Shot in the Heart

By: Mikal Gilmore

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 19 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

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 a murder tale "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)2019 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"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)

One of the best books I’ve ever read

I loved this book when it first came out a couple of decades ago. I was excited to see it on audible and revisit the story. Amazingly beautiful writing, yet straightforward and not excessively wordy. Every word means something. Captivating story, draws you in and locks you there. It’s so honest, thoughtful, heartbreaking. Can’t recommend this book enough.

This Really Hurt My Heart

I don't know where to begin...........
Mikal Gilmore, the author, was given quite a burden to bear and probably will carry it for the rest of his life, only because of the
family he was born into. I hope I'm wrong about the burden never leaving. He deserves to have it lifted once and for all.

I just read The Executioner's Song and this book puts that whole saga in perspective.

Throughout the book I kept trying to figure out how one family could spawn 2 wonderful sons and 2 others so very different. With the exception of Mikal, the Gilmore brothers were badly mistreated by a father I wouldn't wish on anyone. Yet, Mikal and Frank turned out to be so kind and caring. Of course, I have no idea why as I'm not a psychologist and I'm not even sure they would know. Frank was brutalized yet he turned out so well. Mikal wasn't physically brutalized but very much so psychologically. This is a great mystery to me.

I had a hard time trying to figure out their mother. She obviously loved her sons and didn't mistreat them but the family dynamics were toxic. As a Mom of 3 boys I really felt for her though.

Mikal Gilmore didn't write this book to elicit sympathy for Gary or for himself. He is merely explaining the story of his family. I am not in the sorry camp for Gary but it really bothers me how badly he was treated growing up. No child should have to go through that. While they don't all become murderers it does affect the psyche profoundly.

The narrator does a good job with a very sad subject. This is the first I've heard of him as I recall.

I'm so glad I bought this book. It was very sad but a very powerful story. I wish Mikal all the very best.

Suggestion: figure out how to pronounce Oregon

I like true crime, had vaguely heard of the book The Executioner's Song, and even know a little bit about the history of the death penalty in the United States but I knew literally nothing about Gary Gilmore. His being, albeit briefly, the most famous murderer in America, was news to me.

So I picked this up with a lot of interest and although it was a bit long and dragged in parts, I mostly enjoyed it. This is more the story of the whole Gilmore clan than the story of one man and his crimes. Maybe I will real The Executioner's Song next and that would probably be the better choice for anyone who wants less background more details of the crime.

But the narration! I didn't find it particularly engaging but it got the job done for the first part of the book. Then the family moves to Oregon, which I had to hear the narrator mispronounce over and over and over again. Oregon does not rhyme with woe-be-gone. But I guess no one thought to tell that to the narrator. As a Pacific Northwesterner myself, I just couldn't forgive this mistake.

INCREDIBLE

The emotions Mikal's writing evokes are on another level. This is such a raw and honest reflection of a family's life and all of the tragedy and beautiful memories that worked to make up the foundation of Mikal's upbringing. I highly recommend this book!

Read after The Executioner’s Song

The Executioner’s Song tells the story of Gary Gilmore, his crimes, his complicated death, and sheds light on the court process of an execution. This book shows the inside of the family and environment that produced Gary Gilmore.
I adjusted the speed to 1.1

Long and boring

This book has a some interesting pieces but they are brief and mostly in the last few hours. I understand the author’s intention in being very detailed in telling the story, but as a casual listener without any investment in the people in this book, I felt like it was too much information and detail.

One of the best books I’ve read

I just finished the audiobook of "A Shot In The Heart" (non-fiction) and it's one of the best books I've ever read. It's a complete book: compelling and courageous writing, true crime story, meticulously researched, uncovered family secrets and many great characters, a heartbreaking memoir, very insightful and humanistic, the Mormon religion, turn-of-the-century (1900's) US historical perspective and many plot twists. I could not put it down. Highly recommend if you haven't read it.

Powerful and insightful…

…this book articulates family dysfunction like nothing I’ve ever read. Tolstoy wrote that “…every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” That may be true, but Mikal Gilmore is able to describe the unique circumstances of his family dynamics in a way that will resonate with anyone who grew up in a rage-filled and violent atmosphere. I think this book should be required reading for anyone in mental health care, particularly those that work with children. This is a compelling, brilliant and heartbreaking story told by the child that “escaped”. I learned so much.

Halfway

The first half of this book was gripping. If I had written a review then I would have said it was among the saddest books I knew. In fact the descriptions were unnerving and made me wonder how many children grew up in such chaotic households and how do they survive. Leave that as that.

The latter part of the book became bogged down with too much detail. I had to stop listening about 2 hours from the end. That says something when the whole book is geared to a pending execution. Maybe I will read some other account of the execution, maybe not. Feeling very burnt out from this book.

The Rest Of The Story

I saw the 1982 made for TV movie The Executioner’s Song while I was pregnant. Maybe it was a hormonal ‘thing’ or it just plain touched my heart as it has left such a remarkable impression on me to this day. At that time I resided in a country that had eliminated capital punishment some twenty-eight years earlier. I could never imagine knowing the facts regarding the exact time and place of my death. I had so much misdirected compassion on the wrong person. That being the perpetrator of a heinous crime of two young family men.

I then read the book of the same name by Norman Mailer. I did a complete 360. It is filled with so of many details about these victims and their families but also gave me more insight into the man, Gary Gilmore. After finishing the last chapter I was still left wanting. I felt as if I had 90% of the story and I needed to know why this petty criminal coldly made two innocent men on two consecutive days to lie down on cold floors and have their lives terminated.

I then decided to read Gary’s brother’s account. Mikal Gilmore gives us a history and a follow up to the man and where his family came from. We can’t blame one’s ancestors for our ill deeds BUT perhaps we can try to conceive a full picture of a family that was destined for such a horrendous future. Gary’s desire to be put to death had so many terrible consequences as over a thousand men and women have been put to death since Gary requested to die thus ending a ten year moratorium on America’s death penalty. It was like an explosion as so many people were effected in such a detrimental way, not being least the Gilmore family itself. So many lies, so many secrets culminating in such a tragic end.

This book is a classic and the narrator was the correct choice. At first I thought that he was monotone and quite depressing but as I continued to listen I understood why. There is no humor from start to end so a voice that reflected the tone of the story was perfect.