It is easy to hate his self-important puffery, but Norman Mailer remains one of America’s best writers. His books include:
1. The Naked and the Dead – Outdated, but still full of powerful writing, and lacking many of the later objectionable mannerisms.
2. Advertisements for Myself – A collection of journalism, a mixed bag, but the peaks are high.
3. Armies of the Night – About the 1968 Chicago Convention, I’ve never read it but it gets consistent raves.
4. Of a Fire on the Moon – The story of America’s space program, and one of the best non-fiction books period. As a writer, one of the books I most envy.
5. The Executioner’s Song – The story of Gary Gilmore, the first half is incredible — a candidate for "The Great American Novel" — although the second half meanders.
5. Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery – I usually hate historical fiction but this is gripping.
6. Harlot’s Ghost – His best book, 1168 pages of panache and joy. One of the most underrated and underread of the important American novels.
The thing is, he has many other books too. His new The Castle in the Forest, a psychological autobiography of the young Hitler, is better than his bad books but it does not compare to the books on this list.
Of a fire and the moon?
Mailer’s use of the first point of view distracts from the story. It is ostensibly a book about the astronauts, but instead it’s one about Mailer. No where near as important or entertaining as Wolfe’s Right Stuff.
“Armies of the Night” is about the 1967 March on the Pentagon, not about the 1968 Democratic Convention. And it is absolutely great.
Tyler, a lot of us feel that “Armies of the Night” is the best of them. Read it.
I read ‘The Executioner’s Song’ over and over and over again. It’s indeed incredible. The pace, the tone, the characters. A masterpiece. Also read the story of Mikal Gilmore.
Harlot’s Ghost is great true.
Mailer was annoying when he was fashionable, a generation or two ago, but he is so far out of fashion these days, yet he keeps at it, that he’s become lovable.
I also recommend “Armies of the Night”. I’ve pait it the ultimate compliment: i’ve read it twice. Very entertaining and also a clever take on the historical novel.
“Of Women and Their Elegance” is an imaginary diary by Marylin Monroe where the ever transgressive Mailer creates a voice for the troubled actress. Once you get over the warmed over objections to Mailer’s audacity –
it’s disturbing how many will condemn his conflicted views and treatment of women in his books without having read more than a professor’s selected quotes from him– we find the actress’s constructe voice compelling, oddly moving. This is a sensitive rendering of a woman speaking to a nameless confident about the internal conflicts of trying to be authentic show business. As Hollywood careers are predicated on what is precisely inauthentic, this short novel provides a
convincing fabulation of how the late actresses might have thought about herself in the world.
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