Norman Mailer is dead

RIP

yeah just saw that. sad--but a good life lived and many happy readers.

A long and colorful life. Rest in peace, Norman.

Gee, that is sad. May he rest in peace.

One of the first books I ever read was, The Naked and the Dead. I loved that novel. I loved the controversy he always stirred up. Gosh, I'm awfully sorry he's gone.

RIP

What a life.

One of the last sentences in the link is interesting for debate. Will Mailer be remembered? Will he influence other writers like Hemingway? I'm not sure. I don't know if his work, on the whole, was strong enough to be put in the main canon, nor am I sure that his writing is stout enough to overcome his personal problems. A debate about Faulkner, for instance, will always end up at the work; a debate about Mailer will alway end up at a stabbing.

Still, I felt like when I read The Executioner's Song that I had never read anything like it. There might still not be anything out there like that book, all these years later. The closest thing is maybe In Cold Blood, but Mailer is so much more honest than Capote was as a writer.

I'm only familiar with his name. He has always been a Name for as long as I can remember, one of those famous authors I never did read.

Well, except for his biographical critique of Henry Miller.

RIP.

I was never really a consistent Mailer reader. I did read Executioner's Song and was depressed for days afterward. It was brilliant. But a lot of what Mailer wrote I just wasn't that interested in. I started to read his 1000-page book about Oswald, but only read about 100 pages. But as I said earlier, I think his great book was The Naked and the Dead. Also, Capote really has to take the kudos for In Cold Blood because he's responsible for the genre--the nonfictional novel.

Executioner's Song remains the only book ever to challenge In Cold Blood for me in terms of sheer masterful wordsmithing within that genre.

They remain in equal standing side by side on my shelf of admiration.

And yes, gerry, Song is shattering that way, it does stay with you long after closing the book.

Norman Mailer. Man, another piece of my own life culture gone away.

Norman could sometimes be tough to agree with, but, herewith some his more pithy quotes:


Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.

Alimony is the curse of the writing class.

If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.

RIP. I for one will miss reading his books.