Product Description
This book is a critical study of Norman Mailer's work, starting where the author's previous book - THE STRUCTURED VISION OF NORMAN MAILER - ended. This book reveals a side of Mailer that only a friend and confidant would know, a side which Leeds has come to understand and appreciate. Leeds, a Distinguished Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, carefully and intelligently weaves this personal Mailer into the Mailer persona and the Mailer art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Simply Amazing.
Charming, witty, insightful, emotional....I read this book in one sitting because I was unable to put it down. Barry Leeds has given us a wonderful look into Norman Mailer's life and career. Chapter 9-Mailer and Me is a very personal glimpse into the author's life-how he came to know Norman Mailer, along with his own very personal triumphs and tragedies. You will be incredibly moved. ... Read more

Product Description
A war story ... Read more

Product Description
A full account of Adele Mailer's volatile marriage to Noramn Mailer a marriage that spanneddrug binges, sexual license, and wild parties.Amazon.com Review
Norman Mailer has often been a focal point of controversy forhis novels--from his account of killer Gary Gilmore's troubled life inThe Executioner'sSong to his more recent The GospelAccording to the Son, told in Jesus' own words. But in 1960 it wasMailer's personal life that earned him notoriety. After an evening ofheavy drinking, Mailer assaulted his then-wife, Adele, with a knife,putting her in intensive care and abruptly ending their marriage. Morethan 30 years later, Adele Mailer serves up her revenge cold in TheLast Party, a memoir of her life before, during, and after NormanMailer.

Alcohol figures prominently in Mailer's book; in herprologue she mentions her membership in Alcoholics Anonymous. Startingwith her first marriage to Village Voice cofounder Ed Fancher,Mailer drank her way through the high-rolling, hard-partying New Yorkavante-garde. Her book is a veritable grab bag of celebrity name-dropping and gossip about some of the glitterati's brighteststars. There's plenty of sex and violence and maybe more than you'dever want to know about Adele Mailer herself.The stories Mailerdishes are 30 years old, but there's a certain voyeuristic appeal inreading about the rather sordid lives of the rich and infamous, andThe Last Party certainly fits the bill. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Don't Hold Your Breath On This One ...
Adele Morales (who insists on keeping her famous ex husband's name- she is one of several wives) took the plunge into exploiting her husband's name and tremendous literary reputation with the apparent hope/expectation that by revealing the details of their marital years, she would also profit. She has no journalistic saavy, apparently limited intelligence as she fails to deliver the gory scoop that the jacket promises. Instead she indulges in extolling her own deluded and narcissistic virtues (as she perceives them) and guys, it's tiresome. Her way of putting words together and general idea conveyance leaves much to be desired, which strikes me with wry irony because the level of Norman Mailer's genius renders his taste in this woman laughable. Sadly, at the climax of her "epic torture" I found myself commiserating with her husband- after all, he had to put up with her for too long.

Surprisngly engaging, unexpectedly redeeming , yes, sordid.
So insightful; I thought that only today do we live in the apex of worship of all things celebrity driven. Sycophantic ego fueled hangers-on confuse notoriety with "brilliance". It seems that on a smaller scale- and somehow more refined because literary celebrities then needed a certain caliber of intellectualism - the same thing was true in the late fifties and early sixties.I must confess not ever having read a Norman Mailer novel- really why would I ? However at the time, in a small and rarified media universe, this man was a big big star back in the era of the rebels and beatniks- Greenwich Village ,Jimmy Dean, Marlon Brando, Jack Kerouac .Because of the glamour and allure of these romantic characters we don't want to admit what desolute junkies and losers these characters ultimately were.
I believe that the snide reviews from the critics reveal a theme commonly seen- DONT TELL US WHAT WE DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT OUR HEROES- especially the men! Just because Adele Mailer was never on a talk show and isn't a household name her story isn't valid ?( Oh yeah- she was a housewife- shave off 75 points) I struggled through the first part of the book simply because I couldn't relate to the carnal appeal of the beginnings of the union- maybe that's what turns some people off ; but the second half of the book redeems this as we see the decline of a marriage amidst some shimmering backdrops peppered with the sodden glitteratai.The writer of all these tales is booze, competitive posturing,and a lust for drama , and it does get tiring and predictable- just like in real life.

this was agreat book
wow....this book was very good. cool, yo! ... Read more

Product Description
El cadaver de Hugh Montague, antiguo oficial de la CIA, es descubierto flotando en un lago, con la cara destrozada. Harlot, tal era su nombre en clave, no trabajaba ya en la Agencia, pero aun continuaba investigando lo que el llamaba «los Grandes Santones». Su desaparicion abre ahora un interrogante: ¿Se ha suicidado, ha sido asesinado o es solo un montaje para poder desaparecer de la vida publica? Harry Hubbard, ahijado de Harlot, casado con su ex esposa, sabe que tambien su vida esta en peligro. Decide huir. Durante un ano, escondido en un hotelucho de Nueva York, escribe sus memorias. En palabras del autor, «escribi este libro con la parte de mi mente que ha vivido en la CIA durante cuarenta anos. No tenia necesidad de estar dentro de la organizacion ni conocer a sus oficiales intimamente para sentir la seguridad de que habia terminado por entender el tono de su funcionamiento interno». ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

OF THIS AND THAT
OF THIS AND THAT

Apparently as I have completed this summer's reading list I am `running the table' on Norman Mailer's work (see all reviews).As I recently noted in this space while reviewing Norman Mailer's The Presidential Papers at one time, as with Ernest Hemingway, I tried to get my hands on everything that he wrote. In his prime he held out promise to match Hemingway as the pre-eminent male American prose writer. Mailer certainly had the ambition, ego and skill to do so. Although he wrote several good novels in his time like The Deer Park I believe that his journalistic work, as he himself might partially admit, especially his political, social and philosophical musings are what will insure his place in the literary pantheon. With that in mind I have re-read his work under review here. This group of essays, musings, insights, rantings, ravings and attempts to understand this sorry seemingly forsaken world only confirm my above-mentioned belief.

Pieces and Pontifications is a nice grab bag that includes early work but mainly centers on the 1970's - after the hubris, anxieties, fears and hopes of the turbulent 1960's of which Mailer was a prime reporter had run its course. Here we have some sardonic reflections on the ever expanding cosmos of television, Mailer's use of it, its use of Mailer including his famous `tiff' with Gore Vidal; the inevitable squabbling and /or dueling over the women's liberation issues of the time that seem rather tame in retrospect; a well thought out review of Last Tango In Paris and its place in the cinematic pantheon; and, other miscellaneous work of the premier American existential traveler of that time. Also offered are some insights into what Mailer, as a literary man, was trying to do in various novels. In an age when seemingly every, even third-rate, writer has been the subject of `complete collectionitis' this book has that feel except here we have a first-rate writer. Okay, then let us cut to the chase. Must one read this book to getting a feel for Mailer and his style? No. One must read Armies of the Night, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, and An American Dream. But if you are a Mailer `junkie' or wannabe this is right up your alley.

travelling light
an exellent book. good introduction to mailer
much more enjoyable read than his novels ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Norman Mailer was a born writer.
...and the kind of writer that one either loves or hates. However one reacts to his turbulent personal life -- which he never tried to keep separate from his writing -- his work always fascinates. He had insights that compel us to see events and ideas from fresh points of view, and he expressed himself in ways that will intrigue those who love the creative use of language.

Mailer sampler from the 1960's
This is a collection of Mailer's work from 1960-66 and includes political articles, book reviews, a couple of stories, a few interviews, and some of the worst poetry ever written. Most readers either liked or hated Mailer, but whatever side of the fence you came down on it was impossible not to realize, even appreciate, the seriousness of his intent. Probably a quarter of the book is in some way concerned with Lyndon Johnson, and although he is highly critical, especially concerning events in Vietnam, he is also respectful and deeply reflective. Mailer also writes about the Kennedys, NYC politics, architecture, and a number of writers, including James Baldwin, Mary McCarthy, and Philip Roth among others. Of the interviews (one of which appears to be made up by Mailer), the best is the Paris Review one, where he is at his most speculative and ruminative. The stories, one a SF experiment, are forgettable, and the poetry, which is sprinkled throughout the book, is embarrassingly bad. The non-fiction Mailer represented here shows the author in full stride. ... Read more

Product Description
Mailer explores, among other topics, the attractions and limitations of non-fiction, the pressing need for work habits, the pitfalls of early success, and the dire business of coping with bad reviews. But perhaps the most entertaining moments are those in which he takes on his fellow writers, living and dead--Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, Henry Miller, Updike, Roth, Vonnegut, Garcia Marquez, Bellow, Styron, Beckett, and a host of others including Mark Twain, D.H. Lawrence, Borges, Cheever, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Greene, Mary McCarthy, Joan Didion, John Dos Passos, Burroughs, Baldwin, Salinger, Algren, and James Jones. Mailer writes, 'I believe I could end up as a good critic because I know so much about novel writing by now. I can always tell when someone is drawing sustenance out of his or her best vein and when the needle missed.' In THE SPOOKY ART, Norman Mailer's needle hits the target, drawing on the best of over fifty years of his own criticism, advice, and detailed observations about the writer's craft. ... Read more