.com Review An Best Book of the Month, March 2014: An epigraph from Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley says much about what’s to come in Walter Kirn’s remarkable confessional: “He was versatile, and the world was wide!” When Kirn first met Clark Rockefeller, he was smitten by the man’s wealth and eccentricities. Coming off a failed marriage (to the daughter of Thomas McGuane and Margot Kidder), Kirn was a bit of a wreck, as was Rockefeller. The two men were drawn to each other. As the friendship progressed--into some uneasy terrain--Kirn ignored the clues “spread out for [him] to read,” and plowed ahead to become a confidant and enabler. Except, it turns out, Clark wasn’t a Rockefeller at all. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter was, as Kirn puts it, “the most prodigious serial imposter in recent history.” He was also a murderer. So what did that make Kirn? “A fool,” he admits, “a stubborn fool.” This is a compulsively readable, can’t-look-away book and, ultimately, a brave piece of work. Kirn has laid himself bare: his failed marriage, his Ritalin reliance, his misguided allegiance to a sociopath. In exposing his own “ignorance and vanity,” what Kirn has really crafted here is the story of a bamboozled writer who for fifteen years ignored the big story right under his nose; who, in trusting his imposter friend, “violated my storyteller’s oath.” With Blood Will Out, Kirn has impressively restored his storyteller’s credentials. --Neal Thompson Read more From Booklist In The Journalist and the Murderer (1990), Janet Malcolm dissected journalist-subject dynamics. Here Kirn also covers that subject, but in the highly personal story of his being hoodwinked, professionally and emotionally, by a man he knew as Clark Rockefeller, a member of of the famously wealthy industrial, political, and banking family. Over the years, their often long-distance friendship faltered in suspicious ways, yet Kirn kept up hope, naively perhaps, considering the flaws and untruths he uncovered, disturbing occurrences Kirn chose to ignore. But when Kirn woke one morning to discover that his friend Clark was not even Clark, much less a Rockefeller, and going to be tried for a murder committed years ago, he decided to finally write about their relationship, questioning along the way journalistic integrity and the encounters between the subject and the writer. This tale’s a fascinating one (starting with Kirn’s road trip with a paralyzed dog) that is covered elsewhere (Mark Seal’s The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, 2011), but Kirn’s reflecting, musing, and personal dealings add a killer punch to this true-crime memoir. --Eloise Kinney Read more See all Editorial Reviews
B**B
Gutfeld is really funny, and Kirn is an occasional guest contributing thoughtful
Wow, what a story!I became familiar with Walter Kirn on the Greg Gutfeld show on Fox News Channel. Gutfeld is really funny, and Kirn is an occasional guest contributing thoughtful, and humorous comments. One night he plugged his new book, and since I enjoyed him on the show, I bought the Kindle book. It is well written, and I will probably buy more of his work.The story is as much a confessional as it is the story of a serial imposter and murderer. The astounding thing is that it is a true story, and I don't think I would have wanted my participation in the story told if I were Kirn. He is a writer, and I am not. While you are reading the book some of the characters assumed by the imposter will remind you of someone you know, or have known. For my part, I remember when I was a young, traveling salesman spending hours at bars trading stories with other hard drinking types. Some were so good at their stories that you would walk out believing they were true, even thought there were holes in the story. Kirn's subject is all these people rolled into one. Scary.
D**H
Blood certainly did tell on Clark Rockefeller! A liar's liar and conman extraordinaire.
This fascinating true crime tale says more about the author Walter Kirn than it does about its main character, Clark Rockefeller. Rockefeller was a pathological liar, a deceitful weaver of intricate lies, and ultimately a cold blooded murderer. Kirn falls for the smooth con man's string of lies and is sucked into the man's bizarre need for fame and fortune, falling repeatedly for tales of wealth and connections is high places where there were none. A fascinating true story about one man's obsessive need to be someone that he wasn't. Kirn tells his tale in a interesting manner and at times it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction and we, the reader, are also ultimately fooled by this pretender of a man. Certainly different than most True Crime books and I recommend it highly for those seeking something slightly different than the usual serial killer books.
D**N
huge dissapointment
Wow, what a dissapointing book. Here is a guy with the unique ability to actually report and get an insiders view of the ultimate con man and instead he talked mostly about himself and is own messed up life. The author apparently knows what reporting is, but didn't. He met this guy and his wife and when she testified in court instead of replying her testimony on top of his familiarity he brushes off her appearance in about two sentences. I stumbled across an interview on NPR and that was far more interesting than this book. Very little facts of the cases or for that matter any reporting on the many cases. But i do know how out of place he felt in college. THis book should be called something like, "my life as a fake and how i felt to be duped by a conman." if you want to know all about the conman who called himself Clark Rockafeller, this book will not give you the answers. Even the title is odd as there is little mention of the actual murder he committed. I followed the case in the papers and in a few magazine articles and that told more than this book.
A**R
Not What I Was Expecting...
Not a huge fan of this book. I was looking forward to it since I had watched the documentary on Clark Rockefeller multiple times on Netflix and love these kind of stories/documentaries. I felt the book concentrated a bit too much on the writer and not enough on Clark himself. I was expecting the author to delve further into his relationship with Clark for the reader since he had such an insider's look at the entire thing. The first 1/3 - 1/2 of the book was the author outlining himself and his family which if it was not a great deal of the book would've been fine in my opinion; However, when one buys a book about a specific topic or person, they expect the author would take them into that world in more detail than they are able to be involved in having not known the individual themselves. The author did do a good job talking about Clark when he did get into it, the book however felt more like an autobiography at points than it was more about who I came to read about which is why I only give it 3 stars. I will still check into Walter Kirn's other books and give him another chance.
A**.
Good epiphanies
Walter Kirn is obviously an extremely accomplished writer, however, I was not sure if his style and choice of (many many) adjectives throughout the book was on purpose or if that is just how he writes. With all due respect, to be extremely candid, I was a little annoyed here and there by the unnecessarily elaborate prose that would have been lyrical and mesmerising had it not crossed the line into "trying too hard." However, for the most part, there were parts where his self-discovery and epiphanies echoed to many people, including myself. I think this is a great experiential example of how people-pleasing and being an approval junkie may cause us to have blinders on, rationalize other people's strange behavior away, and how taking people at face value when we first meet them is a complete illusion and fantasy projection. And when we become disillusioned, then we gain wisdom, and better discernment to scrutinize what certain philosophers have labeled the most dangerous creature on this earth: human beings. Perhaps that is the true loss of innocence, and Clark Rockefeller was the fruit that many people tasted and then found themselves lost and cynical.I wish there had been more about Sandra Boss. I am hoping she will write a memoir of her nightmare with Chichester-Baronet XIII/Gehartstreiter/Smith/Rockefeller/etc etc. It would be a great cautionary tale for a lot of women who get fooled by con artists, which we now call Love Fraud.
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