An affable memoir of superficial interest to those grappling with the Mailer mystique.
Norman Mailer’s daughter writes about her relationship with him.
“I had been born [in 1949] to a man who became a celebrity at the age of twenty-five,” writes the author, a psychoanalyst based in Santiago, Chile. In this subdued, reflective memoir about her famous author father, Norman (1923-2007), she psychoanalyzes herself as she offers up a conflicted portrait of their relationship. Her father married six times and had numerous affairs and nine children. It was all part of the “Mailer routine. One in, the other out.” He was always busy writing or enjoying his boisterous public image and didn’t have much time for his children. Her story, told in dry, lackluster prose, is about trying to find herself while under the large and imposing shadow of her father. When she was 8, he told her he “hadn’t really loved me when I was born.” Susan was hurt and developed a “tough-kid persona.” Her early years were spent in New York, with her father, and in Mexico, with her mother, Bea, whom Norman divorced in 1952. The author loved her life with her mother and new father, and she enjoyed school and learning Spanish. Eventually, she would marry happily and have children. She writes about her father’s drinking and pot smoking in the 1960s, his mood swings, and the “The Trouble”—when he stabbed his second wife, Adele, twice with a penknife. The author also discusses her father’s work. An American Dream both “repelled” and “fascinated” her. The Armies of the Night was “a brilliant piece of journalism and an innovative experiment.” The Executioner’s Song, her favorite, “blew me away.” While watching him edit his film Maidstone, she felt like an “unwilling witness” to his “sexual fantasies.” The author fondly recalls her annual visits to the Big House in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the large Mailer family gathered and where her dying father sought forgiveness.
An affable memoir of superficial interest to those grappling with the Mailer mystique.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-937997-99-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Northampton House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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