Shot in the Heart

By: Mikal Gilmore

Narrated by: Will Patton

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A murder tale "from inside the house where murder is born." Haunting, harrowing, and profoundly affecting, Shot in the Heart exposes and explores a dark vein of American life that most of us would rather ignore. It is a book that will leave no listener unchanged.

Gary Gilmore, the infamous murderer immortalized by Norman Mailer in The Executioner's Song, campaigned for his own death and was executed by firing squad in 1977. Writer Mikal Gilmore is his younger brother. In Shot in the Heart, he tells the stunning story of their wildly dysfunctional family: their mother, a black sheep daughter of unforgiving Mormon farmers; their father, a drunk, thief, and con man. It was a family destroyed by a multigenerational history of child abuse, alcoholism, crime, adultery, and murder.

Mikal, burdened with the guilt of being his father's favorite and the shame of being Gary's brother, gracefully and painfully relates his story "from inside the house where murder is born... a house that, in some ways, [he has] never been able to leave." Shot in the Heart is the history of an American family inextricably tied up with violence, and the story of how the children of this family committed murder and murdered themselves in payment for a long lineage of ruin.

©1994 Mikal Gilmore (P)1994 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, All Rights Reserved

Critic reviews

1994, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Winner

"One of the most beautifully written, moving nonfiction books published in the past five years." -- Deidre Donahue, USA Today.

"Remarkable, astonishing... Shot in the Heart reads like a combination of Brothers Karamazov and a series of Johnny Cash ballads... chilling, heartbreaking, and alarming." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.

"Mesmerizing... riveting and immensely moving... Shot in the Heart is a gesture of sustained courage that just happens to be a page-turner." -- Daphne Merkin, The New Yorker.

Why is it abridged??!

I read this (physical) book about 20 years ago when it first came out and I loved it. I didn’t remember many of the details so I wanted to listen to it. I can’t imagine why they abridged this - who does that anymore?? But what they left out was the full backstory about the family and their Mormon roots, as well as the stories of the non-Gary brothers. I understand why they did that if they were abridging, but it added so much more weight to each death, why Gary chose a firing squad, the (metaphorical) ghosts that haunted each of them, etc.

I hope they do a full production — but with a different narrator. I love Will Patton and have listened to him narrate many books, but he phoned this one in. There was barely an inflection anywhere in 3 hours.

I'm glad its shortNo

I wanted to like this book. It reminds me because of the time period, of In Cold Blood a little bit. that the stories are similar, but the time period. What got annoying about the book was that the author tries to hard to be spooky. He consistently talks about his dreams and ghosts. I didn't care after a while. I went into this book without knowing anything about the case and still didn't know much about what had happened until the book's close. I give it three stars, because the narration was good. And its not horrible. And I think some people might like it although I did not.

this came very close to home...

This book is a classic when read by this narrator. I live in this area and actually know people that knew this family, but even without this personal element factored in, I think this is a great story.

This audio book would be perfect if it wasn't abridged!!!

I read this book years ago, it was so good I read it more then once, so I was so excited when I found the audiobook available on audible, and I was even more excited when I realized that Will Patton was the narrator, he is one of my favorite narrators and does an excellent job reading this book too. But the party was over when I realized that this audible edition is abridged!!!! There is so much material missing. I was so dissapointed! I don't understand why anyone ever thinks it's a good idea to remove part of a book. I don't care if I have to pay more, or if the book costs less for an abridged version. I want the book in it's entirety. I hope audible will offer this title unabridged, soon. This is a very interesting book written by Garey Gilmore's brother, Mikal Gilmore, about growing up in their violent, disfuntional family. Read The Executioners Song, which audible has, unabridged, about Gary Gilmore, who killed two men and then fought for his right to die, written by Norman Mailer. Both books are excellent, but like I said, this version of Shot In The Heart is abridged....sigh.....very, very bad audible.com. Don't cheat us, we want our audio books uncut!! At least I do.......

too bad it's abridged

This is the first audiobook I ever read, but since then I have heard hundreds. It remains one of my favorites, although I believe it is a crime to abridge books, and didn't realize they did such a thing when I bought it years ago. Mikal Gilmore is a wonderful writer, and the story of his family is haunting and transfixing. He paints a portrait of his family, beginning with his mysterious paternal grandmother and his mother's mormon family in Utah, and reviewing the physical and psychological destruction that follows. It is far better than any Stephen King novel, and it is the true story of a family, told by its only successful member.

Excellent

I've listened to this audiobook 3 times already. It's fascinating and sad. I wish there was an unabridged version.

Punch in the Gut

This book is not everyone's cup of tea, but if you are looking for something that is haunting and heart rending this is it. While The Executioner's Song is the definitive story of Gary Gilmore's crimes and events that lead to his death, this is the definitive story of the demons that lived in the heart of each of the Gilmore boys. I especially appreciated the discussion of blood atonement and Gilmore's inherent need to bleed for his sins. The only thing that made me upset was realizing this is an ABRIDGED version!

Sad Story

Would you consider the audio edition of Shot in the Heart to be better than the print version?

The audio version was moving because it tells a family story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was the author. He had a lot of loss, but still got into the "causes" within his family and the tragedies that occurred. He had a lot of insight but appeared to obtain this it only because he was a victim of all of it.

Which character – as performed by Will Patton – was your favorite?

The author - Mikal Gilmore - most of us knew about his famous brother, but not about him.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Shot in the Heart

Shorten version

I actually got this to follow along with the book and HUGE chunks were missing, which really confused me and eventually I put the book down to just listen to this version.

IfYou want to understand family dysfunction....

Shot in the Head is an insightful, beautifully told true story of an incredibly dysfunctional, weird family. Mikal Gilmore is a great writer and gives psychological insights that are rare even in a trained psychiatrist/psychologist. The reader is wonderful, and you would believe he is Mikal Gilmore himself, he reads with such sensitivity and mood. My only regret is that it is abridged. The book is a wonderful supplant to Mailer's book, Executioner's Song, delving into Gary Gilmore's parents and family dynamics.