R.I.P Norman Mailer

[Dominique]

Norman Mailer, author of The Executioner's Song and The Naked and the Dead, died yesterday at the age of 84.
Norman also had a cameo in the Gilmore Girls ep "Norman Mailer I'm Pregnant".
Here is a short excerpt of an article chis lommemorating his life, the full thing can be found at:
www.smh.com.au/news/books/norman-mailer-dead-at-84/2007/11/11/1194724813032.html

Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song, died today aged 84, his literary executor said.

Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J Michael Lennon, who is also the author's biographer.

From his classic debut novel The Naked and the Dead, set in the South Pacific in World War II, to such masterworks of literary journalism as The Armies of the Night, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for his insight, passion and originality.

Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old "enfant terrible".

Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, streetwise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.

He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA (Young Women's Hebrew Association, a Jewish community centre) for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against women's liberation.

But as Newsweek reviewer Raymond Sokolov said in 1968, "in the end it is the writing that will count".

[neh]

May he rest in peace. I have never read any of his work but i shall one day and he did a wonderful cameo for GG that time, so i salute him! He may not have held opinions i side with, but i hate the notion of someone ending their life feeling unfulfilled - i do hope that part of the article wasn't true.

[jobean]

'I haven't read any of his works either, but it's on my TBR list.
I had to say this, even though it's probably inappropriate.

"NORMAN MAILER! I'M PREGNANT!

[zeldafitzgerald]

It's been a sad year for literature...... so many greats passed away.

[bookworm148]

First Kurt Vonnegut, now Norman Mailer....it's so sad!

[sagedautumn]

I've never read his work but it seems his own life is one big dramatic novel in itself

[Hanna]

I agree. Like most of you he's on my tbr list. There was another author who died this year too, who was it?...ah! Maria Gripe. That's three then. May they all rest in peace

[rosemint]

May they all rest in peace. Hope that no more writers are gonna die soon...

[bookaddict]

When I think of authors dying, I think of Augusten Burroughts. He bought tons of manuscripts and then secretly joped they would die soon, so he could make tons of money off those manuscripts. Sounds morbid, but his short story is hilarious.

[Michelle]

Like that episode of Entourage where they want to buy the baseball player's jersey because they think he is going to die, but instead he ends up perfectly healthy.

I've never read anything by Norman Mailor, but I intend to. Sad year indeed.

[zeldafitzgerald]

Don't forget about Madeleine L'Engle this year too.....

And Bookaddict - I love that story by Augusten Burroughs too!

[oureternity]

May they all rest in piece. Mailer's works are on my TBR list as well..

[Lu]

It's so sad
May they all rest in peace.

[Carma]

so, Ira Levin also just died...

[Isa]

Here's a link to the NY Times article about Ira Levin passing away: www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/books/14levin.html?ref=arts