BOOKS: Growing Up with a Killer

Gary Gilmore's brother seeks the cause of evil in his family

TV talk shows, made-for-TV movies and Mommie Dearest knockoff books have bombarded America with enough familial dysfunction to make Sophocles himself tear his eyes out. It's easy to be numbed by it all, to lose all one's sympathy for yet another father/mother/sibling who's been abused by an uncle/ cousin/grandparent who just happens to be a crackhead/alcoholic/satanic cult leader. And now here's Mikal Gilmore, brother of executed killer Gary Gilmore, with Shot in the Heart (Doubleday; 404 pages; $24.95), a book about his troubled clan. One might expect this effort to be another grotesque float in the continuing parade of household horrors....

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