Synopses & Reviews
Norman Mailer was one of the giants of American letters and one of the most celebrated public figures of his time. He was a novelist, journalist, biographer, and filmmaker; a provocateur and passionate observer of his times; and a husband, father, and serial philanderer.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Perhaps nothing characterized Mailer more than his unbounded ambition. He wanted not merely to be the greatest writer of his generation, but a writer great enough to be compared to Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. As Michael Lennon describes, he even had presidential ambitions, although he settled for running for mayor of New York City. He championed personal freedom and civil liberties, calling himself a and#8220;left conservative,and#8221; and yet he was Enemy #1 of the Womenand#8217;s Movement. He was as pugnacious in real life as in print, engaging in famous feuds and fights. Although he considered himself first and foremost a novelist, his greatest literary contribution may have been in journalism, where he used his novelistic gifts in tandem with self-revelation to explore the American psyche. In that regard, the subtitle of his Pulitzer Prizeand#8211; and National Book Awardand#8211;winning andlt;I andgt;Armies of the Nightandlt;/Iandgt; is telling: and#8220;History as a Novel, the Novel as History.and#8221; He would return to certain subjects obsessively: John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, sex, technology, and the intricate relationship of fame and identity. Michael Lennonand#8217;s definitive biography captures Mailer in all his sharp complexities and shows us how he self-consciously invented and reinvented himself throughout his lifetime.andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Michael Lennon knew Mailer for thirty-five years, and in writing this biography, he has had the cooperation of Mailerand#8217;s late widow, Norris Church, his ex-wives, and all of his children, as well as his sister, Barbara. He also had access to Mailerand#8217;s vast, unpublished correspondence and papers, and he interviewed dozens of people who knew Mailer. andlt;I andgt;Norman Mailer: A Double Lifeandlt;/Iandgt; gives us the man in full, a remarkable and unique figure in the context of his times.
Review
and#8220;In the hands of this superb biographer, Norman Mailer comes vividly to lifeand#8212;irresistible, brilliant, formidable, hungry for fame, and endlessly fascinating. Lennonand#8217;s great achievement lies in matching Mailerand#8217;s energy and talent with his own. This is surely one of the best biographies ever written of an American writer.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Lennon captures Mailer brilliantlyand#8212;in all his guises and disguises. At the heart of Mailerand#8217;s writing was a selfishness to live as many lives as possible, coupled with a deep and elusive empathy. He kept slipping into new times, and geographies, losing himself there. The only things worth doing were the things that might break a heartand#8212;and indeed he broke many. Lennon looks at a literary life with great compassion and comprehensive accuracy. A biography for scholars and readers alike.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Norman Mailer lived a big, brash, bawdy, belligerent life, and J. Michael Lennon has captured every moment of it.and#8221;
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"Mailer comes alive on every page, often in his own words, compulsive in his self-overcoming, in his and#8216;Napoleonicand#8217; battling with peers and critics to become Americaand#8217;s number-one writer, and in his often self-destructive dealings with the world he wanted to analyze (and did) and conquer (not quite). This biography is brisk and electric, a vigorous panorama of the and#8216;singular, unprecedented and irreplaceableand#8217; life that Norman Mailer lived."
Review
and#8220;I knew Mailer for more than a half-century; he was the most prolific and wide-ranging literary intellect of my lifetime. Thanks to Lennonand#8217;s biography, I am learning a lot that I never knew.and#8221;
Review
"A must-read for students and admirers of Mailer's work."
Review
and#8220;In this meticulous authorized biography, Lennon offers a comprehensive and unflinching look at the life of the controversial American novelist, journalist, and filmmaker. . . . Lennonand#8217;s almost clinical perspective shows the authorand#8217;s restless innovation, which was indispensable for understanding the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[A] sweeping full-scale biography. . . . A mighty undertaking befitting Mailerand#8217;s lifetime of protean output. . . . Lennon is a fluid writer, and heand#8217;s done his homework. Thereand#8217;s not a paragraph in this enormous book that doesnand#8217;t contain a nugget of something you should have known or wish you had known. Lennon has it all, and he has it down. And despite being his subjectand#8217;s literary executor, he has not sanded the corners of a career and life, each of which has plenty of texture and lots of sharp edges. . . . Glorious.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Lennon brings Mailer thoroughly alive in this great wallop of a book. His is the reporterand#8217;s eye, not the judgeand#8217;s, and he captures the entirety of a man who embodied his era like no other.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[Lennon] adds many details and corrects some canards. He is especially good on the late, lion-in-winter years. . . .Lennonand#8217;s over-all argument seems right: and#8216;Mailerand#8217;s desire for fame, and his distaste for it, never abated over his long career.and#8217;and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[Lennon] marshals an impressive amount of research and deploys it deftly. . . . As for Mailerand#8217;s exhaustingly various andlt;BRandgt; oeuvre, Mr. Lennon knows it about as well as anyone alive.and#8221;
Review
"A massive brilliant book that needs attention because knowing of Mailer's life and work may tell us something about ourselves.and#8221;
Review
The raw material that made up Mailerand#8217;s busy, teeming life might have given lesser biographers fits (or even suggested that a multi-volume approach was in order), but Lennon is able to keep pace and#8211; and so are we. . . . This enthralling book captures something of Mailerand#8217;s insatiable, ever-surprising interest in the world in which he lived."
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"Mailer had invited Lennon to be his biographer, and this richly detailed, revealing and very frank volume is the happy result. . . . Masterful."
Review
and#8220;A swashbuckling literary adventure story."
Review
"An exhaustive, fascinating, and fair-minded account of [Mailer's] life and work. . . . Written with the cooperation of Mailerand#8217;s family, this thoroughly researched biography promises to be definitive. Essential for anyone with a serious interest in Mailer and his work."
Review
andlt;divandgt;"Huge and satisfying. . . . An extraordinary biography of an extraordinary life."andlt;/divandgt;
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"A must-read for students and admirers of Mailer's work." Deirdre Bair, author of Saul Steinberg and Samuel Beckett
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“A swashbuckling literary adventure story." Daniel Dyer - The Plain Dealer
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"Huge and satisfying. . . . An extraordinary biography of an extraordinary life."
Review
"Lennon has done a very fine job of chronicling most every possible dimension of a sprawling, brawling, daredevil-cum-car wreck of a singularly great American writerand#8217;s life."
Review
andlt;divandgt;"Likely to be the standard biography for this generation."andlt;/divandgt;
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"A perceptive biography, one with a keen understanding of [Mailer's] work, his mind and his darkest impulses."
Review
"Likely to be the standard biography for this generation."
Synopsis
andlt;Bandgt;From the biographer who knew Norman Mailer for decades comes the definitive, authorized portrait of the eminent novelist, journalist, and controversial public figure, based on extensive interviews and unpublished letters.andlt;/Bandgt;andlt;pandgt;Norman Mailer was the one of the most famous writers of his generation, a figure as notorious for his stormy romances and quarrels with other writers as he was respected for his numerous bestsellers and literary accolades. In this candid biography, J. Michael Lennon brings a wealth of research informed by his years of personal acquaintance with Mailer, as well as the cooperation of Mailer's family, to reveal the life and work of an American legend.andlt;BRandgt;
In a career that produced eleven bestsellers, Mailer lived through every great postwar event of the twentieth century and commented on many of them. From his initial success with his World War II novel The Naked and the Dead, through his observations on the convulsive 1960s in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night, to his own quixotic run for mayor of New York City, his life was a reflection of the turbulent times in which he lived. A man of sharp complexities, he was loved and loathed, the most prominent public intellectual of his time, at once an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and the bête noir of the women's rights movement. Lennon explores Mailer's dualities: journalist and activist, devoted family man (he was married six times and was the father of nine children) and notorious philanderer, intellectual and fighter, writer and public figure, all of them evolving through Mailer's self-conscious effort to create a distinctive identity for himself.
Capturing this protean life as never before, Norman Mailer: A Double Life gives us the man in full--a remarkable and unique figure, a giant in the context of his time.
Synopsis
From the biographer who knew Norman Mailer for decades comes the definitive, authorized portrait of the eminent novelist, journalist, and controversial public figure, based on extensive interviews and unpublished letters.Norman Mailer was the one of the most famous writers of his generation, a figure as notorious for his stormy romances and quarrels with other writers as he was respected for his numerous bestsellers and literary accolades. In this candid biography, J. Michael Lennon brings a wealth of research informed by his years of personal acquaintance with Mailer, as well as the cooperation of Mailer’s family, to reveal the life and work of an American legend.
In a career that produced eleven bestsellers, Mailer lived through every great postwar event of the twentieth century and commented on many of them. From his initial success with his World War II novel The Naked and the Dead, through his observations on the convulsive 1960s in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night, to his own quixotic run for mayor of New York City, his life was a reflection of the turbulent times in which he lived. A man of sharp complexities, he was loved and loathed, the most prominent public intellectual of his time, at once an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and the bête noir of the women’s rights movement. Lennon explores Mailer’s dualities: journalist and activist, devoted family man (he was married six times and was the father of nine children) and notorious philanderer, intellectual and fighter, writer and public figure, all of them evolving through Mailer’s self-conscious effort to create a distinctive identity for himself.
Capturing this protean life as never before, Norman Mailer: A Double Life gives us the man in full—a remarkable and unique figure, a giant in the context of his time.
About the Author
J. Michael Lennon is Emeritus Vice President for Academic Affairs and Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. In addition to being chair of the editorial board of andlt;iandgt;The Mailer Reviewandlt;/iandgt;, he has written or edited several books about and with Mailer.