Blood Will Out (Kirn) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[P]rimarily a tale of seduction. For 15 years, Mr. Kirn allowed himself to fall for the con man then calling himself Clark Rockefeller, certain that if he let their friendship persist, he’d find...a book in it.... There is the part of Mr. Kirn that will always be the Midwestern arriviste [who] sees The Great Gatsby around every corner; he’s certainly right in thinking of Clark as self-invented. As for The Talented Mr. Ripley, that works, too; this is a book about a man who will do anything to steal others’ identities, no matter what it takes to get those others out of his way.


Walter Kirn’s latest book is bound to be shelved in the crime section. But it’s actually about class.... In this smart, real-life psychological thriller, the fake Rockefeller is a zombie Gatsby and Kirn the post-apocalyptic Fitzgerald, chronicling upper-crust America in free fall.... In the end, his book isn’t about the fake Rockefeller but about the mysteries of Kirn’s—and by extension, our—response to him.
Nina Burleigh - New York Times Book Review


[A] fascinating account of the imposter he considered his friend for 10 years… Blood Will Out is an exploration of a hoaxer from the point of view of a mark, and of a relationship based on interlocking deceptions and self-deceptions. The result is a moral tale about the dangers of social climbing on a rickety ladder—for both those trying to scramble up the rungs and those trying to hold it steady below.
Heller McAlpin - Washington Post


Riveting and disturbing, Blood Will Out is a mélange of memoir, stranger-than-fiction crime reporting and cultural critique. The literary markers run the gamut from James Ellroy’s My Dark Places, and Fyodor Doestoevsky’s Crime and Punishment to Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley trilogy and Strangers on a Train. Kirn’s self-lacerating meditations on class, art, vanity, ambition, betrayal and delusion elevate the material beyond its pulpy core… Kirn’s belated acceptance of reality provides the most fascinating and frustrating element of this engaging, self-flagellating memoir.
Larry Lebowitz - Miami Herald


One of the most honest, compelling and strangest books about the relationship between a writer and his subject ever penned by an American scribe… Each new revelation comes subtly, and each adds to the pathetic and creepy portrait of Clark Rockefeller as a vacuous manipulator… The ending of Blood Will Out is at once deeply ambiguous and deeply satisfying. By then, Kirn has looked into the eyes of a cruel, empty man—and learned a lot about himself in the process.
Hector Tobar - Los Angeles Times


Kirn is such a good writer and Gerhartsreiter such a baroquely, demonically colorful subject, you could imagine this being a fine read had they no personal connection. That they did, however, elevates Blood Will Out to another level: Kirn lards his story with detail while reviewing his own psyche, in an attempt to discover how he—a journalist!—could have been so fooled. The irony? With all due respect to Kirn's skills as a novelist, it is hard to conceive of any fictionalized version of ''Clark Rockefeller'' being as compelling as the real thing.
Clark Collis - Entertainment Weekly


Kirn bravely lays bare his own vanities and follies in this heart-pounding true tale; he examines the hold of fiction on the human imagination—how we live for it and occasionally die for it, too.
Judith Newman - More Magazine


The story of Blood Will Out is one of cosmic ironies and jaw-dropping reversals… What makes Blood Will Out so absorbing is its teller more than its subject. Kirn’s persona is captivating—funny, pissed off, highly literate, and self-searching. He’s also an elegant, classic writer… Add the highly readable, intricately told Blood Will Out to the list of great books about the dizzying tensions of the writing life and the maddening difficulty of getting at the truth.
Amity Gaige - Slate


In the summer of 1998, Kirn....entered a wild and murky 15-year friendship with the man who called himself "Clark Rockefeller"—a man who would eventually be the target of a nationwide FBI manhunt and charged with murder.... Kirn’s candor, ear for dialogue, and crisp prose make for a masterful true crime narrative that is impossible to put down. The book deserves to become a classic.
Publishers Weekly


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, nascetur neque iaculis vestibulum, sed nam arcu et, eros lacus nulla aliquet condimentum, mauris ut proin maecenas, dignissim et pede ultrices ligula elementum. Sed sed donec rutrum, id et nulla orci. Convallis curabitur mauris lacus, mattis purus rutrum porttitor arcu quis
Library Journal


The complicated, credulity-straining relationship between the author and his subject leaves the reader wondering about both of them. This is a book about two very strange characters. One is best known as Clark Rockefeller, "the most prodigious serial imposter in recent history".... The other is Kirn a respected journalist and novelist.... A book that casts long-form narrative journalism in general, and Kirn's in particular, in an unflattering light.
Kirkus Reviews