I had always intended to review this magnificent five-star masterpiece, but I initially thought it could speak for itself. However, after recently rereading one long chapter, I was once again completely overwhelmed. It is truly beautiful work.

Having only read Norman Mailer's rather dubious and salacious "biography" of Marilyn Monroe (which I did enjoy, but I must admit the pictures were better, especially considering he had about 8 wives himself and was loudly lamenting that he never married Marilyn, which was a bit off-putting), I had assumed he was one of the most style-conscious American writers. But in this book, being one of those "non-fiction novels" like In Cold Blood, he completely abandons "style" and writes in a flat, just-the-facts, affectless Carver-esque tone, which is an absolute joy to read.

Of course, the story is captivating. There is a particular scene that you just know is going to come up. Mailer knows it, and Gary knows it too. Gary is in prison, and Mailer is interviewing him, and they discuss who will play Gary in the inevitable movie.

As it turns out, Tommy Lee Jones was cast as Gary, and his Juliet, Nicole Baker, was played by Rosanna Arquette. They couldn't have asked for better.

The Executioner's Song is pure underclass literature, similar to works like Random Family by Adrian LeBlanc, the essays of Theodore Dalrymple, Crimes in Southern Indiana by Frank Bill, The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute, and London Labour and the London Poor by Mayhew. It might even be the best of all these attempts to portray life at the bottom, as it is the most detailed. Portraying this kind of life is difficult because those who come from the bottom often try to distance themselves from it in their writing (like Genet and Jack Abbott). This means that the writers who attempt to depict these complex and chaotic lives are looking in from the outside, and often the whole thing is beyond their comprehension. How could it not be?

Mailer managed to get everyone involved, talked to everyone, laid everything out, and let everyone speak for themselves. It was an extraordinary feat. It is a brilliant book that is an absolute must-read.

This book is an absolute drudgery to get through.

The description on Goodreads refers to it as meticulous, but I would rather label it as dreadfully boring.

It sort of occupies a gray zone between fiction and non-fiction.

It is quite evident that neither Mailer nor Schiller (the main "researcher"/journalist/producer/opportunist) actually conducted a face-to-face interview with Gilmore.

As a subject, Gilmore simply lacks that captivating charm.

One of the journalists posits that Gilmore is "mediocrity enlarged by history," and that just about sums it up perfectly.

He was a mediocre criminal and a truly despicable human being.

If he had been sentenced to life in prison instead of facing the death penalty, no one would have bothered to write even ten words about him.

I find it难以置信 that this book竟然 won a Pulitzer.

It makes me question the standards and judgments of the Pulitzer committee.

Surely, there are far more deserving works out there that could have received this prestigious award.

This book seems to be more of a disappointment than a literary masterpiece.

Gary Gilmore's death in photographs is a haunting sight. The black and white mugshots show a man with a gray face, his expressions flat and unreadable. It's as if the colors have been drained from his life, leaving only a shell of a person.

The photos were taken with a simple box painted black and a hole cut into it. There's a roll of film of a guy named Skeeziz, but it never comes back. It's like a mystery that remains unsolved.

Gary Gilmore is a complex character. He's Racist Gary, Country-and-western Gary, Poetic Gary, and Artist Manque Gary. He's a movie star on TV and a killer Irishman. He signs autographs with roses and kisses, but he's really dying for himself.

The Executioner's Song is a book that I love. It's not just a story about Gary Gilmore, but also about Nicole Baker, his lover. Nicole is an honest woman who doesn't hide her flaws. She's neglected her children, worked as a prostitute, and fooled around with Gary and young Rosebeth. But she's also brave and has a kind of blindness that allows her to keep going.

I have my doubts about some of the stories in the book, but that doesn't matter. The book is about more than just the facts. It's about the emotions and the truth that lies beneath the surface. It's about the tension and the tedium of a life that doesn't start.

Gary Gilmore's story is a tragic one. He played chicken and lost. He couldn't live outside of prison and ended up killing two men. But his love letters to Nicole are also a testament to his humanity. They're self-serving, but they also show a man who is lonely and desperate for love.

The pictures of Gary Gilmore and Nicole Baker tell a story that words can't fully capture. They show a world of darkness and hope, of bad spirits and a longing for something better. It's a world that we all live in, whether we like it or not.

Whether you believe in long underwear or reincarnation, The Executioner's Song is a classic. It's a book that makes you think and feel, and it's a book that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. The lights are still burning, and the worm holes remain. But there's also a glimmer of hope, a chance to see the truth and to find a way out of the darkness.

If I were to listen to music while reading this book, it would be The Police's song about Gilmore. The lyrics fit the mood perfectly, and the music adds another layer of depth to the story. It's a song about a man who is lost and alone, but who also has a kind of beauty and charm.

Gary Gilmore's story is a cautionary tale. It's a reminder that we all have our dark sides, and that we all make mistakes. But it's also a story of hope and redemption. It's a story that shows us that even in the darkest of times, there is always a chance for something better.

Tommy Lee Jones as Gary Gilmore? I can't wait to see it. But I know that no movie can fully capture the essence of this book. The Executioner's Song is a masterpiece, and it will always be one of my favorite books.

I gave up after 600 pages. It was truly a struggle to get through those many pages.

I simply could not fathom the thought of reading another 400 pages about this particular individual. Mailer seemed so insistent on trying to portray him as some sort of misunderstood genius.

But from what I had read so far, I just couldn't see it. The character seemed more like a jackass to me. I found myself constantly frustrated with the way Mailer was trying to build up this person.

Maybe there was something more to come in the remaining 400 pages that would change my perspective, but I just didn't have the patience or the inclination to find out. I decided to cut my losses and move on to something else.

It's a shame really, because I had initially been interested in the book. But as it turned out, it just wasn't for me.

In the end, I finished this animal of a book.

The first part, "Western voices" - brilliant. It caught me from the beginning and didn't let me go. Page after page, full of relevant information, very good dialogues, strange but still believable situations. In the end, the result of a titanic research work and an exceptional literary talent.

And then comes the second part, "Eastern voices".

If I gave the first part an easy 5 stars, I would give the second part maybe 2. Half of the second part, that is, about 300 pages!!!, contains painfully boring and useless details about the machinations of a wide range of uninteresting characters who try to capitalize on the tragedy of Gilmore and his love, Nicole. Here it is clear that the volume needed a much, much better editor. One who would pat Mailer on the back and tell him to come to his senses.

I mean, a 1,100-page book has time to waste on this kind of details?! Who cares about a reporter searching among a sea of reporters who tried to buy or sell the right to write a book or make a film based on Gilmore's story? I understand that it is necessary to show how the media distorts and processes sensitive information, but to dedicate 300 pages to this aspect seems to me, how can I say... aberrant! Caught up in the maze of technical details, at a certain point you almost forget what the book is about, actually.

I have read many long books, but this is the first one that I think deserved and actually should have been much shorter.

If this kind of digressions don't bother you, I recommend it. At least the first part. The second... skip. When you see that you start to lose the thread of the action, skip 10 pages and you can continue.

I’m not a fan of criminal chronicles. And even such a scrupulous and voluminous analysis of the dire crime as The Executioner's Song didn’t really move me deeply.

As the text states, he was ready to argue there was no rational way you could justify the death penalty, except to admit it was absolute revenge. If that, he would say, was the foundation of the criminal justice system, then we had a pretty sick system.

All those thieves, robbers, rapists, and murderers commit their obnoxious crimes. When caught, they often declare that society is guilty for their actions and cry for mercy. And unfortunately, they sometimes receive it.

Moreover, when a crime becomes a focus of wide public attention, this publicity can start to work against justice. It may influence the way people perceive the case and put pressure on the legal process, potentially leading to unjust outcomes.

In conclusion, while criminal chronicles can provide some insights into the nature of crime and the justice system, they also raise many questions and concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of our legal processes.

Long read.

1,050 pages of history about the life and death of an American who was executed by firing squad in 1977 in Utah. This is Norman Mailer's answer to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood that was published in 1969 and started a new literary classification called non-fiction novels.

I read this with a lawyer as a reading buddy. We spent 14 days (1 day per part). Here is the discussion thread containing our daily thoughts. Sorry if some of the phrases are in Filipino.

Gary Mark Gilmore (1940-1977) had spent half of his life in jail when he was paroled (crime: robbery) in 1976 at the age of 36. He tried all sorts of jobs while living with his uncle Vern Domico. However, as his cousin Brenda commented when Gilmore encountered all kinds of problems while working, "he was locked up when he was supposed to be learning about how to earn a decent living." So, the disillusioned Gilmore, confused about how to live outside the prison, turned to booze, drugs and illegal ways he knew to escape from the reality of a bigger prison called life. He fell in love with an 18-y/o sexy teenager Nicole and the love turned to obsession. When Nicole left him, Gilmore killed Nicole's new boyfriend and then, on the same night, killed a man he had not even met before. This summarizes the first half of the book. I liked the story because of its readability, its call for a reform in the US penal laws (in fact, according to Wiki, this case triggered a nationwide debate on the death penalty upon this book's release) and Mailer's crystal clear and emphatic characterizations. Had the book ended here, it would have gotten 4 stars from me.

The second half of the book is not as effective as the first half. It tells, basically, the aftermath of Gilmore's conviction: death. A large part of this second half is spent on negotiations for the film right to turn Gilmore's life into a movie, the repeated appeal (the Stay) resulting in several postponements of the execution and the eternal love between Gary Gilmore and Nicole that reminded me of Romeo and Juliet because at one point, they both took drugs as they attempted a double suicide. Aside from the last one and Gilmore's interactions with his family, his mother Bessie and his youngest brother Mikal, half of the book is utterly boring. It is not only anti-climactic but also too detailed on things that are not interesting to me. My interest only picked up again when Gilmore was finally killed but that was only discussed in the last two parts and they were not able to bring back the emotional impact that this book had in its first half.

Overall, it is a good book to know how the legal (criminal) system in the US worked in the 70s. Compared to ours here in the Philippines, my reading buddy explained to me that they have a jury system there and the judge's role is just that of a facilitator. There is also this legal procedure called Next Friend. She also refreshed my mind on the meaning of Writs of Mandamus and Certiorari. Two writs that were repeatedly mentioned in the second half.

Prior to this book, I used to be unaffected whenever I heard people getting the death penalty. For example, when Leo Echagaray (1960-1999) was executed by lethal injection here in the Philippines after 23 years that the death penalty was removed from the Philippine law. When he was executed, I told myself: What kind of father is he? He raped his own daughter so he deserves death. It was very easy for me to say that.

Now, I would not be so quick to say so. Just like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, this book is also an eye-opener.

This was an absolutely awesome read. Its scope was truly huge, and it was completely unlike any other true-crime novel that I had ever read, and that's precisely why it was so captivating. It was a fascinating psychological study of all those who were involved - the victims, the survivors, the families, and the friends. It painted such a complete picture that you could almost feel as if you were right there in the midst of it all.

The fact that this was more of a collaborative effort rather than a solo one (as can be seen at https://www.bookcritics.org/2007/11/1...) doesn't in any way detract from its quality. For those who have an insatiable appetite for more knowledge on this subject, there's the equally compelling story written by Gary Gilmore's brother, Mikal. It's called "Shot in the Heart" and it delves into the dysfunctional family that ultimately led to this tragic end. (I read the abridged version when it first appeared in Granta (https://granta.com/family-album/); that particular issue had the title, "Families. They Fuck You Up". And as we all know, sometimes that's exactly what they do....

Utterly outstanding! It is truly enthralling. These are the fastest 1200 pages you'll ever read. The prose is breathtaking, leaving you in awe with each turn of the page. The narrative and scope feel monumental, as if you are witnessing a grand epic unfold before your eyes. But what's most impressive is the fact that Mailer was able to write such a masterpiece so quickly after researching the story. He was, simply put, a master. His talent and skill shine through every word. I'll never forget this story. It has left an indelible mark on my mind, and I will surely recommend it to others. This is a work of art that demands to be read and cherished.

This book is one of the best examples of literary journalism, reaching great heights without flinching from the cold-blooded hustle and bustle that paved the way for this genre.

It delves deep into the heart of the matter, presenting a vivid and detailed account of the events and people it portrays.

The author's writing style is engaging and captivating, drawing the reader in and making them feel as if they are a part of the story.

With its unique blend of journalism and literature, this book offers a fresh perspective on the world and challenges the reader to think differently.

It is a must-read for anyone interested in journalism, literature, or simply a good story.

Whether you are a seasoned journalist or a casual reader, this book is sure to leave a lasting impression.

My preferred literary genre is fiction, and I rarely engage with non-fiction books unless there is an absolute necessity, such as for work or reference. So, it was a novel experience for me to pick up a non-fiction book纯粹 for the joy of reading. I embarked on a buddy-read of this book with Kuya Doni, the senior book club moderator, over a period of exactly 14 days.

The Executioner's Song presents a true account of the life, conviction, and ultimate execution of Gary Mark Gilmore. A 30-something convicted felon with an extensive prison history (he had spent half of his life behind bars by the time of his execution), Gilmore was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder by a jury in the State of Utah. Mailer delved into great detail, narrating Gary's childhood, family background, his time in a reform school as a teenager, subsequent incarceration for robbery, release on parole, relationship with Nicole, the killing of two innocent men, and finally, his trial, conviction, and execution by firing squad.

The book was engaging from start to finish, with its straightforward and no-nonsense writing style. However, the challenge with non-fiction or books based on true events is that, despite their readability, they can sometimes become monotonous. While the author, as the narrator, has some freedom in storytelling and presenting the events, he is still bound by the facts. This can make it a bit of a task to enhance the prose. Indeed, while the book was quite readable, there were certain parts, especially in the second half, that left me feeling rather bored.

So, although I appreciated Mailer's efforts to narrate Gary's story as accurately as possible, I felt that there were some unnecessary characters and details that elongated the novel without serving much purpose other than delaying the inevitable.

What I truly liked about the book, though, was that it provided me with an opportunity to learn more about the US criminal justice system, adding to my existing knowledge. Now, I understand the difference between first- and second-degree murders, and I became acquainted with the Next Friend petition, which is not present in the Philippines.

The death penalty is a sensitive and controversial issue. Since its abolition in the Philippines in 2006 through the enactment of Republic Act 9346, the sentences of death row inmates have been commuted to either life imprisonment or reclusion perpetua. My personal view on this matter, however, remains unchanged. I always try to put myself in the shoes of the victim's family. In Gary Gilmore's case, I attempt to envision myself as the wife or family member of Max Jensen or Benny Bushnell, and I'm not sure if I would oppose the execution. It's all a matter of perspective.

You can read about Kuya Doni's and my thoughts about the book on this thread. :)

The Pulitzer-prize-winning story of Gary Gilmore is one that everyone who lived through the seventies knew about. For months, he was on the cover of every magazine and newspaper, becoming infamous in a time when serial killers were sensationalized. Mailer was part of this process, along with Truman Capote, whose "In Cold Blood" ushered in New Journalism. Both books are classics, but also controversial for implicating their authors in focusing on reprehensible characters and humanizing them to some extent.

Gary Gilmore spent over half his life in jail or prison. After being released in 1976, he was helped by his uncle in Utah to get a job and met Nicole Baker. But in less than nine months, after Nicole left him, he committed two robberies and unnecessary killings. He became a media sensation, with numerous Stays of Execution and even involvement of the US Supreme Court. Eventually, he was executed by a firing squad, his chosen means.

The story, told in 1,100 pages, is not remarkable in many ways. It builds on over 15,000 pages of interview transcripts and borrows from other sources. The characters in this western, working class narrative are not always admirable, but they are fascinating. Mailer does his best to tell just the facts, without judging. The two murdered men also come to life, though briefly. The book focuses on Gary Gilmore, his relationship with Nicole, the trial, and the media circus.

Key features of the book include the letters between Gary and Nicole while he was in jail. Gilmore is seen as bright, funny, and sometimes endearing, but also controlling and manipulative. A third of the book is a bit tedious, focusing on the legal wrangling of 1976. But overall, it's a portrait of a criminal and an American obsession with criminals. It also touches on topics like the media, the legal system, the prison system, and family.

Is this a great book? While I liked "In Cold Blood" better for its tightness, I admire the way Mailer makes the principal characters come alive. He captures their lives, language, and complicated love for Gilmore. The book is an amazing achievement in capturing this group of people and their story, even if Gilmore's life was ultimately a waste.