement, and civic injustice on the lives of an unassuming American family.

I sometimes scoff at the preponderance of five-star reviews on Amazon, but I cannot recommend this title more.

Once upon a time, there was a family named Gilmore. This family had four children: Frank, Jr.; Gaylen; Gary; and Mikal, the youngest. Gary became famous in 1977 when he challenged the federal and state capital punishment machinery and forced them to carry out the death sentence imposed upon him for the murders of two young Mormon men in Utah. He wanted death by firing squad and would settle for nothing less. Even the efforts of civil rights groups on his behalf impressed him not: he wanted to die and he scornfully dismissed their legal maneuverings. On January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore got what he wanted: he was executed by a Utah firing squad, thus ushering in America's active revival of the death penalty. Yet, Gary Gilmore was a person shaped by the events of his formative years and by the events which took place in his family. The Gilmore family was not a fairy-tale family: rather, it defined the word "disfunctional". The father, Frank, Sr., beat the mother, Bessie, in front of the children on more than one occasion. He beat the boys, too, reserving the worst of the white-hot heat of his inner anger for Gary. Gary's violent acts, and the fate he suffered, prove once more that it is the children who often pay for the sins of the parents. In this case, a child paid the ultimate price. Today, two of the brothers are living and two are dead (Gaylen died in 1971 from complications from a stabbing in Chicago). In Shot In The Heart, Gary's brother, Mikal, a well-known writer for Rolling Stone magazine, breaks the silence and tells the story of the family's violent, abnormal history. With brutal honesty and candid, painful insight, he speaks for both the living and the dead. Psychologists say that people doing so-called "grief work" following the death of a loved one must "tell the tale" of the loved one's life over and over in order to come to terms with their loss and what that loss means for those left behind. Mikal Gilmore neither condones the players in this tragic story, nor rationalizes the things they do to one another. He simply tells the tales not only of Gary, but also Frank, Sr., Bessie and the other children, with dignity and compassion, while the sorrow and pain bleed through every word, every page. One is tempted to think that the events related here are the product of some highly creative and immensely gifted writer and, in fact, they are: however, they are all true. Aye, there's the rub. If there is anything good to be produced from this horrific family tree, it is the author himself. Despite his past, he emerged a survivor with a rare and shining talent - the ability to make you feel each word he writes, whether his subject is himself or another family member. Shot In The Heart should be required reading and I dare anyone to put it down until the last ghostly memory has been read on the last page of the last chapter. The text is augmented by family photographs and conversations with other players in the saga of Gary Gilmore, including his girlfriend, Nicole. The most touching aspect, however, is the inclusion of some of Gary's own artwork, which often depicted children with huge, mournful eyes staring into space. There is something missing about these children; it's as though they are searching for something they don't have. Self-portraits? Undoubtedly.

Having read several family memoirs (most recently The Liars Club and All Over but the Shoutin', both of which I highly recommend) I feel this book is in a league all its own. Extremely sad and thought provoking, Mikal Gilmore has given us a page-turning saga of a family in crisis and also a glimpse of life within the Mormon church. This is a book that has stayed with me long after I turned the last page.

I have given and recommended this book to countless friends, and return to read it when my soul needs nourishment. Gilmore's book is one of those rare artifacts that live and breathe on its own. This is less a book than a living piece of music, one whose beauty is not bright and cheery yet whose light shines fiercely and passionately. Shot in the Heart astonishes me not only for the story it has to tell, but the craft with which the author has captured, and transcended his tale. He has transformed his family history into a gift for every reader.

It took many years for writer Mikal Gilmore,youngest brother of Gary Gilmore,to decide to tell the story of the Gilmore family.Grappling with haunting ghosts of his past to try to dig deep to unravel the mystery of the crimes within his family,starting with his father,brothers Gaylen,& Gary;he tells a compelling story,that makes the reader hunger for more.
The book starts out with Mikal delving into the history of the Mormon religion to illustrate some points about his Mother's background,& the practice of blood atonement being the ultimate forgiveness of sins.The rest of the book is a chronicle of lives of his family members beginning with his mother's roots & upbringing,her meeting Frank Gilmore Sr.,& the events that unfurled during their marriage & as their boys came to be: Frank Jr.,Gary,Gaylen,& Mikal.It's a haunting story of crime,family violence,distance,& Mikal's eventual coming to terms with his roots.
A good majority of the story is about Mikal's brother Gary.Eleven years senior from Mikal,hence the distanced relationship as Gary spent many years in a reform school for boys,& lengthy periods in jail,before his release in April 1976.It was the summer of 1976 that Gary came unglued - following the breakup of his girlfriend Nicole, in a killing spree,on two subsequent nights that took the lives of two young Mormon men.Gary was captured the next day,& sentenced in October of that year to the death penalty which he refused all appeals for & lobbied for the expediency of the sentence,following a 16 year moratorium of the death penalty which was reinstated that year.
Mikal opens a pandoras box as he goes back to that time to talk about the murders,& his visits with Gary on death row.
This book was beautifully written,sensitive,& compelling.It was difficult for me to put it down.It explained a great deal about how a negative, violent family environment can play a role in criminal behaviour.Gary once called himself 'The Eternal Recidivist',& after reading about some of the goings on in that house,it was easy to see how he & his brother Gaylen got mixed up in criminal activity,especially with a criminal father.
After reading 'The Executioner's Song' by Norman Mailer,the chronicle of the events of the summer of 1976 to the execution of Gilmore in 1977,I thought this book was a good follow up & a must read.Mikal also extolts the virtues of Mailers book & recommend it as reading,as the book was a factual non judgemental account of his brother.
I give this book 2 thumbs up & highly recommend it!

This is one of the most intense and moving books I have ever read. Gilmore manages to describe his horrific childhood without bitterness, a feat that alone elevates the book to greatness. Gilmore is also a masterful prose stylist -- clean, direct, and elegant. This book deserves all five stars and more.

If he never writes another book, it doesn't matter; Mikal Gilmore has written the book he was meant to write. In the genre of memoirs, confessions, meditations written by friends or relations close to notorious chapters in the history of American crime & punishment, this will stand out, almost alone, for its transparency, humility and emotional shrewdness. His story is tragic, harrowing and necessary. It starts in a dream and takes on the qualities of myth. Gilmore's story will stay with you, always.

Mikal Gilmore has written a few other titles since Shot in the Heart, but none compare to this autobiographical account of a family tragedy that embodies the term dysfunctional. Of course, the primary reason why Mikal wrote the book and one reason it grabbed initial readers was the fact that Mikal's brother was Gary Gilmore, killer who demanded execution for his murders in 1977.
It is obvious from the start that Mikal is an experienced writer and his skill is only made that much more starkly evident in the telling of a story so poignant and personally revealing. It also adds to the quality of the book that the author doesn't constantly emote or attempt to excuse or explain the hows and whys of his family's problems. Of the four brothers, the oldest seems to eventually fade into oblivion, the two middle brothers turn to wildness and crime, and Mikal chooses to break the mold and pursue his dream constructively. It is also evident that by the time Mikal was born there had been some level of parental mellowing and he was not the brunt of constant abuse and violence.
This is a 400-page book but it doesn't seem like it. It grabs the reader and moves quickly so that the reader is suddenly aware that the book is completed while he still wants more. Even if you didn't read Executioner's Song, read this book, and thank God if your family life is even borderline healthy.

I am a voracious reader and have been all of my life. I have never read a better book, either fiction or non-fiction. I too was the abused child of a family full of secrets never disclosed. This book was full of staggering insight for me. I had read 'The Executioner's Song' in high school, and can still remember the controversy surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore in 1975, while I was in grade school. This book tells a much different story, of all the years leading up to those murders and ultimately, the execution. Mikal Gilmore is an engaging story teller. While he has no sympathy for his brother's criminal acts, or his father's abuse of his wife and children, he has a great deal of empathy for the people they were before they became the men that they did. He is good at describing the impact of a person's actions, even generations later. In a way, Gary Gilmore's actions had been set in stone before he was ever born. I think this book is a must read for anyone who has been abused and who has gone on to have his/her own children, or even before ever having those children. I wish Mikal Gilmore would write more about his family and this subject.

Shot in the Heart is a harrowing tale of growing up in the dysfunctional family that produced the infamous killer Gary Gilmore. It's a riveting tale that will remain with the reader long after he or she has finished the book.

There is, however, a strange discrepancy in this work. The author, who wrote for Rolling Stone magazine, touches on the tragic death of John Lennon and how this senseless killing affected him. He then says that his mother, knowing that the author greatly admired Lennon, telephoned him the day after Lennon's death to offer some words of comfort. A few pages later, however, the author mentioned that his mother died in June 1980-almost six months before Lennon was killed.

Is this a mere typographical error, or is something weirder going on? Much earlier in the book, the author relates how his mother told him that she was traumatized as a young girl because her father once forced her to view a public hanging in Utah-in fact, his mother told her sons many stories about executions. The author goes on to say, however, that his mother could not have witnessed this hanging because "(t)here were no semi-public executions in Utah after about 1919, when (his) mother would have been six years old." And it should also be noted that nightmares, ghosts, and a Ouija board make appearances in Shot in the Heart.

Is the past being repeated here? Does Mikal Gilmore believe he spoke to his mother six months after her death-or are we just dealing with a careless editor?

Editing notwithstanding, Shot in the Heart is a compelling memoir. It could be read as a companion piece to Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven-also an outstanding read.