When you read a particularly incisive ;well -researched , hard-hitting article in some of todays quality periodicals ,like the great Seymour Hersh exposes of Abu Ghraib , in magazines like New Yorker , Rolling Stone and even some of Britains Sunday supplements the style of writing and the skilled essayist delivery were not invented overnight but was a genre developed over the period of the early 50s by such greats as Truman Capote , E.L.Doctorow and Norman Mailer.
This style of writing , as well as getting stories out which are against the mainstream grain , though valuable enough to touch the public concern in great appreciable numbers requires a certain pugnacious pusillanimous ego.
This trait did not win Norman great respect in the higher established literary circles , nor the approval of the mass media.But he did permeate a stand-offish respect with the public which , despite many a calamitous review , brought his work in solid numbers through many decades.
This Book is an extended highlights spanning of some 50 years of his work.Containing clips of a vast and powerhouse archive which astonishes.As you see in the review titles the word "Imperfect" is one that comes out loud and clear , but genius is never far behind.Whatever you think of Norman Mailer , without doubt he captured post-war US thought;politics and culture in a light which is only now becoming clear.
Below is a Mailer sharing his crystal clear views on the "appeal" of fascism:
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