- Hardcover: 720 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; (Reissue) edition (4 Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0586091157
- ISBN-13: 978-0586091159
- Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.1 x 4.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 133,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Naked and the Dead
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Mailer recorded every foul thought and word of his characters, wrote about ignorant, savage, primitive men. For maturity of viewpoint, for technical competence, and for stark dramatic power, The Naked and the Dead is an incredibly finished performance.’
New York Times
Product Description
Fifitieth Anniversary Edition With a new introduction by Norman Mailer
‘The best war novel to come out of the United States.’ The Times
Norman Mailer’s first novel. The book that catapulted him to instant fame.
A modern classic, on every American Literature student’s reading list.
Based on Mailer’s own experience of military service in the Philippines during World War Two, The Naked and the Dead is a graphically truthful and shattering portrayal of ordinary men in battle. First published in 1949, as America was still basking in the glories of the Allied victory, it altered forever the popular perception of warfare.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I though this a classic novel of World War II, set in the Pacific (U. S. American) theatre. What Mailer does so well is to describe an average group of American Joes, who are not always very likeable, and, taking them through the war, make it all so believable and compelling. The battle descriptions are sometimes horrific, but it is Mailer's willingness to describe the tedium and routine, indeed the pettiness, of war, that is ultimately the book's enduring strength - sometimes war is not heroic or even bloody, but just mundane and squalid.
My only (minor) complaint is that Mailer, who was trained as an engineer at Harvard, tries too hard to make everything connect, when perhaps, in dealing with human affairs, and wartime especially, the point is that life doesn't always connect. Thus I felt at times the book went on too long, a few hundred pages too long, though I want to say it was still a great reading experience, one I recommend to anyone even remotely interested.
And don't stop there! If you like this one, try Gore Vidal's World War II novel, Williwaw, set in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska (a "Williwaw" is a freak storm up there that whips down from the mountains causing freak seas and havoc to shipping - one such storm features in the book.) Williwaw has a cool style and controlled prose that reminds me of Joseph Conrad. Also consider John Horne Burns' WW II novel, The Gallery, set in Naples at the end of the war. This is a lyrical, almost Tennessee Williams' style-novel, about a hick/yob North American soldier coming into contact for the first time with the older, softer culture of the Mediterranean and falling for it, in the form of a decent and beautiful Neapolitan woman down on her luck in collapsed-economy Naples.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not only is this a classic piece of war fiction it delves deeply into the psyche of men under intolerable pressure.The result is not pretty and Mailer makes no apologies for his unforgiving portrayal of the base and primitive side of men at war.It is as fresh today as it was when first written shortly after the end of World War 11 and still is deeply relevant.This is a powerhouse of a novel with stunning charecterisations of men from the weak General Cummings to the more down to earth but nevertheless phiposophical Sergeant Croft.It is a classic novel by any standards.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although superficially a war novel the predominent themes of this book are escapism and the disappointment of unfulfilled desires. Each chapter ends with a potted biography of each protagonist and the life they have left behind in the US, academic failure, an unfulfilling job or a loveless marriage and effectively juxtaposes these incidents against the grind, boredom and sheer physical trauma of war. In these cases these men have escaped an imagined hell for a real one. Although in the main this book is downbeat it remains rivetting, in particular a 300 page passage covering the platoons mission through the jungle which demands to be read at one sitting and ends with a bizarre piece of Catch 22 style black humour.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mailer's Compelling War Epic
At over 700 pages in length Norman Mailer's 1949 novel can rightly be categorised as something of an epic tale, which charts the experiences of a group of American army soldiers... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Keith M
One of the great American war novels
Maybe not "the best war novel ever," which is what has been said of this work, but undeniably up there with the greats. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Andrew Phillips
Tedious plod
I read Dickens' Our Mutual Friend just before I started on this and it was like walking from the light into darkness. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Malcolm Black
Great story, crappy ebook
The story is as good as you'd expect from a classic, but the kindle edition is a horrible hackjob. It is missing proper chapter markers and there are hundreds of errors where the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jesper Monsted
fulfils, and surpasses its formidable reputation
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer's war novel of highest repute, charts a short campaign on a Japanese island in WW II. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by Talc Demon
Earth moving..
This could have gone on for another 700 pages and i would've been fine.
A great book by a great writer.
Brutal, realistic story-telling.
A great book by a great writer.
Brutal, realistic story-telling.
Published on 1 Oct 2008
War for real
The Naked and the Dead remains the most realistic war novel I have read. It is neither a romance of heroic deeds nor the grinding, dehumanised tragedy that WWI novels tend to be. Read more
Published on 16 July 2008 by reader 451
Very impressive
There's nothing much to say really: together with James Jones' "The thin red line" this is the best account of WW II combat that I know of. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2007 by Didier
Much more than just a War Novel
The mental tussle between Hearn and Cummings provided some great moments of tension, you are never sure how the General will react to Hearns challenges. Read more
Published on 24 Jan 2006 by Nickolai Toposky
The Naked and the Dead
I picked up this book at random and have been hooked on Mailer ever since.
Quite simply the best WWII book I have ever read. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2005 by "junk2838"
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