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In the Vital City piece “Bringing the Fun Back to Fun City: Zohran Mamdani, Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin” Gabriel S. Tennen draws a line connecting Mamdani’s off‑beat 2025 mayoral push with Mailer and Breslin’s 1969 “51st State” NYC campaign. The article highlights how Mailer and Breslin
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In his LitHub article, “Fighting for One’s Fiction: How Norman Mailer Taught Me to Defend My Plots,” Anthony Giardina revisits Mailer’s 1959 work, Advertisements for Myself. Giardina focuses on Mailer's candid “Fourth Advertisement for Myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park," where Mailer narrates
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In his Collider article “10 Novels To Read if You Love No Country for Old Men,” Luc Haasbroek recommends Mailer’s An American Dream as a compelling read for fans of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Haasbroek suggests that Mailer's work shares thematic elements with No Country for
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J. Michael Lennon, Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre and authorized biographer of Norman Mailer: Norman Mailer: A Double Life issued by Simon & Schuster, speaking about the recently released work by Mailer titled, Lipton's: Mailer's Marijuana Journal: 1954-55 co-edited with Gerald R.
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Today, Norman Mailer would have been 102. Here are some birthday wishes and mentions from around the Interwebs. * Lit Hub Daily, January 31, 2025. * UPI Almanac, and again. * KALW Public Media. * Andrews McMeel Almanac for January 31, 2025.
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In his Spectator article, “How Norman Mailer Changed the Face of Biography,” Society member Robert Dean Lurie examines Mailer’s unconventional approach to biographical writing. Lurie highlights how Mailer’s works, such as Marilyn and Oswald’s Tale, blend speculative insights with narrative flair, offering readers a unique, almost novelistic
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In his New Statesman article, “We Must All Be Left Conservatives Now,” Lee Siegel considers Norman Mailer’s self-description as a “Left conservative” from The Armies of the Night. Siegel interprets this term as a blend of progressive economic policies with a desire to preserve cultural traditions. He argues that
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In his “The Real Woke Right,” Geoff Shullenberger examines the rise of right-wing movements that adopt progressive language to advance conservative agendas. He references Norman Mailer’s observations on the fluidity of political identities, highlighting Mailer’s belief that ideological labels often mask deeper, more complex motivations. Shullenberger suggests that
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In her recent CrimeReads article, “The Ghosts of Tough Guys Don’t Dance,” Society member Olivia Rutigliano examines Mailer’s 1984 novel and its 1987 film adaptation. She explores how Mailer immerses these works in noir elements—think hard-boiled detectives, femme fatales, and shadowy settings—while also pushing the genre’
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In his Commonweal article, “Where Secularism Fails,” Paul Baumann touches on Norman Mailer’s sharp critiques of modern secularism. Mailer argued that the Enlightenment’s focus on reason and progress often overlooked deeper human needs—like confronting existential questions and finding meaning in a chaotic world. Baumann brings up Mailer
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In “Norman Mailer vs. the Big Empty,” published in Tablet Magazine, Society member David Mikics examines Mailer’s enduring critique of American society’s corporate and conformist tendencies. Mikics highlights Mailer’s 1962 debate with William F. Buckley Jr., where Mailer proposed an unconventional strategy to end the Cold War
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WVIA Public Media · J. Michael Lennon; August 30 2024 J. Michael Lennon, Professor Emeritus of English at Wilkes University, co-founder of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing there and author of the official biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life, speaking about Miami and the Siege of Chicago written