An American Dream [Norman Mailer]

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An American Dream

Norman Mailer

Henry Holt, NY. 1987. First Owl Book Edition. Some toning and creasing to spine and cover, but quite light. Text block in good shape. A very good copy.

From the publisher:

"In this wild battering ram of a novel, which was originally published to vast controversy in 1965, Norman Mailer creates a character who might be a fictional precursor of the philosopher-killer he would later profile in The Executioner’s Song. As Stephen Rojack, a decorated war hero and former congressman who murders his wife in a fashionable New York City high-rise, runs amok through the city in which he was once a privileged citizen, Mailer peels away the layers of our social norms to reveal a world of pure appetite and relentless cruelty. One part Nietzsche, one part de Sade, and one part Charlie Parker, An American Dream grabs the reader by the throat and refuses to let go."

Imagine of American Psycho was about a Republican politician in 1960s America and you can begin to get an idea of what's going on in this psycho-ass New York novel. 32 hours of raging violence and philosophy. Mailer finds himself read less and less these days, why not be on the vanguard of a revival for once?