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A review by kristinbutler
Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn
1.0
The entire time I read this book, I could not help thinking only a handful of gullible people would ever be hoodwinked by a character as pathetic and disturbing as "Clark Rockefeller". And Walter Kirn was one of them. In fact, the entire book appears to be a defense of his naïveté, meant to soothe his wounded ego at having been taken in by such a con artist. "Look", he seems to be saying " it wasn't just me! There were lots of us. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and people like me!" But the Stuart Smalley act can only go so far. It appears Kirn has spent the better half of his life playing the sycophant to the rich and famous at the expense of all common sense. And yet at the end of this book, where we wonder whether the narrator has any self awareness, I personally couldn't drum up much sympathy for him, as he continually denigrates others to boost his own ego.
Kirn portrays his serial fascination and intermittent brushes with the rich and famous as "friendship", even though he makes it clear he neither liked nor trusted "Rockefellor" during their 15 year acquaintance. He constantly derides his Preppy Princeton colleagues,while simultaneously coveting their lifestyles. He alludes that his failed marriage to a "teenager" was a matter of his being more "mature", when in fact, it is quite apparent that the marriage was precipitated by the authors' obsession with his wife's famous" parents, and ended most likely due to his Ritalin and alcohol addiction than to his moral and intellectual superiority over his teenage bride.
But my one real takeaway was....Yes. The law of attraction is real. Walter Kirn and "Clark Rockefellor" were meant to meet at some karmic level. For every successful psychopath, con artist and liar out there, there is an unsuspecting "victim" right around the corner. And let's hope with a little more self analysis and insight Mr Kirn may also learn to look in the rear view mirror before backing trucks over babies, wear weather appropriate gear and remembering where he parks when spontaneously cutting down trees in subzero temperatures, and review road signs when driving in unfamiliar locations. That common sense might come in handy some day, and is something they don't teach you at Princeton and Oxford.
Kirn portrays his serial fascination and intermittent brushes with the rich and famous as "friendship", even though he makes it clear he neither liked nor trusted "Rockefellor" during their 15 year acquaintance. He constantly derides his Preppy Princeton colleagues,while simultaneously coveting their lifestyles. He alludes that his failed marriage to a "teenager" was a matter of his being more "mature", when in fact, it is quite apparent that the marriage was precipitated by the authors' obsession with his wife's famous" parents, and ended most likely due to his Ritalin and alcohol addiction than to his moral and intellectual superiority over his teenage bride.
But my one real takeaway was....Yes. The law of attraction is real. Walter Kirn and "Clark Rockefellor" were meant to meet at some karmic level. For every successful psychopath, con artist and liar out there, there is an unsuspecting "victim" right around the corner. And let's hope with a little more self analysis and insight Mr Kirn may also learn to look in the rear view mirror before backing trucks over babies, wear weather appropriate gear and remembering where he parks when spontaneously cutting down trees in subzero temperatures, and review road signs when driving in unfamiliar locations. That common sense might come in handy some day, and is something they don't teach you at Princeton and Oxford.