About this title: Mailer's remarkable 1000-page "nonfiction novel" tells the story of the murderer Gary Gilmore. After a series of crimes, including cold-blooded murder, Gilmore is apprehended, tried, and sentenced to death. He accepts his fate without a fight, believing that he should die--when he is granted a stay of execution, he attempts suicide. By means of a series of interviews, Mailer focuses not only on Gilmore's story but on the media coverage of the trial and its aftermath, and the insights it provides into the American justice system and the American psyche. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316544177ISBN:0316544175
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Warner Books
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780446805582ISBN:0446805580
Description: Acceptable. Back/ Front cover is folded. Back/Front cover has minor tearing or ripping. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Warner Books
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780446345217ISBN:0446345210
Description: Good. Mass market paperback with no writing/highlighting. Light water damage to edges of first few pages. Cover is creased and worn. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Warner Books Inc
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780446805582ISBN:0446805580
Description: Good. Size: 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall; Good Minus Mass Market Paperback showing some wear, chipping to edges and spine. A lot of cover creases. Soiling/smudging, age/toning to page edges and cover. Binding good, text free of notes. Pages and inside covers tanned. Confirmation on all Domestic Orders! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Warner Books
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780446805582ISBN:0446805580
Description: Very Good. This book is in very good condition. The binding is tight and pages are clean. The cover has bumps, scuffs and creasing. It has been corner bumped. There is no creasing on the spine. read more
Binding: Two Cassettes
Publisher: True Crime Audio, California
Date Published: 1990
Description: Cassettes Very Good. Audio Book Abridged audio book on two tapes.....condition noted for cassettes only....audiobook, book on tape.. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780375700811ISBN:0375700811
Description: Good. No Jacket. Cover is soiled with worn edges and bumped corners. Spine creased. Small tear on cover near spine. Some pages soiled. FICTION NORMAN MAILER LITERATURE CURRENT AFFAIRS. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Warner Books
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780446805582ISBN:0446805580
Description: Good. Binding is tight and square. Light edge or corner wear. No names. Text is clean and bright. Careful packaging and fast shipping. We recommend PRIORITY mail for even faster delivery! read more
Description: 0606192174 Reading Copy only! Extremely well used! **Softcover**--NOTE! Has cover taped, and crinkle from water stain, but still very readable, OUT OF PRINT, Exactly as pictured--EXACT ISBN MATCH--cover has lots of shelf wear, and corner curl, Spine Creasing, and some age tan-No personalizations, No marks in the text at all. Still holding together well, despite extreme use. Ships Quickly-IN STOCK-Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
"The Executioner's Song is a great book mostly because of what it is not!
Norman Mailer tells the story of "ex-convict turned murderer" Gary Gilmore, covering the nine months' time period from his release from prison throughout his attempted (and failed) rehabilitation by his Mormon relatives in Utah to his committing two murders, his capture and his eventual execution. The death sentence was spectacular mainly for two reasons: It was the first execution in the US for ten years, after supreme court had suspended executions, and Gary Gilmore deliberately forfeited the right to appeal the death sentence and insisted his execution be carried out.
There are many ways one can go with a story like this. Sensationalist - the gory details of the murders, a look into the perverted mind of a monstrous killer. Compassionate - Gary Gilmore as the victim of a tough childhood and a system that failed him in times of need. Nietzschean tragedy - Gilmore as a highly intelligent, highly sensitive poet-genius in a world that has no place for him. Romeo and Juliet - Gary Gilmore's desperate romance with Nicole Baker and the murders he committed in mad passion when he believed he had lost her.
Mailer's achievement is that he tells none of those stories, but more or less presents us with the fact. Having read the 1000+ page account of those critical nine months, receiving a glimpse into Gilmore's family and background, into the community where his attempted rehabilitation took place, into the legal battles and the media spectacle of his execution, I am none the wiser. I don't know if I like or dislike Gary Gilmore or any other of the army of characters present in this book. The book doesn't make this decision for me. But I have gotten to know everybody well enough to one day make up my own mind.
"Literary journalism at its finest, and an example of how a gifted writer like Mailer can elevate the true crime genre. This book tells the story of Gary Gilmore, a habitual criminal who commits murder while robbing a gas station. He's tried, convicted and sentenced to death. This is not a spoiler-the basic premise of the book is that he was the first person sentenced to death following the reinstatement of capital punishment. It's staggering how well researched this novel is; Mailer really leaves no stone unturned in terms of speaking to everyone who ever knew or was victimized by Gilmore. He really digs deep into Gilmore's life and as a result you get what feels like a very complete picture of the man. This is a long book-1,000 + pages-but well worth the effort."
"The Executioner's Song was pretty great. I'm not going to say it's a flawless book, some masterpiece to behold, but it was certainly a compelling read. Part of me is a bit frustrated with the experience. It's such a deep exploration, and I'm not sure I feel any closer to knowing what made Gilmore do what he did. Glimpses maybe, but it would still be guesses.
One flaw is that at times Mailer's exhaustive investigative journalism was exhausting to read. There were moments, especially all the details with the lawyers and Schiller, I was bored and distracted, ready to get back to Gilmore. The details were a bit mundane, and some of it felt superfluous. That could have something to do with Mailer's style too, which is very dry.
Still, it was a worthwhile read, and that sounds less impressive than it deserves. Let me put it another way. I was always eager to pick it up when I had the chance, even during it's slower segments."
"The first part of this book, detailing Gary Gilmore's life from his release from prison through his killing of tw men, his trial and sentencing, is fascinating. The rest of the book is less so, although not uninteresting. Unfortunately, the second part of the book is well over 600 pages long.
The second part of the book, which focuses on Gilmore's stay on Death Row, the legal battle by others to stop his execution and, most significantly, the story of Larry Schiller's acquisition of the rights to Gilmore's story and how Schiller went about developing the material, just isn't sufficiently compelling to take up so much time and space. The legal battle doesn't provide much insight into the actual constitutional issues or arguments; it focuses more on the individual attorneys and their maneuverings. The Schiller part of the story is only of mild interest. Not surprisingly, Schiller is portrayed very sympathetically, despite the fact that his role fits to a T the cliche of the Hollywood producer entering into a real-life human drama to sign the principals up. (The book was written by Mailer apparently under contract to Schiller. It is based on the material, including interviews, collected by Schiller. The copyright in the book is jointly owned.)
Ultimately, Gilmore remains something of a puzzle-an intelligent, sometimes charming man/boy who has spent most of his adult life in prison, he is released into a world much friendlier and supportive than most prisoners ever experience. His relatives provide a home for him, help him get a job, his boss is sympathetic and bends over backwards to help Gilmore adjust. Nevertheless, he senselessly begins to steal and in relatively short order senselessly kills two men in different incidents. Schiller's interviewers are never able to engage Gilmore in a meaningful dialogue to try to explain any of this.
Perhaps because they are hampered by the limitations of the interview and other material, Mailer/Schiller never really come to grips, or really event attempt to do so, with the central mystery here--why did Gary Gilmore kill? And ultimately, despite the superficial charm of Gilmore, that's the only question that is really interesting."
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