Pontifications: Interviews

by Norman Mailer

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.

Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman Mailer once remarked that "some of the best writing Ernest Hemingway ever did was in his interviews". Double goes for Norman. Mailer's pet themes, masculinity, sex, religion, boxing and war, are all on shining display in this vital collection. Some Mailerisms: "I think there is no doubt that Charles Manson was a brave man in some ways. One of the signs of moral in the modern world is to call evil people cowards---Hitler for instance". "Technology may be the work of God or the Devil. It is our form of magic". There's even a Mailer pronunciamento on the Rolling Stones and "Sympathy for the Devil": "What's new about suggesting 'every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints'? Dostoevsky used to throw epileptic fits, he grew so bored with that notion". All prize Norman, and sure to outrage.

[Unbridled · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pontifications (originally in one volume with Pieces) is a book of interviews, which are pure pleasure, like spending many hours in high and mighty conversation with a slightly flighty and densely brilliant rabbi. Mailer in an interview is a joy, even when you disagree with him completely. The thing is, the thing that vibrates off the page, is that Norman's intelligence is fabulous – which doesn't necessarily translate into his writing talent, if that makes any sense. Such a mind is so uncommon that it's great fun to watch it perform in the dance of an interview.