Word: mailer
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...NORMAN MAILER'S successful first novel, The Naked and the Dead, catapulted him permanently into the public limelight. Ever since then, the author's explanations of the evolution of the hip consciousness of the 1960's, his battle with the feminists, his Pulitzer Prize-winning later books (Armies of the Night and The Executioner's Song), and his stabbing of his second wife have all contributed to the veil of mystery and doubt surrounding him. Hilary Mills does an excellent job of clearing away the gossip and rumors and presents an orderly, well-documented, thoughtful chronicle of Mailer's life...
Mills chooses to begin her biography of the man whose career Antole Broyard has described as "a brawl between his talent and his exhibitionism" with a dramatic retelling of Mailer's appearance at the murder trial of Jack Henry Abbot, the ex-convict whose writings Mailer had promoted. After recounting the antagonistic press conference, where obscenities and insults were exchanged--a typical situation for the author--Mills summarizes Mailer in a list of promotional headlines, from "Village Voice Co-Founder" to "Husband of Six Wives." One is prepared for a book that merely rehashes sensational events and doesn't delve...
...Whether Mailer's work goes down "as a strange aberrations flash...or as one of the most seminal and enduring voices in contemporary literary history remains to be determined," Mills notes in the final chapter. But it is certain that the author's life alone will be remembered for its enormous and diverse undertakings. Arranged in strictly chronological form, the biography seems to gather together all of Mailer's activities--starting with his career as a Harvard engineering major--together with hundreds of quotes from wives, editors, friends and the like. This technique creates a many-sided view...
Mills traces Mailer's desire to be accepted by the WASP establishment to his career at Harvard, where the Jews were sequestered together very much outside the Harvard establishment. Although Mailer wants to be the quintessential American, he has remained interested in his Brooklyn Jewish past, writing occasionally for Commentary magazine. Without attempting to reconcile this tension, Mills shows Mailer's underlying sensitivity to ethnic roots through events in both his private life and in his writing. For example, she observes that Mailer intermingles his speech with Southern drawls and Irish brogues, concealing his roots...
...easy trying to establish your identity when you are the wife of protean Writer Norman Mailer, 49, especially when you're an artist in your own right. A former art instructor from Russellville, Ark., Norris Church Mailer, 33, has hardly been hurt by familial connections, but her oils are better than many a skeptic would expect. Last week the artist's work went on display in a one-woman show in Manhattan's SoHo district. For her depiction of down-home folks sitting on front stoops or ambling along Main Street, Church uses family, friends and even...