Well written. Amazing story. Heartbreaking. ( )

This is a CD I bought at Amoeba records. The front is a photo of the young boys; the back is a song listing, underneath the following words:
"This is a sampling of the music that has played in my head over the years in relation to my memory of my family and my experience of its history." --Mikal Gilmore
(inside he writes, "...I was different from them...I would escape. I now know better. To believe that the worst of our rot had died with him that morning in Draper, Utah, was to miss the real nature of the legacy that had placed him before those rifles.")

Gloria........Patti Smith
Drive Back.......Neil Young
Folsom Prison Blues......Johnny Cash
Ode to Billy Joe.......Bobby Gentry
Old Shep.......Elvis Presley
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.......Bob Dylan
Kill Your Sons......Lou Reed
A Howlin' Wind......Graham Parker
A Family Affair.......Sly and Family Stone
One Way Out......The Allman Brothers
Valley of Tears......Fats Domino
Feel Like Going Home.......Charlie Rich
Gary Gilmore's Eyes......The Adverts
I Can't Help Wondering......Kitty Wells
Blue Moon Revisited......The Cowboy Junkies
I Won't Back Down.......Johnny Cash
I Wonder if I Care as Much......The Everly Brothers
My Father's House......Bruce Springsteen

I'm not exactly sure what I expected in picking up this book--or even how it got onto my shelf. This is the memoir of Mikal Gilmore, brother of the infamous murderer Gary Gilmore who was killed by firing squad in 1977, later being the focus of Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. The memoir focuses especially on the childhood of the brothers and their family situation, and Gary's eventual crimes as an adult are only a small portion of the book, though they haunt the earlier text.

This will appeal more to readers of memoir than readers of true crime and books related to crime/violence. Gilmore's a good writer, but has a way of stretching things out, and especially the beginning of the book was a really slow read for me. On a surface level, I suppose one could say that this looks at the psychology of a broken family and how a killer became a killer... but it really is a surface examination. I do think it could be interesting to read The Executioner's Song after reading this work, and plan to one of these days, but I believe this book was really more self-therapy for the writer than anything, and it read as such. ( )

A great companion to "executioner's song" that augments the gilmore story from a family perspective. Re-raises the notion that 23 years in jail doesn't make anyone a better person. ( )

The story of Gary Gilmore written by his brother, Mikal. After reading about the man that made headlines when I was in high school (by being executed) it was interesting to read about his life. It really is sad and tragic- all that Gary suffered at the hands of his father. It really is no wonder he ended up a murderer who wanted to be executed. He had no self esteem and the only attention in his whole life was negative. ( )