Norman Mailer: is he really so good?

allyC says he has a good book by him. but I forget what it is.

yes, this is the one allyC likes.

yes, I saw that on BBC four a few months ago! what an idiot!

Did anyone read The Prisoner of Sex. Wow, that was bad.

I can't even begin to describe it.

^^ cuckoo

dude is 80+ years old, cut him some slack, most people that age couldn't (understandably)care less about the here & now

you could do worse than reading "The White Negro" "Time of Her Time" Armies of the Night Of A Fire On The Moon

If you find his prose a bit windy try The Executioner's Song

The only full-on complete book I read = the Oswald one, which I liked.

i read "miami and the siege of chicago" last month. it's a terrific book, really gives you a strong sense of how scary that year must've been. contrasting the republican convention (largely uneventful) with the democratic one (protests, tear-gas, etc) was also a stroke of genius.

Writer, ex-con and 40-something bottle-baby Tim Madden (Ryan O'Neal),
who is prone to black-outs, awakens from a two-week bender to discover a
pool of blood in his car, a blond woman's severed head in his marijuana stash,
and the new Provincetown police chief, Captain Luther Regency (Wings Hauser),
shacked up with his former girlfriend Madeleine. As his father Dougy helps
him try to unravel the mystery, he is dogged by the psychotic Capt. Regency,
who has it in for Tim as a car-crash that he was involved in with Madeline
has left her unable to have children. Flashing-back to the past, Tim remembers
the time when he encouraged Madeline to swing with a Li'l Abnerish couple from
down South, the fundamentalist preacher Big Stoop and his Daisy Mae-ish wife,
Patty Lareine, whose ad Tim had come across in 'Screw' magazine. It's on the trip back
that the car crash occurs, since Madeline is incensed that Tim has so enjoyed Patty
Lareine's charms. Except for his father Dougy, who is dying of cancer, Tim suspects
everyone, including his ex-wife Patty Lareine, multi-millionaire prep-school pal
Wardley Meeks III, - and himself - of murder. Patty Lareine had left Big Stoop, married
Wardley, left him in a messy divorce which netted her a rich cash settlement, and
in turn married Tim, whom she fancied. Patty Lareine disappears, and Tim goes on
his fatal bender that has left his memory in shards after receiving a letter from
Madeline informing him that her husband is having an affair with his wife. Tim
remembers his assignation in the local tavern's parking lot with the blond porn
star Jessica Pond, while her effete husband Lonnie Pangborn watched from the
sidelines, distraught. It was Jessica's head in the Hefty bag with his grass, but
soon, another head turns up in his marijuana stash, that of Patty Lareine. We
eventually learn that she and her ex- Wardley, a bisexual skewed towards the
gay side, had been involved in a massive marijuana deal, a deal that also involved
Jessica Pond and Lonnie Pangborn, who are also missing. Will Tim be able to get to
the bottom of the mystery and save himself from another stretch in stir? As his
father Dougy reminds him, "Tough guys don't dance," and Tim has been doing
everything but the Charlston in his attempt to keep ahead of the forces
closing in on him. Will he unravel the case and reclaim his lost manhood?
And what does an old witch trial and the unspeakably lumpen sleazoids
down at the garage at the outskirts of town have to do with all this?

I'm not tempted to read his new one but Advertisements For Myself might appeal to some of you w/its questing self-consciousness and outrageous mix of autobiography, social commentary and egomania. Includes "The White Negro," the mindblowing short story "The Time of Her Time" and his founding columns for The Village Voice. He also does a list-type thing about what's hip and what's not that resembles an internet meme. in the 1950s.

RIP: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD8SQQ7781

Norman Mailer is dead and Alan Lelchuck didn't kill him.

he sure can turn a phrase in Armies of the Night. lol at patriotic bilge termed "oleo."

Armies = awes

he's full of shit of course, but knows it.

which puts him at an advantage over Robert Lowell.

Noman Mailer will never die. He might go away for a while, and the in 853rd Century he'll return, revealing he had been living inside the sun all along.

Harlot's Ghost's the best book on espionage I've ever read.

I bought this a couple hours ago on the recommendation of a few people and critics (Amis fils one of them) who claimed it was one of his very best. Damn -- over 1100 pages.

has anyone read the oswald book?

he's amazing in When We Were Kings imo.

Didn't know this was out. I'll probably rent it, but, after seeing some clips in a documentary (and having read some contemporaneous reviews), I expect it will be excruciating.

http://www.dvdactive.com/images/news/screenshot/2012/5/624.jpg

Curses, dvdactive.

http://www.dvdactive.com/images/news/screenshot/2012/5/624.jpg

which should i read first: the fight or a fire on the moon?

Harlot's Ghost

seriously? more into his non-fiction but it sounds decent

I've read the first half of Why Are We In Vietnam twice and still can't force myself to finish it. Did he ever write a good novel?

Lol. This is like listening to Down in the Groove and claiming not to get Dylan.

harlot's ghost is kinda the book he was made for, a Major American Novel honestly. i love the closing bondian promise of a sequel (unfulfilled). executioner's song also p undeniable if probably "overrated". have a weird soft spot for tough guys don't dance but it's also his most cartoonishly hostile-to-women book this side of an american dream. miami and the siege of chicago a sometimes overlooked (overshadowed by armies of the night) nonfiction gem. this guy is ridiculous but meant a lot to me when i was 18ish, even tho i knew he was ridiculous, even then, sorta. still haven't read the marilyn potboiler. been savin it.

The Fight is tighter, but both are fascinating IMO (as is Armies of the Night for that matter). Also seek out his very short essay (two pages or so), "Boxing with Hemingway" (it's in the collection The Time of Our Time), a brilliant little piece.

Harlot's Ghost seconded, Ancient Evenings too

don't fugget The Naked & The Dead! and if you're only reading one, make it The Executioners Song

still good stuff

http://www.dhs.fjanosco.net/Documents/TheWhiteNegro.pdf

The Executioner's Song worth the read but it left me cold except for unexpected acuity of scenes of rural life.

I spent a long plane ride with the collected non-fiction and wasn't too impressed tbh

thought executioners song was good but painfully long and not as gripping as the Mikal Gilmore book

Thought this was excellent:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41y53gDtidL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A little bit of overlap with the Buckley-Vidal film, not much. Very good on the transition out of the Eisenhower years. If today were 1964, they would have been right in the middle of the election; if 1976, well off to the side.

Bizarrely, this admiration for Mailer seems not to have led James or Amis to lobby for reissue of N&D in authentic (pre-publisherpleasing-fucking->fugging) version. Even the Modern American Library keeps N&D firmly in The Good Place. Exh'd by tame acceptance of corrupt editions

— Helen DeWitt (@helendewitt) May 21, 2023

Mailer strikes me as a guy (and I use that word very deliberately) with a tremendous amount of talent who thought that "ok, that's good enough to hold 'em" was an excellent place to leave off trying and go have a drink.

maybe stab a wife or two

Watched Norman Mailer vs. Fun City the other night (on Criterion), about Mailer and Breslin's run for city office in '69. Must be obscure--no IMDB listing, faded print. Not nearly as good as Town Bloody Hall.