The Naked And The Dead

Jul 30, 2008 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Probably the best war epic in the "from here to eternity" vein I've read. And all the more astonishing because mailer seems to have started that style - at least in America; I've not read Tolstoy. And then even moreso because Mailer was only 24 when it came out. Definitely a spectacular first novel.

The problem is that it also confirmed for me that I'm just not all that into the war epic in the "from here to eternity" style. I admire Mailer's plot and character development on principle, and there...more

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May 13, 2009 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the great war novels from World War II. Norman Mailer studied aeronautical engineering at Harvard, but he became interested in writing, having his first story published at age 18. He was drafted after he graduated from college in 1943. He served in the Pacific with the United States Army, where he obtained the knowledge and experience to write about soldiers in combat. The Naked and the Dead was published when Mailer was 25. It instantly became a huge success, spending 62 weeks on...more This is one of the great war novels from World War II. Norman Mailer studied aeronautical engineering at Harvard, but he became interested in writing, having his first story published at age 18. He was drafted after he graduated from college in 1943. He served in the Pacific with the United States Army, where he obtained the knowledge and experience to write about soldiers in combat. The Naked and the Dead was published when Mailer was 25. It instantly became a huge success, spending 62 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List. Mailer's reputation as a novelist was established by this book, which would be the first of a long line of best-selling war novels from the likes of other war veterans, including James Jones, Leon Uris, Herman Wouk and others.

Mailer would go on to become a hugely famous, if combative American author. He would have more than 30 books published before his death at age 84 in 2007, including the receipt of two Pulitzer Prizes. He would run for mayor of New York City on one occasion, with the campaign slogan "No More Bull Shit."

The Naked and the Dead takes place amid the Army's invasion of a fictional Pacific Island. There is plenty of military terminology and methodology but the book is more focused on the psychological development of the main characters as they interact in the situation they are placed into. Mailer, considered to be an early proponent of narrative fiction, presents a fascinating mix of individuals who all seem to be suffering from some kind of character flaw or other. Mailer throws flashback-style personal histories of the main characters at intervals as the current story unfolds.

The one common denominator of all characters is that no one comes out of this story any better than when it began. This is in support of probably the central thesis of Mailer, that war is not just hell; it is psychosis. Some of the guys in the recon platoon include: Minetta, the malingerer, who fakes battle fatigue, only to find out that being the only sane person in a psycho ward is worse than being in combat; Red, the pre-war drifter, who finds out on the island that his health is deteriorating at an alarming rate; Wilson, the philanderer who used to laugh at getting a mild case of venereal disease and finds out before going into action that he is seriously diseased; Roth, the Jew who is not accepted as an equal by anyone on his anti-Semitec crew, who might finally find respect by sharing the platoon's trials on an arduous march, only to be killed in a fall from a cliff. The enlisted men hate their officers and the officers hate each other. Major Dalleson, the unimaginative S-3 (Operations Officer) fumbles to find a way to deal with a situation in place of the general, who is away for the day reporting to his superiors, and muddles through a solution that wins the battle against the Japanese, only to find that all recognition and credit for his actions is suppressed in the official battle history. Even the Division General, Cummings, is obsessed that enemies at Higher Headquarters will find cause to use any mistakes against him and stall his career.

Lt. Hearn is probably to be considered to be the central character in the story. He starts by working as General Cummings' aide but gets removed from that position when he makes it clear that he can no longer tolerate hearing about the General's fascist world-view. He finds himself reassigned to the recon platoon just when it is assigned to perform a mission to travel behind Japanese lines and find a way for the Army to get its stalled invasion moving again. This patrol becomes the central element of the book, when these fourteen men go on this most physically grueling and dangerous march. Hearn, and the platoon, find that they must deal with rough terrain, jungle heat, the enemy, and perhaps most fatefully, the nominal leader of the platoon, Sgt. Croft.

Croft, to me, is indispensable to the meaning and the progress of the book. His character flaw is that he is a psychopath. He is a highly motivated leader of his men and is the bravest of the group; he is the glue that holds everyone to their tasks when the going gets tough. But he is deranged. He leads his men by fear, and he enjoys killing. He becomes a seething vessel of rage when the platoon he had been leading is placed under the command of an officer (Hearn) prior to going on their fugging (Mailer's euphemism) event -filled reconnaissance, and this will not end pleasantly for Hearn or for the rest of the men.

The Picador 50th Anniversary Edition contains an Introduction from Norman Mailer. He describes the book in the second person, as a very good effort by an amateur, albeit a passionate, hard-working amateur who had written over a quarter of a million words in college. He admits to some sloppy writing style in parts, with, to use his description, words that came too easily and the habit of all of the nouns in every sentence holding hands with the nearest adjective. I think he was a little bit self-critical but he was looking at his first big success from the perspective of fifty years of continuing writing success. He certainly was true when he said the book had immediacy, coming out when everyone was hungry for a "big war novel", and that he delivered with a good, vigorous story that got only better as it unfolded. Bravo, Norman.

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Dec 13, 2008 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is entertaining, surely worth reading, and occasionally it sports some heavy writing.

This book has some glaring anomalies in it that are easy to pick on, but one must remember the age of the author at the time of writing. Such as:

1. The seemingly self-imposed censorship, most notably in the substitution of 'fug' for 'fuck.' At first I thought it was a dialect thing, but as the novel rolls on I realized it was just reluctance to use the real curse word. Publisher-imposed for publicity r...more This book is entertaining, surely worth reading, and occasionally it sports some heavy writing.

This book has some glaring anomalies in it that are easy to pick on, but one must remember the age of the author at the time of writing. Such as:

1. The seemingly self-imposed censorship, most notably in the substitution of 'fug' for 'fuck.' At first I thought it was a dialect thing, but as the novel rolls on I realized it was just reluctance to use the real curse word. Publisher-imposed for publicity reasons? Who knows. (Note: The same sensitivity is not exercised in the case of racial epithets.)

2. The blatant Dos Passos worship. Throughout the book are passages headed "The Time Machine" in which we learn about the characters' pasts. These sections seem to be vain attempts at Dos Passos' 'The Camera Eye' and 'Newsreel' sections scattered throughout 'U.S.A.' Also, Dos Passos' adjectival conglomerate trick ('the blueshiny lake,' 'the sleekblack car,' etc) is in 'Naked' tried once, and only once, by Mailer. I don't remember the words, but he strings three spaceless adjectives together in the first half of the book, and it stands out like a sore thumb. A stylistically inconsistent decision.

3. The racism. Some leeway can be given in the name of honest portrayals of the mindset of the soldiers, but not enough to cover all the Jew-denigrating Black-belittling rhetoric vomited up here. When learning about the Jewish characters one gets the sense that Mailer felt very proud at allowing them a little bit of courage and integrity, when in fact their portrayals are highly unflattering.

Whenever anyone asked me what I was reading last week I said "Oh, just a little Norman Jew-Hating Gore-Vidal-Punching Mailer."

That said, I have yet to read a description of soldiering more harrowingly realistic than is found in this book. The sheer, pervasive, soul-crushing discomfort of life in the war in the East is given full credence here. So are the whim- and hubris- driven inner workings of the WWII era Army.

A big theme here is the disconnect between the decisions of Generals and the resultant realities of the soldiers carrying them out. Mailer's treatment of this is a bit heavy handed, but effective overall.

Don't expect a word-perfect literary masterpiece when you read this, but do expect an extremely compelling work of journalistic fiction.(less)

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Jun 03, 2008 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book about America. Its no secret that Tolstoy is Mailer's favorite author, and reading this book right after reading War and Peace gave me a good perspective on everything defined in this book. It captures a uniquely American milieu of characters at a time when a uniquely american sence of Idenity and patriotism was being forged. It spoke of the physical and intellectual challenges of various backgrounds through about a dozen main characters with learned empathy. And in the end and th...more This is a book about America. Its no secret that Tolstoy is Mailer's favorite author, and reading this book right after reading War and Peace gave me a good perspective on everything defined in this book. It captures a uniquely American milieu of characters at a time when a uniquely american sence of Idenity and patriotism was being forged. It spoke of the physical and intellectual challenges of various backgrounds through about a dozen main characters with learned empathy. And in the end and throughout you get to glimpse all the indelible cruelity of reality as would be expected by for forboding title.

The book is also brashly written by a novice. Mailer himself will admit his syntax tends towards the simplistic, which lends the book a 'page-turning,' 'thiller' characteristic that actually aides the reading experience, possibly to the chagrin or the more established lit snobs. What does hurt the book is some occasionally akward diction and character development for some of the books figures. The hispanic sergant, for example, who is a capable if not confident soldier, for some reason has an inner monologue that is written in fractured and childlike stream of consciouseness, as if Mailer equated difficulty speaking a English as a second language with stupidity. The crudeness of the soldier banter also can occasionally ring hollow, especially given liberal use of standin euphenisms for censored swear words.

In the end the book is of extreme high quality, readable, illuminating, passionate, and empathic. It is well structured and mostly well written, and in a couple places exremely influencial. I'm tempted to give it five stars, but in the end I think the book maybe wasn't as beautiful and influencial as some of my favorite five star reads.

Parting Shots:

Did anyone else think the writting of Japbait was somewhat oversimplistic?

Who else loved that last line of the book?

So the Leiutenent admitted he hated Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, but his conversations with the General really reminded me of Catsorp's relationship with Leo Naphta in Mann's classic.

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Oct 03, 2008 Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was the book that I started my highlighting habit.

It was really visceral. The characters were great. The pacing was great. The psychologies were cool. Read it.

Hearn was a huge inspiration too. I think that he's my favorite character from any book.

Quotes:

"The average man always sees himself in relation to other men as either inferior or superior. Women play no part in it. They're an index, a yardstick among other gauges, by which to measure superiority."
(This was the first thing I ever highl...more

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Nov 03, 2007 Caroline Mosley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book mostly for the satisfaction of completing a 700-paged book. I was also somewhat interested in branching off into different types of books - in this case a war book. The Naked and the Dead is set during World War 2 on a Japanese island. This book is said to be one of the best war stories ever and it accurately depicts the men at war. If this is true, war lacks combat and excitement and it is filled with endless routine. If you are expecting an action packed book, following the li...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an amazing book considering it was the author's first published novel. All the more amazing considering Mailer was something like 20 years old when he wrote it. I picked it up after reading somewhere that Mailer actually joined the military during WWII in order to gain some life experience so he could write a book. I really enjoyed Mailer's writing style. It was vivid, alive and gritty.

Mailer describes the jungle in perfect detail. You can almost feel yourself being smothered by the den...more

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Feb 07, 2009 Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about a company of soldiers stationed on an island in the South Pacific during WWII. They are alternately bored out of their minds and scared out of their wits. No, that's really too pat. This book is a masterpiece of realism---every character, from the lowly privates to the General of the battalion, is so vividly realized that I find it hard to believe these people never actually existed. I think that is what impressed me the most about this book. And even though some parts were a...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially doe the occasion by Norman Mailer.

Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed i

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Feb 20, 2013 Maduck831 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“I’ve known men who’ve used filth until it became a high art. Statesmen, politicos, they did it for a purpose, and their flesh probably crawled. You can indulge your righteous rage but the things it comes out of are pretty cheap. The trick is to make yourself an instrument of your own policy. Whether you like it or not, that’s the highest effectiveness man has achieved.” (82) “Oh, I know a lot more now, I know that it’s a mistake to marry a woman ‘cause you can’t make her any other way, holding...more “I’ve known men who’ve used filth until it became a high art. Statesmen, politicos, they did it for a purpose, and their flesh probably crawled. You can indulge your righteous rage but the things it comes out of are pretty cheap. The trick is to make yourself an instrument of your own policy. Whether you like it or not, that’s the highest effectiveness man has achieved.” (82) “Oh, I know a lot more now, I know that it’s a mistake to marry a woman ‘cause you can’t make her any other way, holding out on me for all that time and even know I don’t know if she was cherry. There ain’t any such thing as a clean decent woman any more, when a man’s sister will go up to him and tell him to mind his own business because she’s fooling around and her husband’s out of town, it’s time for a man to open his eyes. There ain’t a one of them a man can trust out of his sight; how many times have I picked up a piece from a married woman with kids, it’s disgustin’ the way they all act.” (120) “Aaah, I been doing this too long. It’s no good steady and it’s no good bumming. Ya lose whatever you want when you start goin’ for it.” (231) “He exhaled his smoke slowly. “There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.” (323) “Yes, It’s (omnipotence) not religion, that’s obvious, it’s not love, it’s not spirituality, those are all sops along the way, benefits we devise for ourselves when the limitations of our existence turn us away from the other dream. To achieve God. When we come kicking into the world, we are God, the universe is the limit of our senses. And when we get older, when we discover that the universe is not us, it’s the deepest trauma of our existence.” (323) “I’ve been trying to impress you, Robert, that the only morality of the future is a power morality, and a man who cannot find his adjustment to its doomed. There’s one thing about power. It can flow only from the top down. When there are little surges of resistance at the middle levels, it merely calls for more power to be directed downward, to burn it out.” (323) “To Goldstein, men were friends or they weren’t friends, he could not comprehend any variations or disloyalties. He was unhappy because he felt continually betrayed.” (448) “Always, he had to be alone, he had chosen it that way, and he would not renege now, nor did he want to. The best things, the things worth doing in the last analysis, had to be done alone. The moments like theses, the passing doubts, were the temptations that caught you if you were not careful. Cummings stared at the vast dark bulk of Mount Anaka, visible in the darkness as a deeper shadow, a greater mass than the sky above it. It was the axis of the island, its keystone. (563) “He (Goldstein) wept out of bitterness and longing and despair; he wept from exhaustion and failure and the shattering naked conviction that nothing mattered.” (682) “Croft kept looking at the mountain. He had lost it, had missed some tantalizing revelation of himself. Of himself and much more. Of life. Everything. “Croft: Was of time thinking about it. The war’ll go on for a while.” (less)

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Jan 27, 2013 Judith Hannan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In his introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of his WWII opus, Norman Mailer says the book is the work of an amateur, a 23-year-old who was passionate and naive. He says parts of the book were sloppily written and marred by an overuse of adjectives. I'm sorry that this was how Mailer chose to introduce his work (although he also commented on the work's vigor and passion) because I spent the first 100 pages reading with the mind of an editor--focusing on the words rather than the story. I...more In his introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of his WWII opus, Norman Mailer says the book is the work of an amateur, a 23-year-old who was passionate and naive. He says parts of the book were sloppily written and marred by an overuse of adjectives. I'm sorry that this was how Mailer chose to introduce his work (although he also commented on the work's vigor and passion) because I spent the first 100 pages reading with the mind of an editor--focusing on the words rather than the story. It wasn't until I was over 100 pages into this over 700 page book that I realized I was being caught up in something extraordinary.

Imagine a ship at sea, thinking it is riding in a smooth sea when actually it is being carried by a huge wave. Only when the wave hits shallow water and the speed at the top of the wave increases do you realize that there is no way for the ship to avoid the crest and the crash of that mass of moving water. Reading The Naked and The Dead, I felt like that ship. The story revolves around a struggle between Japanese and American soldiers for an island called Anopopei. It's specific focus is on a small recon group and the officers who dictate their course. This is not a book filled with blockbuster battle scenes. Mailer gives us intimate portraits of all his characters. The point where the book shifted for me was when one member of the group, Roth, had to do guard duty at night sitting in a hole in front of a machine gun. Mailer creates such an intense internal dialogue for Roth that I felt as if I was inside his head, looking out with his eyes. And so it proceeds with all the characters--the enlisted men and noncoms and majors and generals. Mailer provides the story for each and every one. We see them as children, as civilian men, as soldiers; we see their Achille's heels, the moments that shaped and transformed them. We are riding the wave but we don't know it yet.

We feel acceleration, the precipice and the inrushing water in the last 150 pages. The recon group is sent on a mission but not the kind you would find in a typical war scene. It is an endless slog--hot, wet, exhausting to the point of wiping out everything but the short space around you. Too much goes wrong but nothing surprises. Mailer has given us so much information about the psychological bases for everyone's actions and interactions that it is all but expected who will betray whom, who will be goaded and teased into doing something stupid, who will move foreward like a bull and who a donkey. At the end of the mission, I was exhausted. My exhaustion resulted from an experience that had meaning; the men's exhaustion was in the cause of nothing.

There are flaws in this book. Mailer wasn't wrong about his analysis. But I'm not sure the weaknesses really matter, at least not the ones about adjectives and style. I do wish the characters were a bit more differentiated. Some felt a little cliche. But I'd rather a book with flaws that has energy and strong sense of storytelling than one with beautifully crafted writing but no story to tell, just like I'd rather a Van Morrison or Janis Joplin who would probably never make the cut on American Idol.

We can never read too many stories about war. Learning that the military has just given women the right to full combat duty just as I finished this book made me question my women's lib credentials. It was the right decision to make but tremble for those in service. I am grateful, too, for those who defend our country, and for that reason the idea of them being used as futilely as the men in The Naked and the Dead is loathesome.

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Nov 09, 2012 Gary Daly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first Norman Mailer book (read back in (1989) on my way to Queensland for my first army posting just after recruit training & specialist school. I had never heard of Norman Mailer back in 1989 (I considered myself a late bloomer in all human pursuits and experiences). Naked and the Dead was the book that started my slide from ignorance to intellectual bliss. In that I suddenly realised how much I enjoyed reading, how much I relished the 'narrative', experience and significantly t...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.

Norman Mailer's debut novel is one of the most unheroic depictions of the Second World War in fiction. If tells the story of one platoon in the American campaign to take the fictional Pacific island of Anopopei from the Japanese; these are uneducated, not particularly bright young men, not fighting for any particular reason; they are like the soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front (a clear influence). Mailer was himself involved in the war...more Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.

Norman Mailer's debut novel is one of the most unheroic depictions of the Second World War in fiction. If tells the story of one platoon in the American campaign to take the fictional Pacific island of Anopopei from the Japanese; these are uneducated, not particularly bright young men, not fighting for any particular reason; they are like the soldiers in All Quiet on the Western Front (a clear influence). Mailer was himself involved in the war in the Pacific, and he writes partly from his own experience; it is tempting to see at least some elements of self-portrait in the literate Lieutenant Hearn.

In this edition, published to mark the novel's fiftieth anniversary, Mailer has contributed a new introduction. It must be a strange experience to comment on something produced by a younger self so many years ago. Mailer finds some shortcomings in the novel. He complains that it reads like the writing of an amateur. By this he means that most things are given stereotypical descriptions (he gives as an example that coffee is always scalding). This is perhaps not so evident as the novel is read, probably because so much literature is lazy in this way.

As you read the novel, what is apparent which is typical of debut novels is the influence of other writers. In this case, the main influence other than Remarque's novel which has already been mentioned is Hemingway. This is partly seen in the subject matter, partly in the prose style (though Mailer is more florid), but mainly comes through in the attitude of the author to the characters. The Naked and the Dead must be one of the most sympathetic if "arts and all" portrayals of the common soldier.

A less important influence is John Dos Passos. There are elements taken from his USA trilogy in this novel, with sections in each chapter entitled "The Time Machine" which give a whistle stop tour through the pre-war life of one of the main characters. These are extremely well done, to give an idea of why the war has shaped the particular character in the way that it has. Mailer's use of the device is perhaps rather half-hearted, though; with a bit more experience, I suspect that he would have integrated these sections into the main narrative.

In the other direction, the obvious influence that The Naked and the Dead has had is on later literature about war, particularly Catch-22 and MASH. The war pervades The Naked and the Dead to such an extent that it would be difficult to see how it has affected authors who have not written about the same subject. One way it may have done so is to help shape a particular subgenre of thriller, those gritty novels also pervaded with a sense that everything is pointless, meaningless, by writers like John le Carré. Man in The Naked and the Dead are driven to extreme, heroic effort, but for no real reason and achieving nothing; even their motivation is vague and comes from who they are rather than from their circumstances (a determination not to be the first to break down, for example).(less)

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Jun 07, 2012 Richard Bon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the first I’ve read of Norman Mailer and I was extremely disappointed. I had high hopes for this novel with its billing as ‘The Greatest War Novel Produced in This Century.’ What? Every war novel written in the 20th century I’ve read trumps this one. Mailer’s writing felt forced – his weaving of soldier’s back stories into the narrative I found clumpy, the details unrealistic – his portrayal of General Cummings’ thought processes bordered on ridiculous at times – and none of the plot li...more This was the first I’ve read of Norman Mailer and I was extremely disappointed. I had high hopes for this novel with its billing as ‘The Greatest War Novel Produced in This Century.’ What? Every war novel written in the 20th century I’ve read trumps this one. Mailer’s writing felt forced – his weaving of soldier’s back stories into the narrative I found clumpy, the details unrealistic – his portrayal of General Cummings’ thought processes bordered on ridiculous at times – and none of the plot lines ever came together for me.

Perhaps in 1948 when this book was first published, a General commanding an important offensive in a major war being secretly gay and very lonely intrigued people. Reading it in 2012, however, the General seemed an empty shell of a character, selfish and vindictive, his closet homosexuality an illogical excuse for his incompetence as a leader. His actions toward Hearn, a soldier on whom he had an unrequited crush, were cold and bizarre and unconvincing, in my opinion.

Croft, the leader of the reconnaissance unit featured throughout most of the story, a cold, calculating, jealous, ultra-competitive bastard, never gets his comeuppance and his demeanor is never entirely explained. Mailer tries to present and define so many soldiers with such a haphazard style that as a reader I never felt like I understood or related to any of them, least of all Croft. Hard for me to write here that an author of Mailer’s stature should’ve done something differently, but the book may have worked better for me if he’d focused closely on three to five characters instead of attempting to portray so many so deeply.

The only positive I’ll mention here is the idea of the reconnaissance mission that spans the majority of the second half of the book, but its execution, to me, just had so many holes in it. Cummings’ indifference from afar, the war’s accidental ending, Croft and his troops’ final retreat from a swarm of bees after the Japanese had, unbeknownst to them, already conceded defeat, it all amounted to a huge letdown after a long buildup. Perhaps Mailer’s intention was to show the randomness of war, the luck involved, the fate of soldiers beyond exhaustion and on the brink of physical and mental collapse resting on chance, but it didn’t work for me.

Sorry Norman Mailer, but if this novel is considered one of your greatest achievements, then I don’t think I’ll be reading any of your others.
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May 12, 2011 Quinlan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead was a very pessimistic story of American soldiers trying to drive out the Japanese. He strongly questioned the integrity and intelligence of the high-up officers because of the inconsistency he saw through them. The story takes place in the South Pacific where there are four main characters whose struggles and journeys are described through alternating chapters. These men are high-ranking officers that have extremely low morals. One of them even goes so far...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Jerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

From other reviews I've read, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (aka TNATD)seems to be one of those books that readers either love or hate. I don't think it has stood the test of time very well so it is not surprising that it is not very popular in 2011. As in most literature, I believe it is crucial to view TNATD within it's historical context and make judgements after taking into account the time in which it was created. TNATD is a character study with little action. The great conflicts o...more From other reviews I've read, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (aka TNATD)seems to be one of those books that readers either love or hate. I don't think it has stood the test of time very well so it is not surprising that it is not very popular in 2011. As in most literature, I believe it is crucial to view TNATD within it's historical context and make judgements after taking into account the time in which it was created. TNATD is a character study with little action. The great conflicts of the novel are in play within the characters experiences, their interaction with each other, and the struggles they have with themselves, their inward man. The title, The Naked and the Dead, refers to the souls of men. War exposes men for what they really are, grinds them down to the naked core of their being. Some survive the war within themselves but only after they have confronted the mirror image that war itself holds up to their souls.
The story is primarily about a platoon of reconnaissance soldiers taking part in a fictional island invasion in the Pacific during World War II. The platoon does not normally find itself doing the job for which it is trained: Reconnaissance. Rather, they are put to work doing menial labor, building a never ending road through the jungle. The men of the platoon are at war with each other and with themselves, constantly being forced to confront the percieved injustices (or justice) found in the journey of their life. This journey of life is symbolised by the grinding, thankless patrol that they undertake in the latter half of the novel. Lieutenant Hearn and Sergeant Croft are the bridges between the two classes, officer and enlisted. The story has some things to observe about what we today call class envy and class warfare, the differences between the haves and have nots, those blessed with privilege and those cursed with poverty. Among all of the characters, however, there is a hatred of femininity, a distrust of the ones who can most comfort men and who are most willing to do so. One character, for example, looks forward to the end of the war so that he can go home and publicly humiliate his wife by throwing her out of his house. He has no reasons to do so other than the ones he has imagined; in his mind she is perpetually flawed and unfaithful. This he intends to do regardless of the fact that while he is in training at Fort Riley he meets a married woman who takes him into her home and loves him. He debates with himself whether or not to return to her at the end of the war. The male characters don't recognize the hypocrisy within themselves.
The Operations officer, Major Dalleson (dally: to spend time on unproductive activity. Get it?) is the officer who would, in the real Army, be overseeing the production of battle plans and offensive operations. Yet this officer only wants to build roads and ensure that all the pathways between the headquarters tents in the jungle are gravelled and neat. He complains to the mess sergeant about the cleanliness of the dining tent. He later oversees the building of a forward base out of the jungle, complete with a drill field so large that the troops can perform close order drill and ceremony.
There seem to be two universal complaints from those who have read TNATD: the length of the novel and the use of the word "fug". I'm willing to give Mailer a pass on both. Mailer wrote the novel so soon after his own war experiences that perhaps the writing was cathartic to him. I can understand that. As for using the word fug, look at the historical context. As many times as the fug word is used in the novel, had he used the real F word that is so obviously replaced, the book would most likely have been vilified and thrown on history's literary ash heap. As it is, the book is filled with graphic sex. To have used the real F word would have been to much for 1948 America. And then, no more Mailer. Obviously, a complete and thorough review of the novel could take up more space than is available here, so I've had to focus on observations that caught my eye as I read the book for the first time.
Overall, I'm glad I read the book. It was long and I was glad to finish it. I was disappointed in it's overall bitter tone and I think some of Mailer's obvious anger was projected in a simplistic and unrealistic manner. But, it was a first novel and Mailer got better, didn't he? This is, so far, the only one of his books I've read. I don't know that I'll read any more of his works, but whether I do or not won't be because of a judgement on The Naked and the Dead. (less)

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Aug 09, 2009 Jessica marked it as aborted-efforts · review of another edition

Shelves: dicklits

Executioner's Song was one of the best books I've read in the past year -- so good I haven't felt up to reviewing it -- so I had high expectations for The Naked and the Dead. The front-cover blurb from the SF Chronicle speculates that this novel is "perhaps the best book to come out of any war," which really jacked up the ante and got me intrigued.

Well, I got only a little over a hundred pages in, and IMHO The Naked and the Dead isn't bad, but it is not a better book than War and Peace or The Il...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Marko added it · review of another edition

Shelves: half-read

This is the first book I've abandoned in quite awhile, and I feel like I should at least share my reasons for dropping it half way through. It has nothing to do with not enjoying it--in fact it has more to do with enjoying it more than I'd like. I read the first 250 pages avidly, never once getting bored, but in the end I did not like the strategy of the book. It hit home as I was reading an interview with Wim Wenders this morning (thanks again, Amanda), in which he talks about his own strategie...more This is the first book I've abandoned in quite awhile, and I feel like I should at least share my reasons for dropping it half way through. It has nothing to do with not enjoying it--in fact it has more to do with enjoying it more than I'd like. I read the first 250 pages avidly, never once getting bored, but in the end I did not like the strategy of the book. It hit home as I was reading an interview with Wim Wenders this morning (thanks again, Amanda), in which he talks about his own strategies for film-making, and why the violence and turbulent politics of his time don't appear in his films. It is a discussion of films, and The Naked and the Dead is of course a novel, a completely different form, but I still think his thoughts are helpful when thinking about the portrayal of war, and worth quoting here:

Films are always about what they're about and what they're not about. If there's something missing from a film, that makes it a part of the subject of a film. In my films, you don't get any sex or violence, because I think those are both things that can do a lot of damage. I only really like to show things that I like. I don't like to show something and then say, here is something I hate. The act of film-making, what you put up on a screen, is something you identify with, I think. That's how propaganda works. Because at that moment when you've got people sitting in a cinema and something appears on the big screen, there's automatically a kind of identification that takes place. You can't distance yourself from what you show. What you shoot, by implication is what your support, it expresses what you want. That means that every act of violence, especially in American films that purport to be against violence, or war films that just pretend to be opposed...really every war film is a pro-war film. Every film with violence in it is in favour of violence. As far as politics goes, the most political decision you make is where you direct people's eyes. In other words: what you show people, day in day out, is political. Explicit political content in cinema is about the least political side of it, as for as I'm concerned. Entertainment is the height of politics. The most politically indoctrinating thing you can do to a human being is to show him, every day, that there can be no change. But by showing that something is open to change you keep the idea of change alive. And that for me is the only political act of which cinema is capable: keeping the idea of change going. Not by calling for change. You achieve very little by that, I find. Maybe you need to do that sometimes, to call for change. But the really political act that cinema is capable of is making change possible, by implication, by not gumming up people's brains and eyes.

This is an old debate, and I don't think it's fair to compare the description of violence in a novel to the depiction of violence in a film, but I certainly have begun to feel that this book at least is beginning to "gum up my brains and eyes," something that never happened in other books I've read about war like Heinrich Boell's novels, the non-fiction accounts of Vietnam by African-American soldiers in Bloods, or in Slaughterhouse Five. In the introduction to that novel, the wife of the author's buddy from the war is infuriated by the thought that he is going to write another novel about the war, that will make it seem like they something other than what it was: young boys sent to their death (from this conversation originates the subtitle, The Children's Crusade.) I can't help but think that this was one of those books she had in mind.(less)

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Dec 12, 2012 wally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mailer

i've read a few from mailer, The Executioner's Song; The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History; Tough Guys Don't Dance; and now this one...on the kindle. this one has the intro by mailer...the story begins:

nobody could sleep. when morning came, assault craft would be lowered and the first wave of troops would ride through the surf and charge ashore on the beach at anopopei. all over the ship, and all through the convoy, there was a knowledge that in a few hours some of th...more

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Sep 11, 2010 Susie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: war, classics

I liked it I guess. This was a tough slog. It was sooooooooo long. The point, I suppose, is to give you a taste of what life in the theatre of the Pacific was really like, and while I don't suppose reading a book can really give you that, it gave me a sense of how long these guys would wait for something, anything, to happen.

I had read a few other reviews on this site before I finished and I can definitely understand some of the points that were made. None of the characters really had any redee...more I liked it I guess. This was a tough slog. It was sooooooooo long. The point, I suppose, is to give you a taste of what life in the theatre of the Pacific was really like, and while I don't suppose reading a book can really give you that, it gave me a sense of how long these guys would wait for something, anything, to happen.

I had read a few other reviews on this site before I finished and I can definitely understand some of the points that were made. None of the characters really had any redeeming qualities was one comment that stood out for me. I don't agree with that. I think what Mailer was trying to portray was how the living conditions, the atmosphere of fear, the forced familiarity of men, and only men, from so many walks of life would affect these soldiers. Basically decent people can do things very out of character under trying circumstances, and a man who could live a perfectly decent life at home in the USA would have all of his weaknesses revealed in battle.

The senselessness of it all was certainly demonstrated, the tragic loss of life, especially the ones that should never have happened, was gut wrenching. I was definitely moved during the last 200 or so pages.

But it did take so very long to get there. So much preamble and philosophical postulating, so much delving into the minds of each and every one of the men and what made them tick. Knowing the ones who died a little better made the tragedy more personal, but of the other men, it was mostly time in my life that I would like to get back.

I don't really feel that all of the characters were misogynistic, as one reviewer wrote. There were men who loved their wives and who loved women. A few of them were pretty awful, and a few of them weren't awful, but weren't particularly decent. There were a couple who seemed like nice men. I think being away from the women they love and hearing the other men put doubts in their mind affected all of them.
a
I'm glad I read it, but don't feel like it was a must read. I have read many more compelling books than this one. I suppose that after reading this and Three Day Road (another war book) in such close proximity has made me a little tired of the genre. No more war books for a while!

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Apr 22, 2013 Carlos Vazquez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Esta novela no es una película de japoneses con John Wayne, no. Sea como fuere, ocurre en ese ambiente tan oreado por el cine americano de la guerra del Pacífico y sus marines.
Un pelotón de estos desembarca en una pequeña isla como en tantas hubo de lucharse. Los japoneses están ya siendo vencidos a lo que se ve.
La trama es una misión absurda por un difícil paso de montaña ordenada por un general de ideas tan nazis como las del Eje, y que lo ordena a un teniente que trata de ser racional en su m...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Naked and the Dead opens on the beaches of the fictitious South Pacific island, Anopopei, that has been occupied by the Japanese. We meet the central characters as they silently worry about their survival in their latest campaign and correctly assume, some will perish.
Mailer doesn't spare us on the details of war and paints a very graphic picture of what actually happens to men in battle. We feel the sweat as it drips down a filthy face. We see the decomposing corpses. We smell the excrement...more The Naked and the Dead opens on the beaches of the fictitious South Pacific island, Anopopei, that has been occupied by the Japanese. We meet the central characters as they silently worry about their survival in their latest campaign and correctly assume, some will perish.
Mailer doesn't spare us on the details of war and paints a very graphic picture of what actually happens to men in battle. We feel the sweat as it drips down a filthy face. We see the decomposing corpses. We smell the excrement in the less than adequate latrines. We slowly acclimate to the soldier's life and hope only for survival.
Sergeant Sam Croft is a cold and ruthless leader, He is respected by those he leads as well as by those above him, yet they all recognize the incompleteness of the man. Quick to judge, Croft either has use for a man or he does not and when a man does not meet his criteria, he simply disregards him.
General Cummings is a sophisticated strategist with strong opinions on intimidation techniques for motivating soldiers. His career is reaching its climax and he is hoping to go out on a high note. He is intelligent and seeks intellectual stimulation that he can't seem to find among his fellow officers. He hopes for such an exchange from his aid, Lieutenant Hearn, however, they seem to have only their intelligence in common and eventually become alienated, much to the detriment of the lieutenant. There were subtleties of a sexual attraction on the general's behalf that I sensed was not a reciprocal feeling of Hearn's.
Private Woodrow Wilson takes one in the gut and is carried out of the jungle by his platoon through rugged terrain and unpredictable weather. He is a renowned womanizer suffering from his sixth bout of syphilis. He has a wife and child awaiting him as well as another woman unaware of his marital status and is unsure where he'll head when his time is served. In his delirium, he recalls past sexual exploits and wonders that his injury will "clean" the syphilitic pus out of him.
There were no female characters beyond the background descriptions of mothers, sisters, wives, etc. Not surprisingly, the women were either doting mothers, virginal sisters (even some becoming nuns), frigid wives or whores...sorry, but that is pretty much how they were portrayed.
I'm not quite sure if I'd want to chat with Mr. Mailer as I fear I'd find him rather intimidating. What I've gathered about him is not at all flattering, yet his ability to craft such a detailed account of a war he was apparently only on the periphery of, shows great literary talent. So perhaps I'd tread lightly, stroke that huge ego and allow him to lead the discussion.
What I found a tad distracting was the overabundance of characters which I confused at times. While each came with a detailed background, there were just more than I could mange to absorb. This excess inevitably lead to an overly expansive work that could stand on its own minus 200 pages.
Mailer was heavily edited and his use of the f* word was revised to fug. What the fug...well I just quickly changed it in my mind to the real deal and it flowed quite naturally.
My rating for The Naked and the Dead is an 8 out of 10.(less)

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Jan 11, 2012 Patrick Sprunger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2012

I'll come straight to the point: The Naked and the Dead is a beautiful book disfigured by ugly misogyny. I spent 700 pages looking for proof that I was wrong in this conclusion, but didn't find it. Mailer was so articulate with his contrasts and contradictions that he would have established someone with a proportionately good attitude about women to offset the negativity, had he been using some of his characters' misogynistic attitudes as a device. If the men of the 112th cavalry were used as a...more I'll come straight to the point: The Naked and the Dead is a beautiful book disfigured by ugly misogyny. I spent 700 pages looking for proof that I was wrong in this conclusion, but didn't find it. Mailer was so articulate with his contrasts and contradictions that he would have established someone with a proportionately good attitude about women to offset the negativity, had he been using some of his characters' misogynistic attitudes as a device. If the men of the 112th cavalry were used as a mirror to reflect man's mean soul, the pandemic woman hating must be what Mailer perceived as 20th century man's natural attitude.

This doesn't square with my experience with the World War II generation. Trying to be perfectly objective, I don't think that generation had the healthiest attitudes about women (at least, not by this generation's standards) - but the surviving nonagenarians I know appear incapable of holding the views that were ubiquitous among the 112th. There might be something perverse about a set of mores that elevates motherhood to an almost divine status while keeping wives absolutely servile, but this is quite a different thing than casual infidelity. Besides, while angelic motherhood and domestic servitude might prove to be an unlikely paradox, angelic motherhood and open contempt for women feels impossible to manage at the same time.

20th century American man was a paradoxical creature, as Mailer points out time and again. I think the obvious example of paradox is in the soldiers' willingness to exterminate sick and emaciated Japanese (even kill prisoners) but threaten mutiny over cruetly to an already dying bird. I don't know if I'm too cynical, but I can believe that readily enough without too much problem. Morality is weird and inconsistent. Killing a man is much worse than killing a bird, but the killing of enemy combatants (even pathetically harmless ones) is absolved by the fact of their belligerent status. They don't quite become less human... That's not it. They become exceptions, "in bounds" for otherwise morally unacceptable behavior.

Women, however, did nothing to earn exceptional status in the suspension of the 112th's morality paradigm. They did not do anything to become loathsome - indeed, were loathsome prior to the transformative experience of war (as all of the whoring and duplicity and resentment preceded the campaigns in the South Pacific). The war did not turn the 112th into misogynists; they entered it as misogynists. That must mean America was a nation of misogynists - and that doesn't feel correct to me.

Why am I making such a big deal over this? Well, partly because it nagged at me. It offends my (admittedly delicate) sense of personal morality. But - more than that - it was conspicuous. One couldn't escape a chapter without encountering it in some form. Misogyny is one of the book's minor motifs. It's annoying because it's a motif that serves no function and - on top of that - isn't believable. For lack of any other explanation, it must be a reflection of Mailer's personal attitude. A book written by a reprehensible person is judged partly on the character of its author. Not to get melodramatic, but assuming Mein Kampf was technically a good work, it would remain reviled because of the deplorability of its author and its thesis. All the style in the world isn't enough to offset those factors.

Obviously, there are loads of other directions I could have taken my thoughts on The Naked and the Dead. I recognize the larger perspective: Invalidating a book on a critique of a minor motif is petty. I still think The Naked and the Dead deserves a four star rating, despite the discomfort. For reasons other reviewers have expounded on better than I could, Mailer was an artist in the media of humanity and the English language. Had he managed that, and found it within him to be decent in the process, The Naked and the Dead would earn it's more hyperbolic accolades ("the most important American novel since Moby Dick," etc.). It's a great book, to be sure. It does, however, have its faults.(less)

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Nov 07, 2012 Kissmekate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The main focus of the book is on a platoon that has been decimated during previous battles, a random accumulation of men who don't have much in common except for the uniform they're wearing and their doubts in the purpose of that campaign they are in. There are the hard-boiled ones, the jaded ones, the sensitive and the ambitious. Their backgrounds are as different as they can be - in civil life, they would probably never have met or seen eye to eye. The circumstances on the island - the hot and...more The main focus of the book is on a platoon that has been decimated during previous battles, a random accumulation of men who don't have much in common except for the uniform they're wearing and their doubts in the purpose of that campaign they are in. There are the hard-boiled ones, the jaded ones, the sensitive and the ambitious. Their backgrounds are as different as they can be - in civil life, they would probably never have met or seen eye to eye. The circumstances on the island - the hot and muggy weather, the inhuman physical strain put on them during their recon missions, but also the dreadful boredom of the time spent with routine tasks in and around their camp - make this tour of duty hell for all the characters.

It takes a rather long time for the real "action" to start, and some of the passages set in the camp were rather long-winded, but this slow start conveys the bleak camp routine in a difficult climate very well, and we learn a lot about the relationships among the characters. None of them is a hundred percent likeable, and there is no one single figure to identify with, but still the characters are pretty well done.

Mailer, who was inspired by his own battlefield experience in the Philippines, paints a very unvarnished picture of the war in the South Pacific. In the dirt and mud and sweltering tropical heat, there are no noble heroes to be found in this book, no victorious cheering. Behaviour among the soldiers is aggressive, not only towards the enemy. Tension, fear and hopelessness bring all of them to their very limit. The war is utter torment for body and soul - in the end, all the characters are victims of the war, even those who survive physically unscathed.

Mailer himself said that he didn't have the ambition to write a story that could have happened exactly as he told it but rather wanted to show all the horrors and the senselessness of war by example of this one little platoon that has to face so much terror. For me, he has succeeded in doing this, if in a rather depressing way.

Language-wise it shows that it is early work. There are some expressions that Mailer uses exceedingly. What I liked a lot were the flashbacks showing the characters' lives before they joined the Army, and the rather coarse but quite realistic dialogue. The speakers' backgrounds become quite clear, there's a lot of dialect and broken English used which makes the characters appear even more authentic.

All in all depressing, but impressive.
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Dec 05, 2012 Ilze rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I feel like I deserve a cake or something. Even though I quite liked the book, it has been an ordeal to read it due to its length. I guess I am at that age where the thickness of a book actually frightens me. Or perhaps that's because there are some deadlines looming in the near future.
Anyway, it is a striking story, and I find it hard to believe that this is Mailer's first published book. There is such detail to it (hence the length) and such brilliant insights into people (well, I should reall...more I feel like I deserve a cake or something. Even though I quite liked the book, it has been an ordeal to read it due to its length. I guess I am at that age where the thickness of a book actually frightens me. Or perhaps that's because there are some deadlines looming in the near future.
Anyway, it is a striking story, and I find it hard to believe that this is Mailer's first published book. There is such detail to it (hence the length) and such brilliant insights into people (well, I should really say "men") that I was often caught by surprise because I could easily empathise with men who were at war. Not only empathise, but I knew (or I think I knew) how they felt. No need to mention that I have never experienced a war. Reading this book had a curious physical effect on me - I would put it away and feel extra tired and stiff, slightly lost and for a moment bewildered by everything around me.
It is also so very extremely depressing. Not the war part as one might expect - the descriptions of violence, disregard for human life -, but rather the flashbacks of the soldiers' lives prior to the war. The feeling of hopelessness that radiates through these flashbacks; the sense that there is no point in living because no happiness can be attained without feeling guilty. It also gives you a glum outlook on marriage. I am not sure whether Mailer disregarded women on purpose or he simply had no insights to give, but a woman's perspective in this story cannot be found even with a looking glass. Come to think of it, the lack of such perspective is fitting to the whole concept of the book and it does not in any way diminish women because the author never gives his story as the ultimate truth. It is merely a perspective that a group of men has, as depressing as that perspective might be, and it only reinforces the sense of hopelessness and isolation.
The relationship between Cummings and Hearn was what fascinated me most. It was like watching a sociopath and a very principled, proud person struggle over a very long course of time. It would not be correct to say that they cared about each other, but there was some kind of rare mental bond between them, which I imagine was annoying and soothing at the same time.
Perhaps I would not want to read the book again, but I did appreciate it in spite of the fact that it was close to impossible to keep all the characters and their background stories straight. I am quite sure that there is more to be said about the story and the themes that crop up in it, but a review is not the place for long, philosophical ramblings (I'll save those for the literature test in two weeks).(less)

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Apr 01, 2010 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" sat on my shelf for a couple of years. I had made two past attempts to read and both failed with me giving up by page 50. However, I revisited the book and once you begin to understand Mailer's writing style and the inclusion of so many characters the novel really blossoms. Mailer weaves the complexities of war, its philosophies, and the bond between soldiers. My favorite quote is when the soldiers are discussing the futility of war and the soldier Red sa...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Kristina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm a detail person, but I think Mailer is hard to read sometimes because of the detail. Perhaps the whole point of this book is to focus on every last, tiny aspect of the lives of these men as they do battle, but for me it got to the point that it was just ponderous. Were it not for the rule I have for myself of trying to finish every book that I start, I probably would have given up on it. It's not that I don't like long books -- I've read "The 900 Days" and "Sarum" and "Gone With the Wind" an...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Murray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was, by all means, not an easy book to get through. In fact, I nearly put it down about one-third of the way through. I can't imagine how shocking "The Naked and the Dead" must have been when it was first published, and by today's standards it might be cliche and tame. But Mailer's novel is a masterpiece that not only pits man against man but also man against nature. Overindulgent at times, with long passages that meander nearly endlessly, this book certainly brings you up close and persona...more

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May 31, 2012 Stoic rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Serious readers

Shelves: war, classic

Arduous. You'd better come ready to read, able to stomach a good deal of gore and misogyny and human frailty if you're going to get through this one. I noticed that most of the negative reviews of this book came from those who DNF it, unsurprisingly. Not only is this a frank, pessimistic depiction of war and a "modern" man's function within it, but also a showcase for Mailer's love of contradictions. No one here is uniformly good or bad, but instead filled with overlapping loyalties, a complex o...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tough book to review. Good at times, slow at times, fully capturing of the soldiers’ mentality and experience at times, and then at others I wonder what the point it, why the author is spending so much space and time on this or that.

It is long, but upon starting it I wasn’t worried about that. It grabbed me pretty quickly. You get to know the men, immediately view them in scenes that reveal their individual characters as well as their role in the Army. The campaign is set up and as a reader I w...more Tough book to review. Good at times, slow at times, fully capturing of the soldiers’ mentality and experience at times, and then at others I wonder what the point it, why the author is spending so much space and time on this or that.

It is long, but upon starting it I wasn’t worried about that. It grabbed me pretty quickly. You get to know the men, immediately view them in scenes that reveal their individual characters as well as their role in the Army. The campaign is set up and as a reader I was obviously eager to see where they fit in. I like the technique of a rotating focus on the platoon, the General in his tent going over strategy as a whole, all while mixing in flash back scenes (written in alternate style, more experimental, more liberal with the prose and voices) of each of the main characters. The prose was sharp, not trying to bash you over the head with ridiculous vocab and/or sentence structure, but very encompassing in its portrayal of the psychology or the soldiers’ state of mind.

Through the first half of the book, I was surprised how slow the plot moved, but I was ok with it. We follow the platoon from the boat, through the invasion, arriving on the island, and then we wait. They set up camp, work on the road, sit around a lot, rotate guard. I realized the tension was building up and that in the real campaigns there was a significant mix of such times: being at the front, fighting, witnessing the horrors, and the time spent waiting. Our platoon finally is sent forward and there is a great action sequence. They return. The General plans. Our characters develop, gel – or don’t gel – and about halfway through they receive, what I believe to be, their key mission.

It is here that my opinion of the novel begins to divert. Without giving away any spoilers, it seems to me that the whole 2nd half is anti-climatic. The pace is excruciatingly slow, going on for 20-30 page stretches nothing except plowing ahead on the trail, cutting through the jungle, tripping, falling, struggling. Ok, I’ll go with it. It’s building, it’s the struggle against the island as well as the against the Japanese. But the mission never really fits with the rest of the General’s plans, the patrol/mission takes a detour to climb a mountain instead while a smaller squad takes a soldier back… and… what? That’s it. 200 pages of each squad: struggling, climbing, fighting, swearing at each other, struggling, marching, climbing, dragging… on and on and on. And then? The End.

If I could rate the first 350-400 pages I would give it five stars. If I could rate the second 300-350 pages I would give it two stars. A part of me realizes that perhaps the main point Mailer is making is that not all missions go according to plan, that not all missions make sense, especially from the soldier’s perspective and/or in hindsight. The General has to play out his strategies concurrently, and bummer for those on the short end of the stick. There are truths that are revealed about war, about soldiers of different rank and their own individual agendas, about humans thrown into such circumstances and what they are capable of. The novel definitely has its merits, but personally, as a reader, I was pulling for a more intense climax, a more earth-shattering apex after the pages upon pages of build-up. But I guess, like the Army, it’s all flirting and foreplay and no orgasm, just frustration, misunderstanding, letdowns, and anger – or as Mailer especially emphasizes with his soldiers battling each other, the mountain, the General, the environment – hatred.
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