St. George and the Godfather

by Norman Mailer

Fiction by Norman Mailer

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

229 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

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 4 out of 5]

For you kids: Richard Nixon was an American criminal and president of the United States. In 1972 he got the chance to run against Senator George McGovern; a secular saint who would rather be wrong than be president. Novelist Norman Mailer covered both the Republican and Democrat conventions in 1972, when both were held in Miami. His conversations with the famous are enough to make you peruse this penetrating book. Mailer tells Henry Kissinger, "If it weren't for the bombing of North Vietnam I might consider voting for Nixon." Kissinger: "I know this sounds callous, but the North Vietnamese can take the bombing." Or Mailer complimenting doomed vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton: "You look a lot like F. Scott Fitzgerald." Eagleton: "Didn't Fitzgerald have a drinking problem? I have enough worries". The book is sprinkled with Mailer-penned aphorisms put into the mouth of Richard Nixon: "From Nixon's Maxims: P.T. Barnum was a sucker" and "Esso has changed its name to Exxon. This is the greatest tribute corporate America could ever pay to me". A laugh riot.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/m...

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost there with reading all Mailer books, I think two to go. This one is on much more solid territory than some of the recent ones I have read as it is pretty squarely political USA journalism which, while he might not have liked it, was one of Mailer's stronger suits in my opinion (at least in terms of consistency). This one is off the back of covering the tumultuous presidential conventions of the 1960s Mailer covers the nominations of George McGovern for the Democrats and Richard Nixon for the Republicans (as sitting president).

Mailer does the typical thing of where he is the main character and describes his encounters with different Republicans and Democrats with his own personal mix of political acuity, ironic asides, and generally not caring what anyone else thinks about him. There are some nice pen portraits of characters, he writes well and consistently, and Watergate (and what we know happened to Nixon afterwards) hangs over events ominously. The problem is that, unlike the 1960s conventions which are full of protests, and police brutality, and corruption and crazy characters these 1970s conventions are both foregone conclusions with very little in terms of major incidents to report on.

It is all fine, and as someone who is generally interested in post-War US politics (particularly of the 1960s and 1970s) I am happy to read about all of that, but it lacks something of the sparkle and excitement of his previous works in this field. For that reason I have given it a solid three out of ten (depending upon how interested you are in old US presidential conventions).

[Sharon Ouderkirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Norman Mailer's take on the 1972 Democratic convention, where George McGovern was nominated and the Republican convention where Richard Nixon was nominated. His political commentary has always been viewed as first class, and it is good, but his views on "Women's Lib" (as it was called in the 1970s) are ludicrous. He wrote three pages on why he supports abortion, which are incomprehensible, but appear to be about the value of the sperm and its relation to the quality of the baby. If he were alive today, he would have to pretend he was joking.
Having said that, his views on U.S. politics are still sharp and relevant to the American spirit.

[Lumumba Mthembu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having read Norman Mailer in the Playboy Reader in 2020/2021, I expected humour and entertainment in spades. So enamoured was I with the short story/article I had read there that I bought 3 Mailer books from Ike’s Bookshop. I might regret that decision after St George and the Godfather. Man, was I bored! The content consists of an election race between McGovern and Nixon; I wish I had known that going in. I would have left this book for a long wait at Home Affairs. Hopefully my other 2 Mailer books are an improvement but 1 with the title of The White Papers leaves me doubtful