Blood Relation

by Eric Konigsberg

Book Overview

A New Yorker writer investigates the life and career of his hit-man great-uncle and the impact on his family.Growing up in a household as generic as Midwestern Jews get, author Eric Konigsberg always... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060099046
• ISBN13: 9780060099046
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent book

Having known a great deal about the people depicted in this book, I do have to say that the author did a superb job. The only thing I did not care for is that 1 of the "accused" mentioned in the book is still living. I happen to be a "blood relative" of that person mentioned in the book. Although it is all a matter of public record I have to say that it is very uncomfortable knowing that Mr. Konigsberg would write this book knowing that there are other families out there who are not familiar with the events that took place,like he was. Mr Konigsberg is digging up alot of skeletons for some of the other families mentioned.

loving it and having nightmares

I knew that I'd buy Blood Relation after reading the excerpt in the New Yorker magazine, but I had no idea how much better the book would be. Konigsberg's voice is very subtle, almost plaintive and self-abnegating, and maybe it's because he's not a hard-seller with a typically annoying therapy issue to work out that his point gets across so poignantly: how weird would it be to have a mass murdering psycho's genes double-helixed alongside yours and those of your whole family? What is it like to deal with shame, to have your family shamed, to feel somehow (if irrationally) responsible for gruesome, venally, crudely performed acts of murder that you yourself had nothing to do with, but must somehow, however tangentially, live with for the rest of your life? The story itself is fascinating for anyone who's into the fifties and sixties and the whole mafia scene and great crime stories in general. I mean, the main subject here is a true and fascinating psycho. The murders and the glee with which he executes them is beyond compare. But I think the most interesting thing for me is the delicate and evolving relationship between the writer and his uncle, the mass murderer. As a story about family, as a story about a journalist, the depiction of what it must have been like to go visit this creepy guy in jail over and over again, this guy who's manipulating you, but desperate to get his story out, who at one point gets angry at you and threatens to kill you, then later on, berates you, "Hey, you jerk, why don't you come visit me more often?? Everyone ignores me!! Where's the love???" -- it's just too odd of a scenario and too well-written not to titillate and fascinate. I'd definitely give it a ten, whatever your background is. I think for anyone with any kind of immigrant backround, which is to say 99% of America, it's a fascinating story about how hard we all try to fit in and what happens when a real weirdo/loser enters into the picture. I loved it.

An Intense and Entertaining Experience

Blood Relation is a superbly written account of one family's secret connection to Mob violence in America. The characters are as sinister, vivid, and intriguing as any fictionalized "good fella" novella, but more frightening because every fascinating detail is true. Immersed in discovering his uncle's horrible history, Eric Konigsberg confronts his own perceptions of himself and his family. Best of all, it is a page-turning adventure for the reader.

the jewish godfather--a dark masterpiece

Konigsberg's book is a success on many levels--as a period piece, a crime drama, and most impressively, as a profound investigation into what it means to be related to someone, anyone. Konigsberg does not flinch as he looks into what his murderous great uncle means to his family, his religion, his aspirations, and himself. An elegant, courageous work of art.

An excellent read

An excellent read that satisfies on several levels. Perhaps foremost as a close psychological profile of an incredibly charming and manipulative sociopath who was in his heyday among the top hit men for the Mob. But also as a family memoir, a story of attempting to get at the truth of the "bad seed," in face of a good deal of understandable denial on the part of an interesting cast of extended family. And finally, most simply, as a page-turning piece of true-crime investigation-I lost track of the dead bodies midway through the book-set in New York and New Jersey in the 50's and 60's, a wild, colorful, and now almost forgotten time. The historical materials, the interviews with the hit man in jail, and the psychological musings of the author are intertwined in a way that kept me reading. Recommended.