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Tough Guys Don't Dance (Mass Market Paperback)

by Norman Mailer (Author) "AT DAWN, IF IT WAS LOW TIDE ON THE flats, I would awaken to the chatter of gulls..." (more)
Key Phrases: Patty Lareine, The Widow's Walk, Alvin Luther (more...)

2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
'Hypnotic...thrilling.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Mailer writes like an angel- a master of small surprises that may be precursors of seismic shocks.' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS 'A First-rate murder mystery... the suspense is as finely tuned as in any of the best films of Hitchcock.' CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'Think of it as a novel by Dashiell Hammett and transpose it into Mailer's style.' NEW YORK TIMES --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
"A novel that is as brash and brooding and ultimately as mesmerizing as the author himself...The dazzling balance betwen humor and horror keeps us plunging on....As for characters, each is a gem....It is a book to read with infinite pleasures."
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tim Madden awakes one morning with a gruesome hangover, a painful tatoo on his upper arm, blood all over the passenger seat of his Porsche, a severed female head in his marijuana stash, and almost no memory of his actions on the preceding evening. He is about to discover what they were and what he is....

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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 12, 1985)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345323211
ISBN-13: 978-0345323217
Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces

Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,065,699 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#46 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > Mailer, Norman

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
AT DAWN, IF IT WAS LOW TIDE ON THE flats, I would awaken to the chatter of gulls. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Patty Lareine, The Widow's Walk, Alvin Luther, Big Mac, Cape Cod, Big Stoop, Commercial Street, New York, Santa Barbara, Jessica Pond, Meeks Wardley Hilby, Patty Erlene, The Brig, Laurel Oakwode, North Carolina, Bolo Green, Hurricane Head, Lonnie Pangborn, Leonard Pangborn, Madeleine Falco, New England, Spider Nissen, State Troopers, Acting Chief of Police, Beach Point

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 7 books:

Tough Guys by Ian Don on 9 pages
The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition by Norman Mailer in Front Matter, and Back Matter
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History by Norman Mailer in Front Matter, and Back Matter
Why Are We in Vietnam?: A Novel by Norman Mailer in Front Matter

See all 7 books this book cites

45 books cite this book:

Cape Cod Stories: Tales from the Cape, Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard by Tim Smith in Table of Contents, page 12, and Back Matter
Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life by Howard Sounes on page 210, and Index
Encyclopedia of American History: Seventh Edition by Richard B. Morris on page 1076
Demonology: Stories by Rick Moody on page 279
TLA Film, Video, and DVD Guide 2002-2003: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide by David Bleiler on page 611

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun But Disappointing, October 29, 2004

By	Poogy - See all my reviews

I picked this one up because I'd never read any Mailer and figured it was about time. Maybe I should have stuck with one of the classics, but the library was out of Armies of the Night and Naked and the Dead. No question, he can write, and had no trouble sustaining my interest for the 225 pages or so. But the premise that sucks you in -- man wakes up to find he's gotten a tatoo he can't remember getting, and may have been on a killing spree he also can't remember -- leads to a terribly convoluted tale that deserved -- and needed -- a much more careful rendering. Had Mailer taken twice as many pages and the trouble to lead the reader through the story, it might have been fascinating to see how the intricate plot developed, but after a hundred and fifty fun pages he just decides to throw the explanation for everything at you all at once, like a B-movie in which the villain for some unexplained reason just can't stop explaining his scheme to the hero before killing him. In fact, that's exactly what happens. I felt cheated, as though he just didn't want to bother.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars entertaining, June 24, 2000

By	Luis M�ndez (Republica Dominicana) - See all my reviews

it is just entertaining, the kind of book you might read while you are at the dentist office, just waiting. it is not a great book, but it may keep you thrilled if you give it a chance. i guess the author will not get any prizes for this kind of book, but he reaches certain kind of people who reads this kind of stuff. not recommended for people who are lookinf for something great and beleive me, life is too short to read bad books.

LUIS MENDEZ luismendez@codetel.net.do

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mailer's Brilliant Pot Boiler, April 3, 2007

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

This review is from: Tough Guys Don't Dance: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mailer had said that he wanted to write something fast, nasty and fun after the time and energy he lavished on two of brilliant and more ambitious projects, Ancient Evenings and Executioner's Song. Tough Guys Don't Dance is that book, in the tradition of Chandler, Hammett, Ross Macdonald. Tim Madden wakes up after a long life of wasting away as a binging alcoholic and finds his bed drenched in blood; later he finds his wife's severed head in a secret pot stash. He, however remembers none of it, and this provides Mailer ample room to ruminate about the metaphysics of hangovers and black outs and the perversions one finds themselves willing to commit when wealth and power are at stake. The cast of characters are unruly, pinched in the nerve and casting a faint whiff of what one imagines the store room where Dorian Gray's portrait was held in sick secrecy. Madden, hardly an innocent , stumbles and routs about trying to piece together the events of his last binge, terrified in the possibility that he might well be his wife's killer. This is the most horrible of personal journeys, the saga of a man seeking evidence as to whether he's a monster or merely a hapless dupe.Mailer's prose is breathtaking and poetic, and creates a tension with the gamy undertakings of the plot. This is not one of Mailer's masterworks, not be a long shot, but it has verve and drive and a splendidly sick wit, and it reminds us that Mailer can construct an odd tale and twist it in any direction he pleases.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Mailer's genre novel
A frustrated writer awakens after a drinking binge to discover evidence that he may have committed murder. Read more

Published on June 12, 2007 by David Bonesteel

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped for
I found myself glazing over the words just hoping to get to the end. I couldn't force myself to care about the story because I didn't care about the characters. Read more

Published on April 29, 2004 by M. Duquaine

4.0 out of 5 stars Tough Guys Don't Dance
"Tough Guys Don't Dance" is a haunting, brooding tour de force. Mailer's observational skills and psychological depth are hard to match. Read more

Published on August 24, 2002 by Richard Cunningham

2.0 out of 5 stars No wonder I waited so long
I have owned a copy of Tough Guys for several years. It has moved from bookshelf to bookshelf as I have moved, and yet it has remained unread. Now I know why. Read more

Published on June 2, 2001 by B. Morse

1.0 out of 5 stars Misogynistic Drivel
First of all, it is impossible to deny that this book is incredibly misogynistic. Look at the premise: A guy finds a severed woman's head in his marijuana patch and he can't... Read more

Published on December 7, 2000 by Justin Bernbach

1.0 out of 5 stars A real drag
Norman Mailer is like the king of literary over-reaching. His prose reeks pumped up self-absorption. Very desperate.

I'm not sure how anyone could really get into this book. Read more

Published on November 8, 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun !
"Tough Guys Don't Dance" is a good old fashioned thriller set in a decaying seaside New England town inhabited by a motley assortment of wealthy elitists, drug... Read more

Published on September 9, 2000 by Edward Scott Haas

1.0 out of 5 stars The New York Times Book Review
Remember the "major" motion picture that Normon Mailer directed from his novel, well this great favorite of the East Coast Literary Establishment's cocktail party crowds... Read more

Published on August 16, 1999

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