Kaufmann in Orbit

Authors

  • Mark Olshaker Author

Keywords:

Donald L. Kaufmann, Bramble, Infant Martian, the hipster, Of a Fire on the Moon, sexuality and satire, Ancient Evenings

Abstract

Mark Olshaker reviews Bramble, Infant Martian (Lulu), a 622-page picaresque novel by Mailer scholar Donald L. Kaufmann that follows its protagonist from Pittsburgh to Iowa City, Alaska, Florida, Las Vegas, and Mars between 1944 and 1969. Olshaker admits confusion about its plot but praises its inventive line-by-line writing, its satire of the academy, and the Mailerian motifs of hipsterism and space exploration that frame it, calling it a serious and wholly original work. A note records Kaufmann’s death on October 13, 2015.

Author Biography

  • Mark Olshaker

    Mark Olshaker is the author of nine nonfiction books and five novels, including Einstein’s Brain and The Edge. His books with former FBI Special Agent and criminal profiling pioneer John Douglas, beginning with Mindhunter and, most recently Law & Disorder, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages. He is also an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose subject matter has ranged from architecture to history, science to criminal justice and terrorism, current events to classical theater. He has written commissioned screenplays for several of his novels, as well as the IMAX film Stormchasers. He is currently writing a book on the impact of infectious disease in the modern world with epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm. Olshaker is past president of The Norman Mailer Society, a director of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, former chairman of the Cosmos Club Foundation and a life member of the Writers Guild of America. He and his wife Carolyn, an attorney, live in Washington, D.C. His website is: www.mindhuntersinc.com.

Downloads

Published

2015-09-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2015): Maestro

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Olshaker, Mark. “Kaufmann in Orbit”. The Mailer Review, vol. 9, no. 1, Sept. 2015, pp. 327–330, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/535.