Mailer: His Life and Times [Paperback]

Peter Manso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 18, 2008

THE DEFINITIVE, AUTHORIZED ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN ICON

The winner of every major national literary award, the preeminent novelist of his generation, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a movie director, politician, pugilist, antiwar activist, hipster, philosopher, and enfant terrible, Norman Mailer has been maligned, loved, hated, belittled, idolized -- but never ignored. This sweeping biography captures the legend's extraordinary life and career in his own fascinating words and in vivid accounts by his famous peers, friends, enemies, wives, lovers, and family members. Mailer is an extraordinary tapestry, a portrait of an era as well as a man -- as protean as the subject himself and just as overflowing with life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on interviews with more than 200 people, this gigantic book is not so much biography as a skillful compilation of multiple versions of events in the life of Norman Mailer. Not surprisingly, we are reminded that Mailer is often competitive, belligerent and drunk in public; on the other hand, in private he can be courteous and considerate. "Reading this book is an exciting, irresistible experience," PW stated.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Try dipping into Mr. Manso's interviews without at once becoming addicted....You can't." -- The New York Times

"Manso's exhaustive, kiss-and-tell biography seems fitting for a man of such caprice and profligacy, his work defined by excess and brilliance at once." -- The Boston Globe

"The book is grand gossip, a sort of portable Hamptons, Everyman's own private literary soirée." -- Time

"A rare and unprecedented document." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Frank, detailed, outspoken, funny, horrifying, fascinating, ludicrous, awesome, irreverent, brave, hypnotic, petty, dramatic, adroit, and unseemly -- a whirlwig of ambition, passion, and disaster....It will make you forget your troubles." -- The Village Voice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; Reprint edition (November 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416562869
• ISBN-13: 978-1416562863
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Mailer critique ever, February 2, 2011

By 

Anson (Venice, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mailer: His Life and Times (Paperback)

Best anatomization of everything good and bad in the life (and works) of N. Mailer to date. The Afterword in the new edition can only be called brilliant, on par with James Baldwin's account of his apprentice-mentor relationship with Richard Wright. How Nailer went bad (and boring) is now finally revealed!

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Notes of a Displeased Groupie, March 1, 2009

By 

Ted Burke "Ted Burke" (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mailer: His Life and Times (Paperback)

Author Peter Manso published a highly readable oral history of his then-hero and mentor Norman Mailer in the '80's titled " Mailer: His Life and Times". Manso, a good writer in all other respects, has republished the book with a lengthy afterword in which he repays the insult Mailer had paid him when it turned out the biography displeased him greatly. Mailer and Manso were close friends during the eighties, with Manso admitting as much that he was , more or less, Mailer's acolyte. The pair even shared a beach front house in Provincetown , Rhode Island. Mailer had written to the local paper ""P.D. Manso is looking for gold in the desert of his arid inner life, where lies and distortions are the only cactus juice to keep him going." Ouch, that hurts. But what puzzles me is that Peter Manso has seemingly nurtured the hurt for over thirty years and now takes a few too many pages to give his account, share gossip, insult Mailer friends. The aggrieved author seems less a wounded innocent than a gold digger . The lesson, I suppose, is that one ought not live with their heroes. I'd agree that Manso's Mailer biography is a fascinating read as far as it goes; it's hard to go astray when you've a group of interesting people giving an intimate account of a singularly intriguing and often brilliant personality like Mailer. But based on this, Manso's introduction to the new edition just sounds like sour grape he wants everyone to take a sip from. The problem with having heroes who embody every virtue and ambition one wants to cultivate for their own is that heroes will betray you, intentionally or otherwise. I've no idea what went on between the two men while they occupied that beach front property, but it's very possible Mailer had other things he wanted to do besides listen the sound and sight of a dedicated fan- boy sucking up; perhaps Manso crossed over from being a mere acolyte and exhibited a malignant sycophancy. Or maybe not; Manso would have served himself better getting over a three-decade old slight and finessed his remarks a tad more. It was Mailer's particular genius to make himself , as subject, fascinating in ways a reader wouldn't have suspected. That same talent isn't Manso's. Would that he merely republished his worthy oral history and gone onto another book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars mailer by peter manso, September 4, 2011

By 

richard worthington-rogers "richard worthingt... (washington, dc) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mailer: His Life and Times (Hardcover)

having never ordered a used book before from amazon i didnt know what quite to expect. my expectations were surpassed and what arrived is a great product.