Norman Mailer: The American

This is a straight forward biography of American writer Norman Mailer. He is interviewed in his home in Provincetown, Ma in 2006. He would die in 2007. His father was a drunken degenerate gambler. His mother was the tough breadwinner who loves him. His career starts in Harvard. During the war, he joined as a Private looking to gather material to write. It would become the highly successful "The Naked and the Dead". However his career in Hollywood stumbles. He would continue to write as his personal life goes through six wives and nine children. This is a biography based mostly on his and his supporters' interviews. It doesn't mean that it is only the good stuff but one does wonder if the bad stuff gets short-strift. It's a lot of information being rattled off. It's a lot of people, a lot of name dropping and a very full life.