Where Is Norman Mailer When We Need Him?

Authors

  • Robert J. Begiebing Southern New Hampshire University Author

Keywords:

Library of America, J. Michael Lennon, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, The Armies of the Night, An American Dream, 1960s politics

Abstract

Robert J. Begiebing reviews Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s and Norman Mailer: Collected Essays of the 1960s, edited by J. Michael Lennon (Library of America), a boxed set he finds a possible cornerstone for a Mailer revival. Begiebing anticipates that An American Dream and Why Are We in Vietnam? will trouble today’s classrooms and wishes the set offered critical introductions, though he praises Lennon’s notes. He dwells on Miami and the Siege of Chicago as the book most resonant with present politics, while judging The Armies of the Night, in which Mailer takes greater personal risk, the finest of the four.

Author Biography

  • Robert J. Begiebing, Southern New Hampshire University

    Robert J. Begiebing is Professor of English Emeritus at Southern New Hampshire University and the author of nine books (including criticism, fiction, and nonfiction) and many articles. His most recent book, The Territory Around Us: Literary and Political Journalism, 1982–2015, was published in 2015. He is on the board of the Norman Mailer Society.

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Published

2017-10-26

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Begiebing, Robert J. “Where Is Norman Mailer When We Need Him?”. The Mailer Review, vol. 11, no. 1, Oct. 2017, pp. 255–264, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/628.