Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Utrecht [etc.] : Bruna; 615 p, 24 cm; http://opc4.kb.nl/DB=1/PPN?PPN=802929427
User reviews
LibraryThing member davidabrams
For the moment, let’s set aside the fact vs. fiction argument raging on either side of Norman Mailer’s "The Executioner’s Song" and face up to one simple fact: this is one FANTASTIC read! Some folks have even called it a "masterpiece." I’m not going to try and talk anyone out of the "M"
As we look back over this century of literature, "The Executioner’s Song" is certainly right up there on the masterpiece bookshelf. If you’re one of those who insists on arranging books according to fiction and non-fiction, then you’d better shelve Mailer’s "true-life novel" somewhere in the middle. Using a novelist’s technique of fabricated dialogue and compressed events, Mailer writes with such force and energy that it fully deserves its trophy-case of literary prizes, including the Pulitzer.
Mailer (who first burst onto the scene with "The Naked and the Dead" in 1948) has always rankled both critics and readers with his sprawling literature. Some readers lose patience with his wordy prose; some critics say he’s just plain bombastic. I say he’s just plain good.
[I should admit right from the get-go, "The Executioner’s Song" is the only book of his I’ve tackled. "Harlot’s Ghost" is weighing down one end of my bookcase, but I’m saving it for the day I have a long hospital stay or I’m booked for the desert-island tour.]
When you make it to the end of "The Executioner’s Song," panting and dripping sweat by page 1,024, you’ll probably have your own opinion of the man. You’ll either hate him or love him—Mailer does not allow any namby-pamby in-between. I’ve read "The Executioner’s Song" twice—the first time in 1981, two years after its publication and four years after Gary Mark Gilmore’s death by Utah firing squad; the second time was last year. The interval of nearly two decades did little to dim my enthusiasm for this book (which, by the way, I prefer to classify as "embellished journalism").
When Gilmore was arrested, tried and convicted of killing two Mormon men in Provo, Utah, on one hot July night in 1976, I was living about 500 miles away. Up in Wyoming, I followed the whole murder case on the evening news. Back then, the viciousness of Gilmore’s crime (shooting decent Americans in the head with little provocation) was big news. Our society had yet to see the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Night Stalker or Columbine High School. Gilmore, with his movie-star good looks and piercing gaze, was the Monster Next Door.
Then, after his conviction, things really took a turn for the bizarre. Gilmore was given the death penalty and, rather than fighting with a series of appeals and pleas for gubernatorial pardons, Gilmore told the state that he wanted to die. Never before had someone pursued his own death sentence. The media swooped in on the state penitentiary and the rest of the world held its breath to see if Gilmore would eventually change his mind. He didn’t. And that’s partly what makes this book so fascinating—the character (if a real person can be called a "character") of Gary Mark Gilmore. He is, in fact, so complex that even a tough-guy writer like Norman Mailer has difficulty getting inside his heart and head to find out what made the Monster Next Door tick.
But Mailer gives it his best shot and the result is a big, whopping book that tracks the lives of Gilmore, his girlfriend Nicole, his Mormon relatives, his victims and the media circus that set up camp outside the state penitentiary. "The Executioner’s Song" is divided into two parts: "Western Voices" (the crimes and the trial) and "Eastern Voices" (the deathwatch and execution). Of the two, the first is much more fascinating and suspenseful—a result, probably, of our morbid fascination with all things bloody and twisted. Some of the second half is tedious, especially the long stretches with Lawrence Schiller, pseudo-journalist and self-promoter who is the only writer allowed to share Gilmore’s last moments (Mailer cut a deal with Schiller to use his notes and tape recordings for this book). Still, I was actually moved by Gilmore’s final walk toward the firing-squad chamber. By that point, he almost had my sympathy.
The book is huge in both size and scope, but Mailer always finds the right words to describe even the smallest of events. Here, for instance, is the moment the entire book has been leading to—the execution by firing squad:
"When it happened, Gary never raised a finger. Didn’t quiver at all. His left hand never moved, and then, after he was shot, his head went forward, but the strap held his head up, and then the right hand slowly rose in the air and slowly went down as if to say, ‘That did it, gentlemen.’ Schiller thought the movement was as delicate as the fingers of a pianist raising his hand before he puts it down on the keys."
I have just one word for a passage like that. Wow.
Note: For another look at what made Gilmore tick, read "Shot in the Heart," the equally fascinating (and entirely non-fiction) book by his brother Mikal. Not only does it make a good companion piece to "The Executioner’s Song," but "Shot in the Heart" is one of the best written memoirs to come out of the cathartic, tell-all years of the 1990s. Read Mailer first, though.
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word.As we look back over this century of literature, "The Executioner’s Song" is certainly right up there on the masterpiece bookshelf. If you’re one of those who insists on arranging books according to fiction and non-fiction, then you’d better shelve Mailer’s "true-life novel" somewhere in the middle. Using a novelist’s technique of fabricated dialogue and compressed events, Mailer writes with such force and energy that it fully deserves its trophy-case of literary prizes, including the Pulitzer.
Mailer (who first burst onto the scene with "The Naked and the Dead" in 1948) has always rankled both critics and readers with his sprawling literature. Some readers lose patience with his wordy prose; some critics say he’s just plain bombastic. I say he’s just plain good.
[I should admit right from the get-go, "The Executioner’s Song" is the only book of his I’ve tackled. "Harlot’s Ghost" is weighing down one end of my bookcase, but I’m saving it for the day I have a long hospital stay or I’m booked for the desert-island tour.]
When you make it to the end of "The Executioner’s Song," panting and dripping sweat by page 1,024, you’ll probably have your own opinion of the man. You’ll either hate him or love him—Mailer does not allow any namby-pamby in-between. I’ve read "The Executioner’s Song" twice—the first time in 1981, two years after its publication and four years after Gary Mark Gilmore’s death by Utah firing squad; the second time was last year. The interval of nearly two decades did little to dim my enthusiasm for this book (which, by the way, I prefer to classify as "embellished journalism").
When Gilmore was arrested, tried and convicted of killing two Mormon men in Provo, Utah, on one hot July night in 1976, I was living about 500 miles away. Up in Wyoming, I followed the whole murder case on the evening news. Back then, the viciousness of Gilmore’s crime (shooting decent Americans in the head with little provocation) was big news. Our society had yet to see the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Night Stalker or Columbine High School. Gilmore, with his movie-star good looks and piercing gaze, was the Monster Next Door.
Then, after his conviction, things really took a turn for the bizarre. Gilmore was given the death penalty and, rather than fighting with a series of appeals and pleas for gubernatorial pardons, Gilmore told the state that he wanted to die. Never before had someone pursued his own death sentence. The media swooped in on the state penitentiary and the rest of the world held its breath to see if Gilmore would eventually change his mind. He didn’t. And that’s partly what makes this book so fascinating—the character (if a real person can be called a "character") of Gary Mark Gilmore. He is, in fact, so complex that even a tough-guy writer like Norman Mailer has difficulty getting inside his heart and head to find out what made the Monster Next Door tick.
But Mailer gives it his best shot and the result is a big, whopping book that tracks the lives of Gilmore, his girlfriend Nicole, his Mormon relatives, his victims and the media circus that set up camp outside the state penitentiary. "The Executioner’s Song" is divided into two parts: "Western Voices" (the crimes and the trial) and "Eastern Voices" (the deathwatch and execution). Of the two, the first is much more fascinating and suspenseful—a result, probably, of our morbid fascination with all things bloody and twisted. Some of the second half is tedious, especially the long stretches with Lawrence Schiller, pseudo-journalist and self-promoter who is the only writer allowed to share Gilmore’s last moments (Mailer cut a deal with Schiller to use his notes and tape recordings for this book). Still, I was actually moved by Gilmore’s final walk toward the firing-squad chamber. By that point, he almost had my sympathy.
The book is huge in both size and scope, but Mailer always finds the right words to describe even the smallest of events. Here, for instance, is the moment the entire book has been leading to—the execution by firing squad:
"When it happened, Gary never raised a finger. Didn’t quiver at all. His left hand never moved, and then, after he was shot, his head went forward, but the strap held his head up, and then the right hand slowly rose in the air and slowly went down as if to say, ‘That did it, gentlemen.’ Schiller thought the movement was as delicate as the fingers of a pianist raising his hand before he puts it down on the keys."
I have just one word for a passage like that. Wow.
Note: For another look at what made Gilmore tick, read "Shot in the Heart," the equally fascinating (and entirely non-fiction) book by his brother Mikal. Not only does it make a good companion piece to "The Executioner’s Song," but "Shot in the Heart" is one of the best written memoirs to come out of the cathartic, tell-all years of the 1990s. Read Mailer first, though.
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LibraryThing member piefuchs
A classic of true crime which in very great detail tell the story of Gary Gilmore from the time he moved to Utah, to his execution. Outside of knowing that he requested his own death, I knew very little of story when I picked up this book - I can't say the same thing now...
Mailer relatively
Mailer relatively
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successfully takes no position and delivers and exquisite and seemingly fact based account in a novel form of this portion of Gary Gilmore's life. The sections that dealt with the ne'er do wells he met, his trashy girlfriend, and extended family were honest and nonjudgemental. Through the book you grow to appreciate the circus maximus that the execution became, and the extent to which Gilmore exploited, and was exploited for, his celebrity. There were a few portion where the book dragged, but overall, a remarkably engaging read. Show Less
LibraryThing member pdxwoman
3 Stars: Read at least once &/or recommend selectively.
Not Pulitzer worthy. The writing style is choppy and the book is more like a really long mag article than a novel.
The story of Gilmore & those surrounding him is interesting, but that has to do with Gilmore, not Mailer.
Not Pulitzer worthy. The writing style is choppy and the book is more like a really long mag article than a novel.
The story of Gilmore & those surrounding him is interesting, but that has to do with Gilmore, not Mailer.
LibraryThing member Helena81
I wish I'd liked this more. While Mailer does a remarkable job of capturing Gary and Nicole and the entire milieu of the execution, I did find the exhaustive detail and the dizzying cast of characters just too much. I enjoyed the middle portion of the book, after Gary committed the murders and was
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jailed, far more than the beginning and then the end. In the beginning I found it hard to comprehend Gary's behavior and care about his relationships with others, towards the end I just wanted the story to be over. I do think Gary and Nicole will stick with me, because I've spent so much time with them and because Mailer so successfully brought the characters off of the page. But I can't say I'm sorry to be finished with this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennifour
I can see why this is a classic and a must-read for any literary type. Mailer won a Pulitzer Prize for this novel and I usually don't pay attention to awards but he captures the reader from page one. The characters and dialogue are amazing.
LibraryThing member dogearedpage
I read this at least 20 years ago and it is as fresh in my memory as last week. A very powerful look at what it means to be a killer. Sort of like "In Cold Blood" but I think Mailer did a much better job of telling us who the man was that did this horrible thing. Gary Gilmore is a name I will not
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forget. Show Less
LibraryThing member ostrom
Mailer's best book, partly because Mailer's ego takes a back seat to the story. The vignette about Geraldo Rivera is revealing, to say the least.
LibraryThing member aliciamalia
I understand the hype around this book - the research is voluminous, the writing considered and detailed, the character exploration nearly bottomless. Unfortunately for the average reader, it's over 1000 pages long. And you know the conclusion from page 1. It...just...drags....on.
LibraryThing member araridan
The Executioner's Song is essentially the true story of Gary Gilmore, a murderer sentenced to death in Utah during the mid-1970s. The story is easy to get sucked into, the way one would follow a trashy Enquirer story or celebrity scandal, explaining why even at over 1000 pages I finished this book
That being said, despite feeling compelled to keep reading on, I didn't feel much of anything about the situation or the characters. Even during Gilmore's execution I didn't feel the slightest bit of sadness or sympathy nor was I cheering the event. I think the first half of the story is much more interesting since the second half takes place after Gary's arrest and the plot revolves almost entirely around court decisions and media dealings. I think the book is good for what it is, I'm just not a person who's necessarily all that interested in books (or films for that matter) that are "based on a true story."
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in about 3 weeks. The book is mainly factual, informational, and extremely straightforward. As a reader we are not expected to condone Gilmore's behavior nor to hate him...the bias seems to lean towards Gary being a human who was entered into the criminal system early; a system with obvious flaws in the realm of "rehabilitation." That being said, despite feeling compelled to keep reading on, I didn't feel much of anything about the situation or the characters. Even during Gilmore's execution I didn't feel the slightest bit of sadness or sympathy nor was I cheering the event. I think the first half of the story is much more interesting since the second half takes place after Gary's arrest and the plot revolves almost entirely around court decisions and media dealings. I think the book is good for what it is, I'm just not a person who's necessarily all that interested in books (or films for that matter) that are "based on a true story."
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LibraryThing member tzelman
Overly long but gripping account of how Gary Gilmore, the murderer, becomes Gary, the commodity
LibraryThing member Marlene-NL
on Saturday, December 13, 2008 I wrote about this book:
What i did was I decided to read Shot at the heart first cause Norman Mailer's books starts much later when Gary is an adult and gets paroled. Mikal's book starts from way before. With the grandparents of Gary, then his parents story and after
Then I started to read The Executioner's Song which is so much, a Love story, non fiction, true crime I have no words to describe. At the end I was crying.
I loved both books and I think they were 2 of the best books I've read this year. this one is a 10.
finished on Dec. 12 2008
What i did was I decided to read Shot at the heart first cause Norman Mailer's books starts much later when Gary is an adult and gets paroled. Mikal's book starts from way before. With the grandparents of Gary, then his parents story and after
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that the way he and his brothers were raised. So very well written and interesting.Then I started to read The Executioner's Song which is so much, a Love story, non fiction, true crime I have no words to describe. At the end I was crying.
I loved both books and I think they were 2 of the best books I've read this year. this one is a 10.
finished on Dec. 12 2008
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LibraryThing member dbree007
True Crime drama of the final 9 months of Gary Gilmore between his release from one prison, his senseless slaughter and his return to prison and execution
LibraryThing member annmariestover
A few things about this book: 1) is an EPIC! I don't remember how long it took me to read this. I picked it up because I've never read anything by Norman Mailer. It's the opposite of slender (a quality I appreciate in a book) - it's downright monstrous! It's a weapon! I think it was 1,124 pages?
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Something like that. 2) I didn't know until I was almost halfway through the book that it was a true story! That changed everything. It took all my power not to research Gary Gilmore on the internet before finishing. Maybe I enjoyed it that much more because not only was I getting the history of all the crap that went on, but I had no idea how it was going to end! Was he going to commit suicide?? Were they ever going to execute him?? It was a chore, reading this. It became part of my daily routine. Get up, make coffee, watch some TV, read a chapter or two of The Executioner's Song, buy soap, etc. 3) This book became a mini-series starring Tommy Lee Jones. Show Less
LibraryThing member marcelrochester
The part of the book before the crime is the best, pretty intriguing, but it forms a minority of the book. After that it's pretty uneven in quality. It's also overly long.
LibraryThing member Kelberts
Great story, great writing, great history, great controversy, great pop culture.
LibraryThing member Marlene-NL
Wow. What a beautiful book. At the end I was crying. Norman Mailer ,made me feel like I was there with Gary and the others during the execution.
At the same time I was reading Shot at the Heart by Mikal's Brother which gave me even more insight into the family and Gary.
I wish I could find pictures
At the same time I was reading Shot at the Heart by Mikal's Brother which gave me even more insight into the family and Gary.
I wish I could find pictures
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of Gary and Nicole. There is none of Nicole to be found and maybe 3 of Gary on the Internet. Show Less
LibraryThing member ecw0647
It has been years since I read Norman Mailer's {book:The Naked and The Dead}, an outstanding novel of World War II and a difficult act to follow. I've started some of his other books but never really got into them. He's had a couple published recently, {book:Harlot's Ghost} and {book:Oswald's
Gary Gilmore was released from Marion Prison to the sponsorship of his cousin Brenda in Utah. He got a job through her efforts, a place to stay, and plenty of girlfriends. There was no reason circumstances should not have worked out. Certainly, it was difficult and he didn't have all the money he wanted. If it hadn't been for the white truck that he just had to have, and the beer he was constantly stealing, perhaps events would have turned out differently. In any event, he calculatedly murdered two people during robberies to get the money for this truck. (Using the logic of library censors we should eliminate all white trucks.)
Gilmore had an IQ of 129, superior intelligence, and his defense team tried to find some way to define his actions as insane; yet though he clearly was a psychopath, psychotic was not a label that accurately fit. One psychiatrist tried to explain the differerence: "The psychotic thinks he's in contact with spirits from another world. He believes he is prey to the spirits of the dead. He's in terror. By his understanding he lives in a field of evil forces. The psychopath inhabits the same place. It's just that he feels stronger. The psychopath sees himself as a potent force in that field of forces. Sometimes he even believes he can go to war against them and win. So if he really loses, he is close to collapse and can be as ghost-ridden as a psychotic. "
Mailer has reconstructed the conversations and events leading up to the murders, the trial and circumstances after the killings. All the participants were interviewed at considerable length, and he has forged an extraordinary book. It is a riveting account that opens a window into the lives of Gilmore and those he influenced. Extremely difficult to put this book down. But also very discouraging in the questions it asks and the answers that are revealed.
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Tale}, that have been reviewed quite generously, so I thought it might be time to take another look. In 1979, he published The Executioner's Song That book piqued my interest because it ostensibly dealt with criminal motivations, human interactions, and the issue of capital punishment. Gary Gilmore was released from Marion Prison to the sponsorship of his cousin Brenda in Utah. He got a job through her efforts, a place to stay, and plenty of girlfriends. There was no reason circumstances should not have worked out. Certainly, it was difficult and he didn't have all the money he wanted. If it hadn't been for the white truck that he just had to have, and the beer he was constantly stealing, perhaps events would have turned out differently. In any event, he calculatedly murdered two people during robberies to get the money for this truck. (Using the logic of library censors we should eliminate all white trucks.)
Gilmore had an IQ of 129, superior intelligence, and his defense team tried to find some way to define his actions as insane; yet though he clearly was a psychopath, psychotic was not a label that accurately fit. One psychiatrist tried to explain the differerence: "The psychotic thinks he's in contact with spirits from another world. He believes he is prey to the spirits of the dead. He's in terror. By his understanding he lives in a field of evil forces. The psychopath inhabits the same place. It's just that he feels stronger. The psychopath sees himself as a potent force in that field of forces. Sometimes he even believes he can go to war against them and win. So if he really loses, he is close to collapse and can be as ghost-ridden as a psychotic. "
Mailer has reconstructed the conversations and events leading up to the murders, the trial and circumstances after the killings. All the participants were interviewed at considerable length, and he has forged an extraordinary book. It is a riveting account that opens a window into the lives of Gilmore and those he influenced. Extremely difficult to put this book down. But also very discouraging in the questions it asks and the answers that are revealed.
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LibraryThing member dickmanikowski
I decided to give this a re-read probably 35 years after the first read. This time, it seemed awfully tedious. And awfully, awfully, awfully long.
Still, one feels they get an idea of a pretty complex man. That feeling, alas, wasn't enough to make me feel sorry when the execution finally happened.
Still, one feels they get an idea of a pretty complex man. That feeling, alas, wasn't enough to make me feel sorry when the execution finally happened.
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In his last audio recording for his lover, he urged her to commit suicide after his execution. No consideration as to who would care for her two young children. Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
Well it seems to me there is a competition between Norman Mailer, a manly guy and Truman Capote as to which could write a story about a murder better than the other. With all due respect to Norman, I think "In Cold Blood" the better book. But until you have read both books, you can't really compare
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them. The Utah revealed by Mailer's book is quite chilling, and fully as fascinating as the mid-West of Capote's book. Show Less
LibraryThing member ProfH
I'm sure this masterpiece will stay with me for a very long time. It's the only work that I know of that can seriously challenge In Cold Blood for the claim of greatest true crime literature of all time.
The attention to detail and the portrayal of a time and place is magnificent. Some reviewers
I would classify this one as an absolute must-read in American Literature.
The attention to detail and the portrayal of a time and place is magnificent. Some reviewers
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may have been frustrated by the level of description, but I think that was largely the work's point. The fine and banal detail of a scene like a person's last night alive points out the absurdity of capital punishment and maybe also more generally all life. I would classify this one as an absolute must-read in American Literature.
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LibraryThing member agnesmack
I LOVED this book for the first 400 or 500 pages. It was beautifully written and I found the story fascinating. It was basically the story of a man who'd spent most of his life in jail getting out and meeting a woman who'd had this incredibly messed up life and them trying to figure out how to live
Then it got weird. People started getting murdered, there started to be all this 'extra' info that I really didn't understand why I needed to know. Like molestation that didn't really seem terribly relevant. I kept thinking, "Why would he add this when it really doesn't fit in with the plot or seem to add to it?".
Then I did some research and it turned out it's a "True Crime" 'novel' about Gary Gilmore, a real life serial killer. The last 500 or 600 pages got into all this legal battle business and I really didn't enjoy it. As far as a 'True Crime' novel goes I'd imagine it's about as good as it gets, but I have no interest in that genre. And it became really uncomfortable to read once I realized it had all actually happened. Mailer also attempted to make me give a shit about Gilmore and I just didn't.
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a somewhat normal and successful life together. Then it got weird. People started getting murdered, there started to be all this 'extra' info that I really didn't understand why I needed to know. Like molestation that didn't really seem terribly relevant. I kept thinking, "Why would he add this when it really doesn't fit in with the plot or seem to add to it?".
Then I did some research and it turned out it's a "True Crime" 'novel' about Gary Gilmore, a real life serial killer. The last 500 or 600 pages got into all this legal battle business and I really didn't enjoy it. As far as a 'True Crime' novel goes I'd imagine it's about as good as it gets, but I have no interest in that genre. And it became really uncomfortable to read once I realized it had all actually happened. Mailer also attempted to make me give a shit about Gilmore and I just didn't.
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LibraryThing member ursula
The account of Gary Gilmore's life, crime and death by firing squad. Over 1000 pages that I read in a weekend, I was so absorbed by the story.
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
Unforgettable! The prose style of this narrative-realistic novel is unique in my experience. It is a book that I devoured and one that has stayed in the back of my mind for years as one that I should reread. I continue to wonder at the genius of Norman Mailer as exhibited in this creation. He
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creates the world of Gary Gilmore in a way that made this reader feel it in a visceral way. It takes great writing to do that and keep you reading for hundreds of pages. Mailer nailed it. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — 1980)
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 1980)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — 1979)
Language
Original publication date
1979
ISBN
902295272X / 9789022952726