Castle Mailer

Abstract

Robert J. Begiebing offers an extended critical analysis of Norman Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest, situating the novel within Mailer’s long-standing engagement with metaphysical, historical, and psychological explanations of evil. Begiebing examines Mailer’s audacious narrative strategy, particularly the use of a demonic first-person narrator, to explore the origins of Adolf Hitler and the broader cultural conditions that enable fascism. The review assesses Mailer’s blending of extensive historical research with speculative metaphysics, tracing recurring concerns across his oeuvre, including free will, authoritarianism, and the tension between rational and archetypal modes of understanding. While attentive to the novel’s digressive structure and demands on the reader, Begiebing ultimately frames The Castle in the Forest as a late-career work of remarkable ambition, extending Mailer’s lifelong interrogation of power, evil, and the psychological foundations of political extremism.