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Miami and the Siege of Chicago

Norman Mailer

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Sep 22, 2018 Steve rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, journalism, political-world

I'm late getting back to this. I really liked it. The "book" is basically two very different panels. One, the Republican National Convention of 1968, has a more traditional feel to it, though it's punctuated by Mailer's ("the reporter") deep imaginings, coupled with sharp observation, of various Republican camps (Nixon, Rockefeller, Reagan). Mailer really sets the stage on very first page (of the Library of American edition), in his overripe description of Miami:

The vegetal memories of that exci I'm late getting back to this. I really liked it. The "book" is basically two very different panels. One, the Republican National Convention of 1968, has a more traditional feel to it, though it's punctuated by Mailer's ("the reporter") deep imaginings, coupled with sharp observation, of various Republican camps (Nixon, Rockefeller, Reagan). Mailer really sets the stage on very first page (of the Library of American edition), in his overripe description of Miami:

The vegetal memories of that excised jungle haunted Miami Beach in a steam-pot of miasmas. Ghosts of expunged flora, the never-born groaning in vegetative chancery beneath the asphalt came up with a tropical curse, an equatorial leaden wet sweat of air which rose from the earth itself, rose right up through the baked asphalt and into the heated air like a hand slipping into a rubber glove.

That lush and reeking description is followed by Mailer's chilly air-conditioned accounts of the various Republican camps, and their followers. Beneath these mostly brittle and futile maneuverings (Nixon's going to win the nomination), you sense a brooding and inevitable savagery collecting itself. This was on-the-ground stuff, so Mailer's sense of what is getting ready to transpire in the upcoming election is impressive. Mailer's a really good writer. At his best, I was reminded of the gonzo imagination of Hunter Thompson, but with the tighter control of Joan Didion.

The second part of this (Siege of Chicago), is like a different, more personal book. Mailer is clearly sympathetic to the ant-war movement, but he's also confused or uncertain about some elements of the movement. At one point he calls himself a "Left-Conservative." At the time he wrote this, he was in his mid-forties. As a writer, he certainly had his finger on the pulse of times, but didn't quite feel a part of it. But that seems to change during the demonstrations. There are times Mailer castigates himself for being a coward for not taking a more active part, but he's nevertheless drawn to the demonstrations. Weirdly, at one point, in a real WTF moment, he reviews the troops of the National Guard, giving them, as if trying to connect in some way, the
Old-Soldier look. He then goes to a nearby gathering of protestors to give a speech. I was actually impressed by that, because Mailer himself doesn't seem to know what to make of his actions and reactions. It just seemed real and honest and of the moment. By the end of the Chicago section, Mailer has come away with a grudging admiration for the protesters. He still has some well-founded reservations, but he also admires their courage in the face of the savage assaults by Mayor Dailey's police force. Like the Miami portion of the book, the Siege of Chicago has some sharp and revealing observations, the best of which are on the reluctant priest-politician, Eugene McCarthy. Mailer's dislike of Humphrey, and the old-school Democratic Party that he represents, is as intense as anything you'll find in Hunter Thompson's writings. His love and remorse for the recently assassinated Robert Kennedy runs like sad thread through both sections. Highly recommended. ...more

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