Norman Mailer has been mentioned in the last few days in the
midst of the latest dustup over Ellroy. It was more of Mailer
being an example of mainstream literature than any similarity
between the two. But for me there is one similarity. At
different times their public persona made it difficult for me
to read and evaluate their fiction objectively.
I have in the past told of seeing Ellroy at a long-ago
Bouchercon and how off-putting I found him. I won't repeat
what's in the archives.
With Mailer, I read quite a bit of him many years ago and
rather liked him. Yes, he was a big self-promoter but he
could definitely write and, at his worse, he didn't bore.
Then he began to turn up on the talk show circuit and that
form of self-promotion was harder to take. His writing also
deteriorated (in my opinion) about the same time.
Mailer has long dabbled in filming and I went to a showing of
his "Maidstone" some time in the early 1970s. Mailer was
there but before he spoke we had to watch the movie, which
was for me an exhausting chore. It was a self-indulgent mess
featuring a mixture of Mailer buddies, such as boxer Jose
Torres, and professional actors like Rip Torn. I hated
it.
Afterward Mailer spoke and the audience was packed with
feminists who interrupted him and baited him to his obvious
enjoyment. Tensions were high and voices were raised. A man
came out of the audience and stalked up to Mailer and we all
thought a fight was about to erupt. Certainly, Mailer did as
he backed away from the mike and assumed a fighting pose. But
the guy ignored Mailer, grabbed the mike and said with great
seriousness, "Joni Mitchell has the sweetest pussy in the
world." He left the stage with the glow of a man who had
accomplished a great thing. Puzzled, Mailer regained the mike
and bemusedly asked the audience "Who the hell is Joni
Mitchell?"
I was, of course, shocked at his ignorance but more
importantly the evening cemented the image of Mailer as
someone who had done his best work and was now floundering
around as a public personality.
Jump forward a few years. A Hollywood producer sews up the
Gary Gilmore story and hires Mailer to write the book. So as
a work-for-hire, Mailer produced THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG in
1979. For those who might not know the background, Gilmore
was the first person executed in the United States after a
long moratorium. At some point after the book came out, I was
selected as a media witness to an execution by electrocution
in Georgia. Although the execution came within hours of
taking place twice, last minute stays came through and I was
the second most relieved guy involved.
But expecting that I would be a witness, I bought and read
THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG not because I had any great
expectations or really any desire to read Mailer but almost
as homework for my upcoming assignment.
The novel immediately surprised me because it was not in
Mailer's "voice." Everything I had read by Mailer before was
immediately identifiable as his work. In some of the later
writings, he was in the reader's face on every page. Here the
writing was straightforward, almost flat. For someone attuned
to Mailer before that absence was a big shock.
The next shock was the quality of the book. It was far and
away the best thing I had ever read by Mailer. More than
that, I considered THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG as one of the great
American novels of the 20th century. I still hold that
opinion although more than two decades have passed since that
reading.
So don't pass on THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG because you don't
like the writer or hated his other work. I only read it
because of unusual circumstances. If I had not been selected
to witness an execution myself, I would never have read such
a long book by a writer I had come to dismiss. It is a
powerful, uniquely American novel that tells the story of
Gilmore but so much more.
Now don't ask me to defend it further as it has been twenty
years and I am now busy reading Cleve F. Adams for 1940s
month. Read THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG and report back with your
own view.
Richard Moore
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