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Summary: Sante and Kenny Kimes/Son of a Grifter
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and could not put it down! The expression, "there but for the grace of God go I", certainly could apply to Kent Walker, the author, son, and stepbrother of the subjects of this twisted story, Sante and Kenny Kimes.
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Summary: Ambivalent son's chronicle of his sociopathic mother
Review: Having read other true crime books, I expect nothing more than an interesting, but generally mindless read from the genre. Kent Walker, however, along with his contributer Mark Schone, have fashioned something much more than that. The details of the life and crimes of Sante Kimes are all here of course, along with a fascinating account of what it was like to live day-to-day with an outsized, text-book hysteric and sociopath. Beyond this though, Walker relates a lot about his own significant ambivalence and, for much of his life, facilitation of his mother's compulsive abuse of others. Multiple times he protests that there were more good days than bad and that while his mother's criminality, narcissism, and abusiveness were larger than life, so were her charisma, excitement, and all-enveloping love for her son. This book then, is as much about Mr. Walker coming to terms with his complicity, his love, his continuing ambivalence but ultimately his considerable anger towards his infamous mother as it is about her life and misdeeds. One suspects that had the authorities not finally put Ms. Kimes away for good, Mr. Walker might yet have allowed her back into his and his family's life again. I believe that Mr. Walker used the writing of this book to sift through and better understand his unique experiences. I doubt that he had the same degree of insight or same perspective when he started the project. His honesty about himself and his own misdeeds and poor judgement are admirable. The compelling psychological insights along with the neat turn of a phrase - perhaps credit is due here to Mr. Schone - are what make this book stand out from the rest: "[Vegas] was still the town portrayed in the movie Casino, a mobbed-up resort, with an old-fashioned Rat Pack sense of martini-glass glamour... When my mother the Liz wannabe arrived in 1979, she'd found her spiritual home" In the process of writing about his extended exploration of himself and his mother, Walker manages to take one long, forceful, parting shot at the woman who made his life heavenly and hellish for so many years. In doing so, he will probably make a tidy sum of money. In her own twisted way, Sante Kimes is probably very proud of that.
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Summary: An astounding memoir
Review: This book is packaged and marketed like a standard brick of true crime with a photo section in the middle, but it is actually a unique and enthralling personal memoir, and a valuable contribution to late 20th century social history to boot. The prose is superb, and the clarity of Kent Walker's psychological insights, into both his family history and own mind are beyond impressive. Anyone generally interested in the phenomenon of charisma (REAL charisma, the Weberian kind, not manufactured "charisma" as seen on tv) will profit from this book, which plumbs its mysteries with particular intelligence. One would not think, either from the descriptions or photographs, that anyone would be able to find Sante Kimes as anything other than repulsive. And yet, she had this incredible, awful capacity to influence and control those around her, through sheer force of personality. This is a horrifying story, but also, in the strangest of ways, an inspiring one, in that Kent Walker somehow managed to transcend an upbringing among sociopaths to become some semblance of a human being. I read this book in two sittings, and it would have been one, except that I had to sleep.
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Summary: Son of a Grifter is the Mother of All True Crime Books
Review: OK - first of all, the content is fascinating. A highly detailed account of growing up in a family of sociopaths, and the aftermath thereof. What makes this book special, though, is how it doesn't just recite the criminal history of the Kimes family, but uses it to rise above the true crime genre. Instead of just reciting the sleaze and scams that Sante Kimes and her family pull off (which, let's face it, no matter how much of a highbrow you might be, are worth reading about in and of themselves), Son of a Grifter elevates this material by describing how the Kimes' criminal activities map into (and out of) that defining aspect of our society, the search for the American Dream. This book is not your usual tabloid quickie designed to cash in on a hot crime story. Thing more along the lines of Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song" or Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." It's scrupulously researched, incredibly well written, and really captures the voice of its central characters. I hardly ever buy audio books, but I heard Kent Walker on NPR, and his speaking voice is perfect for this story. I'll be driving cross-country this summer, and think I'll get the audio version for the feeling of that coast-to-coast opportunistic drifting that Sante Kimes is emblematic of.
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Summary: YOU'VE BEEN "GRIFTED" IF YOU BUY THIS BOOK!
Review: I bought the book so I kept reading just to get my moneys worth, but this was an awful self-serving piece of work by the "so called" good son. HA! He comes off almost as dispicable as the mother and son. Knowing what a con his mother was, he subjected his own kids to Sante's schemes. He sounds like a real low life and I am sorry I contributed to his coffers. He is only out for the money, as he said many times in the book. As for the book itself, it was filled with lots of details and irrelevant facts, but certainly was not an insightful piece of work. The whole story was depressing just knowing how uncaring and dishonest people can be to each other. This book needs to be written by someone who is NOT telling us the murderers are really good way down deep! YUCK!
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Summary: Shocked and Amazed
Review: I just finished this book and was completely taken aback by the sheer evil of the people portrayed in it. The tales of deceit and overpowering personality were almost too much to believe until I realized that I was reading the entire picture but was witness to only a small finger of these destruction these type of people cause. It gives new furor to the phrase "Where there's smoke, there's fire" because for this woman and her son to be in this predicament, they committed many more acts than are talked about in the public eye. Kudos to the author for a well-told, compelling story.
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Summary: SAD STORY
Review: This is the depressing story of an incredibly aggressive, totally dishonest women who would say or do anything just so long as it was a crime or a lie. It seems that the author is a little easy on his stepfather, Kenneth Kimes. Kimes was a grown man when he hooked up with Sante Kimes and I don't think Sante can take all the blame for his becoming a prolific thief, swindler and possibly murderer in his own right. Kenneth Kimes, Sr. is now deceased and it looks like there is nothing wrong with Mom, Sante and little brother, Kenny that spending the rest of their lives in jail can't cure. The author, Kent Walker, hung around, even endangering his wife and children, just so long as there seemed to be a chance to get some of the elder Kenneth Kimes' millions. When it became obvious that the millions had been squandered, he decided to write a book. The book is quite good but I have to admit that I found it objectionable when Walker went into detail not just of his Mother's crimes but also of her generally slutty, swinish habits. She is after all his Mother and he keeps saying he still loves her.
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Summary: A book I intend to re-read.
Review: When I started to read this book, I tuned out the world. There is always constant noise in our home (due to TV and teenagers), so if a book is not good, I can't focus on it sufficiently to read it. I can't emphasize enough how this is both a well-written and tragically forthcoming novel. This is a shockingly true story--the twists and turns in it are more fascinating than in a fictional suspense novel. I spent late nights reading this hypnotic book--I was simply unable to put it down. It's a book that I intend to re-read.
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Summary: review of a grifter
Review: this is the best book i've read in a while, i couldnt put it down. It was a good story and very well writen.
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Summary: Eating Her Young
Review: I had been waiting for a book on Sante and Kenny Kimes for some time. SON OF A GRIFTER was fascinating at first, disgusting at finish. I was disgusted that the police apparently ignored Kent Walker for years when he attempted to turn his amoral mother in. Walker deserves credit for trying to stop her, or rather use other people to stop her, and he does appear to have broken away from Sante's malign influence (would a con man run a vacuum cleaner distributorship? The things have to WORK) but I was disturbed at some of the subtexts in the Silverman murder. Sante Kimes apparently taught her son Kenny that 'other people were not important' but Walker describes her as a bigot and anti-Semite. Irene Silverman was Jewish. No mention is made of how this might have marked her as a potential victim to these people. Walker also glosses over the probable fact that his brother and mother committed incest. The implications are there, however. Sante Kimes is a woman with a hole in her soul who destroyed everyone and everything she touched. Ken Kimes was little better--this is really a story of TWO sociopaths who raised one monster and one human being. I can recommend this book to fans of true crime, if that is a legitimate term, but it will make you despair for the human race.
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