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2 Burnside Literature- A to Z

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The Executioner's Song

by Norman Mailer

The Executioner's Song Cover

Awards

Winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In what is arguably his greatest book, written in 1979, America's most heroically ambitious writer follows the short, blighted career of Gary Gilmore, an intractably violent product of America's prisons who — after robbing two men and killing them in cold blood — insisted on dying for his crime. To do so, he had to fight a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.

Norman Mailer tells Gilmore's story — and those of the men and women caught up in his procession toward the firing squad — with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscapes and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah.

The Executioner's Song is a towering achievement, impossible to put down, impossible to forget.

Review:

"The big book no one but Mailer could have dared...absolutely astonishing." Joan Didion, The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Literature of the highest order." Miami Herald

Review:

"A harrowing account...elevated by Mailer's genius into art." Houston Chronicle

About the Author

Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1955, he was one of the co-founders of The Village Voice. He is the author of more than thirty books, including The Naked and the Dead; The Armies of the Night, for which he won a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; The Executioner's Song, for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize; Harlot's Ghost; Oswald's Tale; The Gospel According to the Son, The Castle and the Forest and On God. He died in 2007.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
aunniestar, May 21, 2009 (view all comments by aunniestar)
The Executioner's Song is a great read for anyone that is looking for a work of literary nonfiction that follows in the path of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Mailer's account of Gary Gilmore's story is intriguing and fascinating. Although the book is over 1,000 pages long, it is well worth the time and you'll find yourself getting through it quickly as it is a definite page turner.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780375700811
Author:
Mailer, Norman
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
American
Subject:
U.S. Government
Subject:
Gilmore, Gary
Subject:
Death row inmates
Subject:
Biographical fiction
Subject:
Death row inmates -- Utah -- Fiction.
Subject:
Government - U.S. Government
Subject:
Murderers
Edition Number:
1
Edition Description:
Vintage Intl
Publication Date:
April 1998
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
1072
Dimensions:
8.05x5.26x1.94 in. 1.77 lbs.

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