An extraordinary work by an extraordinary writer.

I first read this book when I was just a teen. Even though some of it was beyond my comprehension, it was still fascinating.

Rereading it as an adult, I was simply floored. Mailer's way of presenting the story of murderer Gary Gilmore was so unique that it read more like fiction than a biography.

My emotions were pulled in multiple directions. I hated Gilmore for his horrific crimes, yet at the same time, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

It was a haunting tale that lingered with me long after I read the last page.

The vivid descriptions and Mailer's masterful storytelling made this book a truly unforgettable experience.

It made me question my own beliefs about crime, punishment, and the human psyche.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a thought-provoking and engaging read.

Much more of an ambitious book than I initially realized when I embarked on reading it. It was an utterly engrossing tale. The story centered around a man who was released from prison. His struggle to cope with the outside world was palpable, and yet, he had some surprising successes. However, his downfall was equally shocking. But the book didn't stop there. It delved deeper into an expose of various aspects such as the media frenzy, the legal system, the judicial and correctional systems, and American pop culture of the 1970s.

I also believe that Mailer wrote with such finesse that there were revelations about America in the 70s that he might not have been fully aware he was preserving. For instance, I found great enjoyment in the personal letters of the people. In the so-called white trash America of 1976, people still took the time to write letters. Although their grammar and spelling might have been less than perfect, they made an effort to write well. In fact, some even attempted poetry. It was quite astonishing, to say the least. Wtf, lol.

This is a classic title that I have seen mentioned numerous times. I finally decided it was time to read it. I knew nothing about it, and when it arrived in the mail in a box, I was shocked. It's nearly 1,100 pages! I began with the foreword written by Dave Eggers. He said, "I want to urge you with all my being that you must read 'The Executioner's Song'. I want to further guarantee that you will finish it. It's the fastest 1,000 pages you will never know." And he is right.

This is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction work about a case that was very well-known in the late 1970s. The crime itself may not be particularly remarkable, but it's the subsequent legal proceedings that truly set this story apart. I forgot that everything in this book takes place within a 9-month time frame. Clearly, it contains an insane level of detail. The exploration of the minutiae may not be to everyone's taste. I myself lost track of many of the characters by the end, but I finally decided it didn't really matter. I really enjoyed the writing style. Eggers describes it as "flat, unvarnished, plain-spoken." I think that's what makes this sprawling, complicated narrative so addictive.

My only complaint is about the format of this edition. According to Eggers, "Reading his story without knowing the outcome will only enhance the experience - it gives the book unimaginable tension and scope - and so I urge you to read nothing more of this introduction... Come back to these pages only after you've read the book." I did as he said. However, there are photographs included one-third of the way into the book that provide insight into what ultimately happens. That was a big disappointment.

The Executioner's Song is a profound work that delves deep into the complex and controversial topic of capital punishment.

It poses the crucial question of whether society has the right to take the lives of those it deems unfit. We enter into a social contract, giving up certain freedoms for protection, yet society regularly violates this by executing some lawbreakers.

The book forces readers to confront their own responsibility. Mailer strips away the layers of legal process and makes us face the harsh reality. Gary Gilmore, the condemned man, is a complex character. He has his moments of humanity, despite his criminal acts.

The issue of vengeance is also explored. In the past, lynchings were more common, but today, society has developed measures to prevent such acts. Gilmore himself believed that a life of imprisonment in a reduced state could be worse than death.

However, the writing in the book can be overly detailed. Mailer seems unable to leave any aspect unwritten, resulting in a thousand-page tome that could have been more concise. This exhaustive style can be tiring for the reader.

Overall, The Executioner's Song is a thought-provoking book that raises important questions about capital punishment, responsibility, and the nature of humanity.

This is one of the worst books I have ever read. It lacks any sort of colour or excitement.

That's precisely how I would describe it. It was a complete waste of my precious time. Everything within the book is described in such excruciating detail that the writing comes across as extremely stiff.

I understand that it was intended to be written in this manner, relying on facts and interviews. But from a reader's perspective, this book is simply not worth the effort of reading.

The whole case itself is by no means boring. However, the way it is executed (and no, I don't mean that in a literal sense) is simply horrible.

After all, there is one particular community to which I would recommend this book. Law students or experienced lawyers. The level of detail with which all the trials, documentations, and communications are presented may hold some interest for students and could even be enjoyable for those already immersed in the law field.

Perhaps they can glean some valuable insights or learn from the specific examples provided. But for the average reader, this book fails to engage and entertain.

It's a real disappointment considering the potential that the subject matter held.

This book is incredibly overrated.

I truly do not understand the acclaim that this tedious and unnecessary book continues to receive.

There are indeed some compelling bits within its pages, but it is so overwritten that it reaches the point of absurdity.

My main reaction upon reading it is simply: WHY!?!?!

It makes me wonder what others see in it that I am completely missing.

The story seems to drag on and on, with excessive descriptions and convoluted plotlines that do little to enhance the overall experience.

I cannot fathom why this book has gained such a following when there are so many other, more engaging and well-written works out there.

Perhaps it is a matter of personal taste, but for me, it fails to live up to the hype.

I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a truly captivating read.

There are far better options available that will leave you satisfied and eager for more.

As with most of my favorite books, it's extremely challenging for me to know precisely what to say about this particular one. Or rather, it's arduous to be concise.

In certain aspects, it presents a rather uncomplicated story. There is this individual, Gary Gilmore, who by his mid-30s has spent the majority of his life within juvenile detentions and jails in the American west. He is released into the custody of his extended family in Utah. Although he appears a bit rough around the edges, he can be charming and humorous. He refers to Thomas Mann as Tom Mann as if they are acquaintances, and he engages in discussions about reincarnation. He has a gentle and soulful side, and he desires to work hard. Perhaps he has never committed anything truly unforgivable, and now he has an opportunity to leave it all behind, to attempt to have a good life, a 'normal' life. The American Dream, even. However, not only is he unable to reach that goal, but he fails in perhaps the most tragic manner conceivable.

It is a simple story, yet its simplicity enables Mailer to pose the questions that great novels (in this instance, Mailer labels it a 'nonfiction novel') have always inquired. Why did Gary become a murderer? Could he have made a different choice, or was he somehow compelled to do so by the hand that life or society dealt him? How much choice did he have regarding the person he became, and how much choice do you or I possess? What would he say or do if, in some future situation, he were to encounter the men he had killed? Did he have the right to die at a time when the death penalty in the US had been in abeyance for years? And what are the consequences of granting him that wish? Personal, societal, legal? What occurs to those who carry out the act?

Like all great writers, Mailer answers what he can and leaves the remainder for us to ponder. He pursues just about every loose thread, though. Towards the conclusion of the book, for example, he locates the men who had volunteered for Gilmore's firing squad in a dark cocktail lounge.

They were sitting there drinking and playing liar's poker with dollar bills. One of these men was short and stocky and in his mid-thirties, bald on top, and another was also in his mid-thirties with light brown hair, around six feet tall, average weight, only he had a real potbelly and wore glasses. Those were the two talking the most. The third one who didn't talk had dark hair and an average build, but he had a real full beard and a mustache that was graying and he had tears in his eyes. Finally, he said if he had known what he was getting in for, he would never have done it.

Holy sh*t!

Wow, just wow.

This expression truly captures the essence of being completely amazed and astonished. It's a phrase that can be used in a variety of situations, whether it's seeing something truly remarkable, experiencing an unexpected event, or simply being blown away by someone's talent or achievement.

When we say "holy sh*t" and "wow, just wow," we are expressing our extreme surprise and admiration. It's a way to convey that something has had a profound impact on us and has left us speechless.

These words can also be used to add emphasis to a statement or to show that we are really impressed. For example, "I just saw the most amazing movie. Holy sh*t! Wow, just wow."

In conclusion, "holy sh*t" and "wow, just wow" are powerful expressions that can effectively communicate our feelings of shock, awe, and admiration. They are a great way to add some excitement and emphasis to our conversations and to show others that we are truly impressed.

I'm a big fan of true crime novels, and my interest in this particular one was especially peaked. This is because in 1976, when these crimes occurred, I was living in Orem, Utah. I resided just a few blocks away from the Sinclair station on 800 North in Orem, where Gilmore killed his first victim. I was only 12 years old at the time, and I vividly remember the news reports about it and the general buzz in the community regarding Gilmore. So, from the moment I picked up this book, I was completely engaged.

However, as I delved into Mailer's account of the people of Utah, I was left extremely confused. He made the decent individuals of the state of Utah seem like warped, ignorant oddballs. Simultaneously, he presented Gilmore as a romantic hero - surely marred by hubris, but Mailer's Gilmore was depicted as a noble victim of a judicial system and a community of bloodthirsty psychotics.
Now, this would have been more palatable for me if I didn't hold respect for the community I lived in back then. These were good people who were bewildered as to why someone like Gilmore would end up there and shoot those innocent individuals. The community of Orem is a group of people who, generally speaking, strive to live in accordance with basic Christian principles. Obviously, they are not perfect. But to paint that community as evil and Gilmore as a victim of that supposed evil? This is completely warped and incorrect.
So, while I do appreciate Mailer's abilities, which are indeed considerable, I firmly believe that his version of the Gilmore story is perilous. It goes beyond simply glamorizing the anti-hero; it completely flips the antagonists and protagonists. Mailer's skills are being misused for the purpose of transforming a twisted freak into a hero and a community of heroes into twisted freaks.
I truly wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I know far too much about the community to believe Mailer's portrayal of it. And, I also know far too much about Gilmore to believe that he is a sympathetic character.

I have heard it said that Norman Mailer is inconsistent within novels, whereas ordinary writers are inconsistent novel to novel. I have always found this to be true when reading his books. He was a prolific all-American novelist who repeatedly attempted to write The Great American Novel and experimented with form and content.

His first so-called great work, The Naked and the Dead, which is still infamous, I found to be alternately inspired and unconscionable. Good luck trying to determine Mailer's moral standpoint in either of these novels. Like that first 700-page book, The Executioner's Song is even more ambitious as it recounts the vicissitudes of Gary Gilmore.

I'll be honest. For about 250 pages, I thought this was one of the greatest books I'd ever read. However, over time, I came to realize that it was a flawed masterpiece. And finally, after reading hundreds of more pages, I lost nearly all my enthusiasm for it. Not to mention that the word'masterpiece' had begun to feel like a wildly inappropriate appellation. The length is exhaustive, and the details verge on minutiae. You might rate him five stars simply for the amount of research and legwork he did. But you should still approach the book with a degree of caution since it is technically fiction. By labeling it as such, Mailer could have taken numerous liberties with the facts. He was famous for constructing these Mount Rushmore-like tomes from endlessly compiled research. It must have been a real treat for him to recreate Truman Capote's method, as seen in In Cold Blood.

There are moving moments in The Executioner's Song, but on the whole, it is spread too thin to be truly moving. It has brilliant moments, but they are scattered throughout mundanity and wacko segments of unexplainably detailed sex and heavy-handed commentary.

Gary Gilmore, as expected, is a difficult person to sympathize with by the end, although you might have admired him for his gumption and charisma until you really got to know him. Mailer writes about him as if he were a close friend, but Mailer's own lack of squeamishness really turns me off. The same thing happened when I read Ancient Evenings, which might be my favorite novel of his so far. After a while, you can tell that he is padding the narrative with the kinds of scenes he really likes to write. Read enough of it, and you get an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach. You picked up the book for the sake of intellectual investigation, for history, but the history is not the focus of half of the writing.

Executioner's Song, on the other hand, is a brilliant character study in its own right, even if the focus and writing are uneven. Are some people incurable? Is America's justice system moral? What justifications can be given for the 'insanity defense?' These are just some of the questions posed by the book's subtext. Regardless of its mind-numbing length and pompous pretenses, it is an important testament by an overblown, but talented American writer.

This was my third attempt at reading “The Executioner’s Song”.

The first time, I gave up at around 600 pages.

The second time, I could read no more than 150 pages.

The reason on both occasions was the length of the novel - it is more than a 1000 pages long.

Bukowski wrote about Mailer: “God, he just writes on and on. There's no force, no humor. I don't understand it. Just a pushing out of the word, any word, anything.....”

This quote holds true for some portions of “The Executioner's Song”, especially the second part of the novel.

The book is about a real life character, Gary Gilmore, who decided not to defend himself in a murder trial.

In fact, he asked for his own execution, twice tried to commit suicide while in jail, and wrote abusive letters to organizations that attempted to save him from the death penalty.

The first part, Western Voices, is about how Gilmore tries to settle back into normal life within the predominantly Mormon community in Utah when he is on parole at 35.

By then, he had spent most of his life in jail.

Despite his mother's side of the family trying to help him with a place to stay and a job at his uncle Vern Damico's shoe repair shop, Gilmore finds it hard to fit back into society.

His intense and troubled love affair with Nicole, a divorced woman half his age, arouses his criminal instincts once again.

Mailer describes the strict and homogeneous Mormon society of Utah through the way people perceive and look at Gilmore, the ex-con.

The book is not written in first or second person, but we see Gilmore through the eyes of his family, girlfriend, work mates, and other people who come in touch with him.

Mailer writes simple sentences that are often candid and conversational in tone.

The scenes are almost entirely devoid of any sort of narrative punctuation.

In the first half of the novel, Mailer the writer takes a backseat.

It is only in the second part that he begins to reveal his prejudices.

A few months ago, I asked on a book forum about novels with characters that live in trailers.

I was always fascinated by people who lived that way.

Well, part one of this book is probably the ultimate book about the folk who live in trailers and the whole redneck lifestyle.

The second part of the novel is about Gilmore's trial, his life in prison, the suicide pact with Nicole, the machinations between various journalists, the human rights activists who tried to prevent his execution, and the conservative Mormon lawyers who try to enforce it.

This is the less interesting part of the novel and one that I found really tough to get through.

Mailer gets into minute details about financial transactions, legal jargon, and intimate details about fringe characters who were not that interesting to me.

However, there is a very entertaining bit about a cell mate and undercover agent Richard Gibbs who tries to sell a story to the newspapers about his time with Gilmore.

He ends up having a terrible accident.

The second part also contains the poignant story of Gilmore's mother Bessie who lives alone in a trailer.

She believes that something in a haunted house they occupied as a family during Gilmore's childhood entered him and this entity is what forced Gilmore to commit these murders.

There are quite a few references to the devil in this novel.

During an evening with Gilmore, Nicole senses an entity hovering around him and asks him if he is the devil.

Gilmore tells her that an ex jail-mate had asked him the same question.

Gilmore’s execution and the subsequent taking apart of his body in the mortuary are quite shocking to read.

And also very sad.

Gilmore’s thoughts in part two of the novel are revealed through his letters to Nicole and the interviews with his lawyers and journalists.

Mailer also uses newspaper clippings to explain media and public perception about Gilmore’s trial and execution.

I wrote earlier that the book is devoid of narrative punctuation.

There is none of the figurative language that is a feature of other Norman Mailer novels.

But as someone who has read quite a few of Mailer's novels, it was quite evident to me that Mailer sympathized and even identified with Gilmore's plight.

Mailer once said that society was designed to drive men deep into homosexuality and onanism.

Gilmore’s refusal to end up as a mediocrity in jail is clearly admired by Mailer.

This is from an interview where Mailer speaks about Gilmore: “He (Gary Gilmore) understands the fundamental thing that so few people understand: it’s more important to save your soul than to live and feel it be slowly extinguished.”

As another reviewer on Goodreads pointed out, Mailer dedicates less than 20 pages of his 1024 page tome to Gilmore’s victims.

Mailer’s prejudices are indicated by the things that he leaves out in the novel and the space that he gives to others.

I really liked it. It is a devastating book and both protagonists, Gary and Nicole, are very well-represented.

It is a book with a lot of power that impacts and impresses in some parts. The ending is very consistent with the tone of the rest of the story, which is always appreciated.

This book takes the reader on an emotional journey, exploring the complex relationships and inner turmoil of the characters. The author's writing style is engaging and descriptive, making it easy to picture the scenes and feel the emotions.

Overall, it is a great read that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a thought-provoking and moving book.