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Product Description
Product Description
In the summer of 1976 Gary Gilmore robbed two men. Then he shot them in cold blood. For those murders Gilmore was sent to languish on Death Row - and could confidently expect his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. In America, no one had been executed for ten years.
But Gary Gilmore wanted to die, and his ensuing battle with the authorities for the right to do so made him into a world-wide celebrity - and ensured that his execution turned into the most gruesome media event of the decade.
About the Author
Normal Mailer was born in New Jersey in January 1923 and after graduating from Harvard, served in the US army from 1944-1946. His first novel, The Naked and the Dead, was published to immediate critical acclaim in 1948 - and has been hailed as 'the best war novel to emerge from the United States' (Anthony Burgess).
He has subsequently published both fiction and non-fiction and his books include Barbary Shore (1951), The Deer Park (1955), Advertisements for Myself (1959), The Presidential Papers (1963), An American Dream (1964), Armies of The Night (1968), Ancient Evenings (1983), and Tough Guys Don't Dance (1983)
The Executioner's Song, first published in 1979, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 - an award which Mailer has won twice during his writing career.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spellbound for a 1000 pages,
By fields21 "fields21" (Hoogerheide, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Arena Books) (Paperback)
Mailer's tour de force. This monster book (+1000 pages long)tells the true story of an intelligent convict on parole in 1976, falling into his bad ways, and meets destiny calmly.Mailer tells the story as an old Greek bard - in the end, it seems the only way things could have happened. Mailer gets into the skin of most people involved or related, describes their feelings (perfectly understable), measures the impact on America (wow! a convicted killer demands a right to die, overruling his own defence, apparently supporting the idea behind the penal code etc). The other main storyline is oddly a love affair (also factual, not fictional) between the convicted and a girl. It is essetially a story of two social drop outs, two drifters but nevertheless really 'gelling' to use a modern term. Doesn't bore for one bit. Good story on the madness of the US criminal system, the criminals, their families, their victims the press. In a way it shows that people in the end care (mainly about their own interests) and at the same time be totally careless, cyanical. Makes you think about society. Of course, Mailer being Mailer, a lot of sex, drugs and violence are on the pages, but do not dominate the story. The whole thing just takes you by the hand & after the 1000-odd pages, a big sigh & many thoughts pass. Recommended.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An exceptional tale of desire to change history,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Arena Books) (Paperback)
The executioners song is a compelling tale of one mans desire to end his own life and change the lives of many more forever.A convicted murderer who had spent many years behind bars tasted freedom, vices and love. Throws them away along with the lives of his family and lover. He continues to control and dominate his lover to the point of her ending her life. He expresses an enormous desire to receive his just reward for killing innocent men and escape forever his torment of prison. The story doesn't go into why he spent many years in prison prior to being released on parole. This element of his life may have had some impact as to why he did what he did later. The ardous battle with his family and lawyers for him to escape from his prison life ahead of him is compelling. The impact that his actions had on America is unbelievable. His words of just do it explain his casual approach to murder and death but did he do it for attention? The lives of so many have been affected and those close to him are the only ones who can say. I have read this masterpiece over the last nine years and each time understand a little more. Would his suicide have affected the rest of America as his execution? Control freak or coward? More questions will be raised, reading may supply the answer.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mailers song hits the "high, white note",
By
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Arena Books) (Paperback)
This jaw-dropping book recieves less than flattering reviews because for some reason people want to be spoon-fed "answers" all the time to people like Gary Gilmore. What Mailer delivers instead is a truly outstanding feat of journalism, far surpassing any fiction, by painstakingly building Gilmores story from thousands of discrete, taut, unsentimental blocks of prose - allowing us to cement them together and giving us room to think for ourselves. Readers expecting Mailer to provide plot, climax, titillation, shocking details or answers as to "why" will rightly be bored, and have missed the point. Mailers neutral measured prose provides just the right angle of entry into a life that was devoid of plot and reason, just action and reaction. It is a clear white light cutting through the interests whose story he tells so skilfully in this book. Yes the length does not help, and you should do yourself a big favour take it on holiday and read it in a long hard week. But do it with an open mind and you will be infinitely rewarded... and glad you did. Unique, and to be treasured.Once you've read this, grab more gems of late 20th c. American journalism - start with Hunter S Thompsons "The Great Shark Hunt" and Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test".
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