Friending a Sociopath: Walter Kirn

Elizabeth Floyd Mair interviews Walter Kirn (who visits tomorrow) in the Times Union:

Q: You write in your book a lot about the idea that you "collaborated" with Rockefeller in your own con.

A: Right. When he told me something that didn't add up, or when he seemed to be bragging in a way that didn't seem credible, I would excuse him, I would make up stories to myself about why he might be doing it.

More in the TU:  http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Secret-identity-5335678.php

More about Kirn's visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/programpages/vws.html

Picture: Con artist, murderer and kidnapper "Clark Rockefeller" at his 2008 arraignment in Boston for kidnapping.

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Walter Kirn today on CBS This Morning

Walter Kirn, who visits Albany next week (!), talks with Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell about his friendship with con artist and murderer Clark Rockefeller, today on CBS This Morning:

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/novelist-on-real-life-friendship-with-conman-clark-rockefeller/

Kirn will be featured again on 48 Hours this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT

https://www.facebook.com/48hours

See Walter Kirn LIVE this coming Tuesday at UAlbany:

Walter Kirn, journalist, and fiction and nonfiction writer
March 25 (Tuesday)
Seminar — 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
Reading — 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Walter Kirn is the author of the new nonfiction book Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade (2014), about the author’s 10-year “friendship” with Clark Rockefeller, the serial con artist and murderer. Currently serving a life sentence, Rockefeller was convicted of a 1985 killing in 2009. Kirn is the National Correspondent for the New Republic, where he covers “politics and culture and their convergence.” His books include the memoirs, My Mother’s Bible (2013) and Lost in the Meritocracy (2009), and the novels, Up in the Air (2001), and Thumbsucker (1999) that were made into major films. (See Classic Film Series schedule March 7 listing for screening of UP IN THE AIR)

More about Kirn:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/kirn_walter14.html

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Rave Reviews for Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn

Here are some reviews for the rising bestseller Blood Will Out by Walter Kirn, who visits us this coming Tuesday, March 25th:

"A Top Ten Book of Winter 2014" --USA Today

"In this smart, real-life psychological thriller, the fake Rockefeller is a zombie Gatsby and Kirn the post-apocalyptic Fitzgerald." --Nina Burleigh, The New York Times Book Review
 
"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

"Engrossing… A haunting, pained and terrifically engaging self-interrogation… That's what makes great memoirs - which this one is - so interesting...." --Charles Finch, Chicago Tribune
 
"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." --Larry Lebowitz, Miami Herald

"Fascinating…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

More about the upcoming events:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/kirn_walter14.html 

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