Norman Mailer has died.

[Brownian Motion]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Obit-Mailer.html

[brownie]

Damn

Norman Mailer was the first american writer I read in english. This was his great war novel 'The Naked and the Dead'.

I remained attached to his writings until a couple of decades ago.

A great writer passed away...

[alocispepraluger102]

i will miss his perspectives, his fire, and his interviews and public talks.

may he rest in peace.

[connoisseur series500]

I read his book on the Ali-Foreman fight. It was very interesting. I've always wanted to read "Executioner's Song." He was labelled as a Hemingway acolyte. Was that a fair label? Hope Guy quotes the Economist obit. They are usually pretty good.

[alocispepraluger102]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/st...2004872,00.html

[GregK]

I found Executioner's Song to be a fascinating, riveting read. I haven't gotten around to any of his other books.

[ghost of miles]

Advertisements for Myself is my favorite--though I've read only several of his books. Seems to me like he was one of the last literary lions, in the sense of writer-as-public-figure... those days have largely passed for authors. RIP Mr. Mailer.

[sheldonm]

Advertisements for Myself is my favorite--though I've read only several of his books. Seems to me like he was one of the last literary lions, in the sense of writer-as-public-figure... those days have largely passed for authors. RIP Mr. Mailer.

agreed!

[Brownian Motion]

For much of the ’50s he drifted, frequently drunk or stoned or both, and affected odd accents: British, Irish, gangster, Texan. In 1955, together with two friends, Daniel Wolf and Edwin Fancher, he founded The Village Voice, and while writing a column for that paper he began to evolve what became his trademark style — bold, poetic, metaphysical, even shamanistic at times — and his personal philosophy of hipsterism. It was a homespun, Greenwich Village version of existentialism, which argued that the truly with-it, blacks and jazz musicians especially, led more authentic lives and enjoyed better orgasms.

[From the NYT obit]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/books/11mailer.html?hp

[Randy Twizzle]

When I was a politically obsessed 8th grader I tried to read a paperback copy of "Miami and the Siege of Chicago" but it was just too difficult for me to finish. I did take from it his description of people at a Rockefeller rally looking like "parochial school meat eaters." I also remember several of his appearances on the The Dick Cavett show and my brother telling me that Mailer was a genius. "Oh so that's how a genius talks" I thought.

[T.D.]

I read some of his earlier novels (notably The Naked and the Dead) when I was much younger, and thought they were pretty good. I didn't care much for Mailer's brash, egotistical public posturing, so avoided most of his later material (latter '60s and on). I'll have to read some more and reassess. He was definitely a talent, and will be missed.

[medjuck]

If I remember it correctly on the witness stand during the trial of the Chicago 8 (7?) he made the profound declaration

"nuance is everything".

[BruceH]

I've long had the impression that he wasn't as good as he thought he was. Nevertheless RIP.

[Brownian Motion]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/books/10...praisal.html?hp

Michiko Kakutani's appraisal of Mailer's career.

[clifford_thornton]

There was a really cool exhibition of artefacts from his archives at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center last year in Austin. I wish I had the chance to see him speak then.

RIP Mr. Mailer.

[Alexander]

Being born in 1970 (and being primarily interested in 19th and early 20th century writers), I've always shied away from Mailer, but after reading some of the comments on this board, I'd be interested in checking one of his books out. Any suggestions on the best place to start? Two mid-to-late 20th century authors I'm into are Philip Roth and Truman Capote. How would you say Mailer fits in with them, stylistically speaking. I have also read some Hemingway and a LOT of Faulkner (I definitely see Capote as a Faulkner disciple).