book data
383 ratings,
3.38
average rating, 32 reviews
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published
February 5th 1996
by Rivages
(first published 1984)
details
Poche, 389 pages
isbn
274360008X
(isbn13: 9782743600082)
description
"A novel that is as brash and brooding and ultimately as mesmerizing as the author himself...The dazzling balance betwen humor and horror keeps u…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 520)
All ratings
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5 stars (63)
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4 stars (105)
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3 stars (143)
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2 stars (59)
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1 star (13)
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avg 3.38
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
bookshelves:
bullshit,
comedy-parody,
contemporary_fiction,
i-lack-objectivity-on-this-one,
read-but-dont-recall-much,
read-when-young
Read in June, 1985
In a box somewhere I still have all of my Norman Mailer books, with which I have a relationship that can only be called ambivalent. At the time, I thought he was brilliant even while finding much of his work howlingly awful. Often at the same time. (See Harlot's Ghost, a novel that oscillates wildly between great and terrible and that I remember loving beyond all reason.)
Take this novel, which is a typically overwrought take on a noirish thriller and mixes Mailer's usual obsessions (dr...more
Take this novel, which is a typically overwrought take on a noirish thriller and mixes Mailer's usual obsessions (dr...more
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Read in June, 2009
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. It doesn't seem to illustrate Mailer's mastery of language and story telling. His writing does, however, capture quite well the strange, violently surreal, half-paranoid/half-indifferent malaise of hard-core alcoholism. In fact, the whole book reminds me in many ways of a recurring dream I had during my years of dark adventures with the sauce. Also pervasive in the book is a struggle with masculinity, repressed homosexuality, and misogyny tangle...more
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Is this where Mailer asks the question, why do gay men congregate in cities with giant phallic monuments? I can't remember.
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How did I miss reading Mailer when I was younger? I still haven't read his most acclaimed books, but where were my parents? Well, I guess all the sex, pot, coke, LSD, and violence probably kept them from heralding him to me as a lad. I occasionally get the same feeling I get when reading Thompson, an enjoyable shock accompanied by envy over their prose. I find it hard to make a role model out of someone who had six wives and stabbed one of them, but hey, nobody's perfect.
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I gave this murder mystery 4 stars because I think it was skillfully written. It's not for the sensitive though - it's loaded with mature themes, like graphic sex, brutal violence, homophobia and drugs. The author seemed to be striving to push the reader's buttons. If you are a mature adult, read it, then take a shower afterward.
Una novela policiaca,la cual ha influido en mi vida a tal punto que cuando en una fiestan me invintan a bailar hago referencia al titulo de la novela jajjaj no, no se crean.
Lo que es cierto es que este libro es uno de los que marco mi adolescencia y me hizo viajar a Provincetown tan diafanamente que aún recuerdo pequeños detalles.
Lo que es cierto es que este libro es uno de los que marco mi adolescencia y me hizo viajar a Provincetown tan diafanamente que aún recuerdo pequeños detalles.
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Read in March, 2009
One of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors. A murder mystery where both the murderer and the victim are the mysteries. Set in off-season Provincetown in the 80's, the tip of Cape Cod is like a character in itself.
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Read in September, 2007
Ok, yes. This book has a veneer of misogyny, but truly the real issue here is not a hatred of women but a willful misunderstanding of women. This book’s only concern is masculinity; the women here are presented only as noir femme fatales or gun molls. To take great offence at Mailer's disparaging such mythical creatures is akin to being frustrated at the mischaracterization elves or unicorns. This is the nature of the genre. What made this book worth reading (for me), was the application of Ma...more
Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
Dan and Mike
In general, this book was like pulling teeth...from your vagina. Yup, vagina dentata, which surprisingly, did not make an appearence in Tough Guys. Still, I found the level of misogyny quite satisfactory. I think it's supposed to be satirical? And don't despair, guys, Mailer hasn't forgotten about you; he also explores machismo and homosexuality...so read it if you want to "search the recesses and buried virtues of the modern American male." And who doesn't?
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Mailer comes off like a new-age Raymond Chandler in this confusing, masculine mystery. Because he wrote it quickly to meet a publishing deadline, there is none of the self-indulgence of his other books.
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Read in August, 2005
People say this book lacks plot, and they are correct. People say the characters are unsympathetic & trashy. Also correct. Can’t help but like it, though. Mailer’s prose is engaging.
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My first Norman Mailer experience and I will be back. A disturbing, but absorbing read about murder, drugs and everything else bad.
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Read in January, 2010
This is my first Mailer, and while some are saying this is not his best material, I'm not itching to read more of him. Sour and miserable without a confident forward momentum to the bitterness.
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Read in January, 1986
While not considered to be Mailer's best work, it is nevertheless my favorite. If I could offer this bit of advice: read it like you are watching a black and white film noir movie on a dark and rainy night. It's meant to be digested that way, only you won't get that until you've read it a number of times. Mailer explores marriage, homosexuality, marriage AND homosexuality, among other erotic notions, on the back roads along Cape Cod.
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Read in October, 2008
Norman Mailer lived in Provincetown and this book fairly accurately captures the deadbeats, drunks, crooks, cops, and drunken crooked cops that make up a large portion of Cape Cod's year-round population.
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Having read this book, i felt violated. gratuitous profanity and sex. a waste of Mailer's talent and intelligence and obvious display of his misogyny. It was, however, a page-turner, so I finished it quickly!
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Read in December, 2007
a funny, bloody 80s noir with a reprint of updike's long and ridiculous description of a vagina. (which mailer and his character greatly admire.)
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Read in August, 2005
Norman Mailer is one of my favorite authors but this one he must have written more-so drunk than usual because it's really sub-par
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It wasn't the misogyny, the machismo, or the overblown prose. There is just noir out there that is so much better and more original.
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I enjoyed this book; however, I grew weary of Mailer`s sexual fixations and found the plot a little too farfetched.
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