Lionel Dahmer - A Father's Story BOOK REVIEW

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[@xinniether-pooh989]

My favorite part is when Lionel came to visit Jeff after he was first arrest. Despite all the monstrosity he had heard, Lionel hugged Jeff, the first thing he did when they met. That may be the definition of unconditional love. Such love isn't easy to come by, even between parents and children.

[@creativelydiverse272]

In all honesty, if my son were to do such horrific things, pulling him close would be the first thing I'd want to do. I'd want to know why, why he felt that way... Etc.

[@treyrogge9675]

I'm patiently waiting on that coffee mug that has "Life is too short to read bullshit" written on it.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

It's on the way

[@zulunation90s95]

Yea, exactly that or the John waters quote, which i love lmao

[@tteachers7758]

Digging the reviews, would kill to see your thoughts on Don Carpenter's " Hard Rain Falling".

[@ccg9623]

'' You have to laugh at this sick, sad world, Nothing matters, and it's fabulous. Always remember that life is too short to read bullshit '' Now I finally have a favorite quote😂 Also, possibly one of the best book reviews so far( tho I am late to this vid haha oh well... better late than never they say )

[@Wout.vlmnck]

Jeff actually read the book his father wrote about him. His father said in an interview he had very fond memories of Jeff and Jeff asked him 'Why couldn't there have been more of those memories in the book?'

[@caseyanthonysbabysittingservi]

I don’t ever wanna feel bad for Jeff but, that’s sad.

[@kawaki1207]

Hi, can you send the link to the interview please? Ive been looking for that. :(

[@24b636]

@@kawaki1207 did you ever find it ? :(

[@dying101666]

@@caseyanthonysbabysittingservi you can feel bad for him and still feel bad for his victims. i really feel bad for Lionel.

[@IdkIdk-gt2ej]

​@@24b636it's been 2 years, did you guys find the link? ;(

[@abyz1467]

Lionel Dahmer was a substitute teacher for me on several occasions in high school. Good man who has never shied away from this stuff, to his credit. He could have changed his name and moved across the country, but he didn’t.

[@obsidianbrick1682]

BRO LIONEL DAHMER WAS UR SUB

[@ILoveToSmokeMyOpps]

@@obsidianbrick1682 😭😭

[@Gh0stily111]

Ye I actually believe you since a lot of people have been saying that same thing after the new show has come out, so if multiple people with no connection to each other are telling the same story it must be true.

[@Gh0stily111]

I just realised my above comment reads like sarcasm but I swear it’s not.

[@F0aming]

I've always felt bad for serial killers, and I also feel bad that I feel bad for them because they're unquestionably the lowest form of life. Sam Harris said something recently about psychopaths not being able to help the fact that they're psychopaths. This is a frightening way to put it, and I wonder how much of it is true. In such a situation suicide could conceivably be considered a heroic act if they're thinking about hurting others. As of now there's no treatment or fix, you'd have to spend the rest of your life locked away on an island. Thinking of someone like Albert Fish who was one of the most reprehensible serial killers ever, yet admittedly that guy never had a chance. His part of the gene pool was pretty much caked in shit. I think nearly every member of his family had some sort of mental affliction. I do wonder how much people are a slave to their nature. How much they can help and control. How much awareness they have of themselves as a bad person. I couldn't imagine being a parent and losing someone in that way to somebody else's madness. I don't know if I would then have the heart to see them as a human being who was once a child who went wrong somewhere along the way. Or maybe they were just born a little off and unknowingly groomed into psychopathy via abuse. People are strange, who really knows.

[@AndalusianIrish]

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Oh that's great, Thank you Andy.

[@Malik-ji3mz]

Highly recommend reading it.

[@daneschneider5790]

as a native Wisconsinite we all got to learn specificly about Dahmer in high school psychology, he seemed like a fairly normal guy on the outside and then the whole anti-social personality disorder is revealed; then I remember reading about him and wondering who I've met that seemed "normal", but behind closed doors is perhaps a completely different character

[@RB939393]

Holy fuck. What a profoundly sad story. One part that really stuck with me was the end of chapter 1 where Lionel tells the story of releasing the bird they rehabilitated and ponders if that moment was the "single, happiest moment of his life." I couldn't help but choke up after reading that.

[@wrenanderre3933]

To find out who Jeff was, you have to look very hard at who Lionel is....

[@NobodyOwens_72]

I agree

[@Ben-vf8jv]

That is so true that you become more sensitive to horror when you get older. When I was a kid that's all I would want to do is find the most disturbing, horrifying, fucked up stuff. I would watch WWII and serial killer documentaries and holocaust documentaries all the time when I was a kid, it was actually relaxing to me. I remember reading a few pretty disturbing novels, and to be honest sometimes the most disturbing parts of the books that I would read would actually make me feel very relaxed. Now that i'm older I have noticed that I've become more sensitive to that sort of stuff. That's a very astute observation.

[@senorbacon9985]

Do a book review on the Bible 😂😂 Fuck controversy

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Yeah ima do dat.

[@LucidVision138]

May I ask, you said you'll never know what it's like to be a father. Not that it's my business but out of curiosity, do you mind if I ask why? Is it because you can't have Children or because you don't want any?

[@princess_morgan789]

"This has never been a case of trying to get free. I didn't ever want freedom. Frankly, I wanted death for myself."😭

[@Milo-hc2rz]

I have a theory. When Jeff was younger he didn't have any real friends which we know because of the whole "Dahmer fan club" thing. They made he feel like a circus attraction, he never had any luck with girls/boys and he couldn't tell his father that he was gay. This made him feel very very rejected and the main reason that his sexual attraction was to dead people because they couldn't reject him. He just wanted someone to love. He ate them because he felt like he always had those people with him so he felt less lonely if that made any sense?

[@grahamkristensen9301]

I met one of the members of the Dahmer Fan Club (John Backderf, the man who wrote My Friend Dahmer), and he said that wasn't really the case at all. Some of them regretted it as adults, but at the time, they were just a bunch of dumb, bored kids who didn't know any better. And Dahmer himself even said in an interview that was one of the happiest points of my life.

[@1m2a3t4t5]

No it doesnt make any sense honestly

[@sebastiansmith7591]

Hey Cliff. Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is a great book that deals with kinda similar ideas. Since you've reviewed some of Cormac's stuff already, I thought you might wanna check it out (if you haven't already). It's a short-ass book, you could probably read it in a day or two. Anyway, thanks for the vid.

[@kylec8950]

Another great book on Dahmer is "Dark Journey Deep Grace" Tells the amazing story on how Dahmer accepted Jesus Christ in prison and lives in Heaven with him today!

[@abyz1467]

lol

[@kylec8950]

@@abyz1467 more like pol, praise outloud.

[@nersesarslanian3026]

"I think people are perverts" - D. Fincher.

[@rust44]

You should check out A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold.

[@Milo-hc2rz]

Jefferey was not a sadist, that's why he got drunk before each killing because he hated it and that's also why he drugged and then strangled them so they wouldn't be in pain.

[@corrinderby4657]

The people I love the absolute most are my children and that is also the greatest fear I have... you may very well be into something!

[@wellergurl]

Fabulous... Fabulous review !!!!!! I have ALWAYS found him sooooooo sad. It's in his eyes... It's RIGHT THERE on his face. Fascinating story. Thanks for the review. I had no idea his dad wrote this.... how sad and horrible.

[@Ben-vf8jv]

I definitely have a lot of sympathy for serial killers and rapists. Unlike crimes of ideology and stupidity, I know that it sounds horrible, but unlike crimes of ideology and stupidity, there's more to wonder about serial killers. Because often times a serial killer isn't acting out of some disagreeable belief or ideology, they're acting purely out of desire. So, it's not that there's a clear discrepancy in their thoughts, it's that it's hard to grasp just what makes them tick in the first place, it's that thing which builds a sense of wonder over serial killers. What makes them tick? Not only that, but determinism; do we determine our actions, or does the environment around us and our own genes determine our actions? I am not one to really believe that human beings are anything more than products of micro biological processes that happen, which are really no different from a rock rolling down a hill. The laws of physics control everything in the universe, and human beings are no different. So, in that sense it's really not that hard for me to look at a human being who commit heinous crimes, as anything more than just another human being, or a rock, or a conglomeration of stardust (which if you listen to Carl Sagan, you'd know we're all made of star dust). I say this all the time, to the dismay of almost everyone but a very select few intelligent individuals. It's of course, different with other things for me, and it's all totally subjective who you respect and disrespect, any moron can figure out that all the laws of the world are arbitrary, and they're decided by other human beings arbitrarily. I don't, for example, like a lot of conservative ideas, I don't like it when people espouse religious ideas, I think those people are pieces of shit. Maybe I'm giving too much credit where credit isn't deserved and making an distinction in who I give more respect where it isn't deserved. So idk, maybe you could say I'm one of those people who sort of admires people like Jeffery Dahmer in a way. I have always sort of been an outcast myself, so I can appreciate that he must have been indulging in something which made him feel at home. He was doing something which gave him comfort and which gave his life richness. I'm not saying that I would want to be friends with such a person, who does things which I in no way want to take part in or be a part of, I'm just saying that I have much more respect for people like Jeffery Dahmer than say, a fundamentalist Christian, or a fundamentalist Muslim, or Donald Trump, or Ted Cruz, or whoever other far right scum bag who infects this earth with their stupidity. You know, on a basic level I think that people should just respect everyone else. I don't mean respect dumb ideas, I mean people should just let each other be who they want to be. I would like to get to a point in the human race where people are so accepting of each other, that we could look at people who have whatever fucked up fantasy and be okay with them as people. There's so much demonization and scapegoating and slippery slope arguments going on in the human race, but if you pull yourself back for a second and ask yourself what an all knowing alien, or godlike entity would feel when they look down on all of this, they'd look at us all as nothing more than how we look at animals on the discovery channel. Ever notice how no one really scolds animals for doing whatever sort of weird shit that they do? I think that people should be the same way with other humans, because ultimately that empirical data, that empirical observation of our species, that objective analysis, that's all that matters. All these dumb hierarchies of morality are totally arbitrary, it's just creating a class of human and sub human. It's inequality, and inequality is what's present throughout all of the human race. I hope that some day thousands of years from now, we can look at even people like serial killers and rapists and whatever other tier of human being and just look at them as human beings just like you and me.

[@professionalwidow]

check out sue klebold's (mother of dylan klebold, one of the columbine shooters) TED talk, it's kind of in the same vein as a father's story. very open.

[@Earbly]

Death and eroticism makes me think of Gravity's Rainbow

[@Earbly]

I don't blame him, it's a goddamn monster of a book, in content and style.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Ya'll act like that book doesn't take half a year to read.

[@Earbly]

+Better Than Food: Book Reviews I second Yash's comment. I really appreciate all the work you've put into this channel. I been subbed a long time and will be forever! Thanks again for your cobtribution to the book world. And i don't blame you for not reviewing GR, how would one even review that thing. It's a madman's book. Have a good day man!

[@Malik-ji3mz]

The first 100 pages are basically a prologue. At about 200 pages it starts to just go and you look back fondly on the whole beginning. It does take a while though...

[@banksdiggy]

Damn, more than halfway into the video and you haven’t even mentioned the book - I mean, I’m interested, but this is more pontification on love and death than a review of a book.

[@kirbykritter]

Thanks for an insightful glimpse at this book. I want to read it now. I recall the Oprah appearance but forgot that Lionel was a scientist, an interesting detail. I think any coherent thinking we may embark on about the sex/death connection is vanity, because it deals on a level we cannot approach rationally. Certainly it's evolutionarily advantageous to become aroused in times of crisis. It seems to me death itself or the cruel infliction of pain was not Jeffrey's trip, but rather the creation of an inert companion and despite experiments with zombification, the only way he could have that was with a lifeless body. Anyway, thanks again.

[@ккє-о6ц]

_Where can I get this book online for free? IM POOR AS FUCK :"(_

[@katelissa838]

кσσкιєѕ ™ there's a link to a PDF version on this tumblr blog :) you'll need a google drive account. mixedoffender.tumblr.com/post/155718295301/i-found-a-fathers-story

[@mysterychic1234]

Try your library if that link didn't work

[@ккє-о6ц]

Thank you :")

[@Ben-vf8jv]

I think a lot about that argument that you made, about what would life be like if there wasn't the threat of death. First of all, I think that it would be much more pleasant. I have a theory that because there's always the threat of wasting time, our perception of time creates boredom, and it creates a feeling that if we're not doing something that we aught to be doing something. So, we're in a constant state of frenzy, which really is needless because the threat of death is superfluous, it's merely there as an annoyance and it's a factor that isn't necessary. If we had all the time in the world to do whatever we want, we'd not only not have the feeling that we're wasting time and therefor be able to partake in every richness of life imaginable, music, book reading, exploring the world; not only would our lives be immeasurably richer, everyone would be more chill and much more intelligent, because they'd be chilled out because that threat of death wouldn't be looming on them. People say that living forever would suck, I say that it would be absolute bliss. As an afterthought, I think that it would also increase our attention spans, because we'd know that we could take as much time on one thing as we want without having to worry about whether or not it's a "waste of time".

[@afonsoneto1407]

"My Friend Dahmer," the father helped him make an animal graveyard when he was a child. The boy engaged in this until his youth, when the trigger was activated for murders, by: Constant fights of the parents, Possessive mother, Separation of the marriage of the Parents, personal isolation, deviance of mental conduct, lack of friendship, and, above all, SEM GOD IN LIFE. SÃO PAULO BRAZIL

[@itsalex8520]

I really want to read the book but I can’t find a version under 100 dollars 😪

[@freakielove173]

I just finished reading the book Morality by Christopher Hitchens, it was a short read but was beautifully written and utterly sincere. Highly recommend.

[@holocened]

It looks like I'll be picking up Bataille's "Story of the Eye" soon, I loved what you were saying about the relationship between love and death. Knowing that we are finite makes us love so much more, in spite of, or because of, the looming threat of death. We retaliate against the inevitable by loving. Ahh, I had a morbid fascination with Dahmer a few years ago; he simultaneously intrigued me and repulsed me to the core. I always enjoy reading about serial killers from the perspective of a friend or a loved one. "A Father's Story" seems to be pretty hard to obtain though. The UK/Ireland amazon site has your version down for £962.76! I'll find the PDF somewhere instead. Thanks for another great video.

[@alfonsojimenez8840]

Hey man, great review per usual. I picked up recently , and currently reading Karl Ove Knausgaard, " my Struggle". Really great read . Thanks for making me aware of such a great book . Much appreciated .

[@TheMaxL]

Hi, Any other recommandation like this book ? I am looking for similar kind of books, That one was really moving and loved it.

[@1m2a3t4t5]

Im not understanding the relationship between love and death at all man.

[@shadowhunter1810]

I have so many ideas for books and I need help

[@bwehrens]

could you do a review of peter wessell zapffes "the last messiah"

[@pocketsesmcflurry2146]

He did a review on Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" which quotes the Last Messiah quite a bit and even expands on some of its' ideas. Pretty sure he liked it lmao

[@Demention94]

People like this man ..in a way condemned for life makes me question the existence of a god.

[@Yesica1993]

Why? If there was no God, people like Dahmer would still exist and do what they do. And their poor families (along with the victims) would still suffer.

[@Bobouwehand]

You think there aren't any people like Dahmer in the world anymore?

[@Yesica1993]

Bob Yep. He just got caught. Horrifying thought, isn't it? I remember when the story first came out. I'd go on the train or walk down the street among people and realize... any one of these people could be doing these things. It really freaked me out.

[@ani2756]

Can’t understand serial killers, couldn’t support the thought of a loose head in my apartment 😂

[@creativelydiverse272]

I think love is about connection. I can't connect the 2 (love and death) in my mind. At least that's just not how I view love.

[@danielwhite1233]

What are your thoughts on "get in the van" by the great prophet Henry Rollins

[@OriginalUsername]

I'd like to see a review on that as well.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

I like the guy

[@jajdude]

Just read it. Pretty good. Lionel was just as shocked and horrified as anybody else.

[@monstrousbytommywalker3700]

"Only for the grace of God", there's my cue. This might be ridiculously untimely coming 2 1/2 years after your upload, but a person who got a lot out of Lionel Dahmer's "A Father's Story" might also like my "Monstrous: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer but for the Grace of God". I loved "A Father's Story" myself as well as Derf's original miniature "My Friend Dahmer", which I understand now is a completed movie that your cinematographer friend can be proud of.

[@Jalide]

Can't wait for the cookbook. Dahmer family recipes.

[@JCloyd-ys1fm]

Damn.

[@alphabetmonkey1435]

I think it's too late for me. The only copies i could find online were 40 dollars and up.

[@charliedocking7216]

Who would buy he house dahmer grew up in, with all his demons, let alone yhe same house being the site of his first sordid murder x

[@jvtc]

Lacroix tastes like TV static.

[@user-mq7ji1jf4x]

hi, where can i read this book online? is there any free pdfs or anything?? im desperate :(

[@princess_morgan789]

😎😎😎

[@whitetuxmafiaandfilms5042]

It's funny, because we all consider violence to be very serious and so on but it seems more childish the older I get.

[@neighborhoodthreat9672]

What are your political beliefs?

[@neighborhoodthreat9672]

Or religious beliefs?

[@MsLegenza]

The book is in the library.

[@blooxcate766]

It's kind of odd that Jeff's father killed in his dreams and his son kills in reals life

[@monstrousbytommywalker3700]

And then there's the time that Jeff seemed to kill in a dream in real life, talking about the second murder that he had no memory of. Tommy Walker, author and subject of MONSTROUS: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer but for the Grace of God

[@andreah7065]

Alguien me pasaría el libro uwu

[@Rekarika]

Where is your iced coffee?

[@r.m.2598]

Can you make a video, where you tell your worst books you ever read?

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

The worst book I ever read was diary of an oxygen thief. After that, I really try to research before I commit.

[@mb-vf3qb]

Brilliant review thank u.

[@danofnostand3977]

I can't believe you're not verified. That's fucking crazy to me.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Verified?

[@danofnostand3977]

Yeah, it's kind of the equivalent of Twitter verification, at least I think, on KZbin. You'll see a checkmark next to your username. I have no idea what is achieved by earning one, as I haven't experienced it, but it's some sort of status. I've seen accounts with FAR less views than you get verified, so it just surprised me, you definitely deserve it. Really appreciate your reviews, by the way. Been on a binge of sorts.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

+The Reviewer well thanks man, I'm glad you're enjoyin

[@michaelwoolbert8195]

Are you DavidD?

[@K_Kay1]

😳🧐

[@nersesarslanian3026]

also that castraction scene in the Anti-Christ is a good personification of where eroticism meets death.

[@waltergorena9597]

Choice. blue, or red pill?

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Headache by headache.

[@jahguide1122]

pretty good, but maybe you shouldn't say "15 or 17 (victims) or whatever" cuz the victims are what matters, and well...you know how the whole cognitive dissonance thing goes, glorifying the villains and reducing the victims to ashes into oblivion we're all a part of it...loving the oppressor and hating the oppressed...good job, not that I matter here, don't anyone even bother responding because I will be dead in a several hours.

[@sidondon2]

I think it’s clear that Lionel sexually abused Jeff at a very young age, maybe so young Jeff would not remember, and subsequently groomed him by helping and teaching him how to dissect and preserve the dead animals. His dad also neglected Jeff’s mother, pushing her away, so it created a dynamic where Jeff’s emotional needs were only being met by his dad who was extremely religious, strict, in denial, and probably repressing a lot of guilt for his inappropriate acts with Jeff, which would explain his wife’s grief and self-medication, she even attempted suicide. I think she had suspicions or knew about this dirty secret. Jeff grew up to associate these activities his dad helped him curate with sex, the added alcoholism and isolation hints at him repressing something traumatic, beyond just the fighting between his parents. His mother’s suicide attempt further supports some kind of family trauma occurred. The book was a way for his dad to get ahead of this theory and his continued support of Jeff was to keep him close so that this would never come to light.

[@ds-yu4dh]

Sam S I agree the dad seemed to be hiding something. But he might have just been evil as his killed his first victim as a teen

[@americandevo]

Nope

[@xxxalaxx9712]

One and only smart comment below this video , I agree 100 % 👊

[@1m2a3t4t5]

ridiculous to try to infer this

[@MsBabyChips]

That would make a good book if it werent fiction.

[@M_Darabi]

BORING!

[@MrTitmeister]

I find Jeff a constant source of interest, but he was in no way raised in this so called normal life that some people talk about. His first murder was provoked by an event that his parents had created and his isolation as a young boy is explored extensively in backderfs graphic novel. He also suffered from violence at a young age from school bullies that would hit him whilst they walked behind him. I don't believe in the so called legend status theory as I know full well that dahmer as well as any historic figure was human just like I am, and so was confined to the same conditions as I am. Dahmer used to fart, shit, and pick his nose believe it or not, just like me and you.