It has been years since I read Norman Mailer's {book:The Naked and The Dead}, an outstanding novel of World War II and a difficult act to follow. I've started some of his other books but never really got into them. He's had a couple published recently, {book:Harlot's Ghost} and {book:Oswald's Tale}, that have been reviewed quite generously, so I thought it might be time to take another look. In 1979, he published The Executioner's Song That book piqued my interest because it ostensibly dealt with criminal motivations, human interactions, and the issue of capital punishment. Gary Gilmore was released from Marion Prison to the sponsorship of his cousin Brenda in Utah. He got a job through her efforts, a place to stay, and plenty of girlfriends. There was no reason circumstances should not have worked out. Certainly, it was difficult and he didn't have all the money he wanted. If it hadn't been for the white truck that he just had to have, and the beer he was constantly stealing, perhaps events would have turned out differently. In any event, he calculatedly murdered two people during robberies to get the money for this truck. (Using the logic of library censors we should eliminate all white trucks.)
Gilmore had an IQ of 129, superior intelligence, and his defense team tried to find some way to define his actions as insane; yet though he clearly was a psychopath, psychotic was not a label that accurately fit. One psychiatrist tried to explain the differerence: "The psychotic thinks he's in contact with spirits from another world. He believes he is prey to the spirits of the dead. He's in terror. By his understanding he lives in a field of evil forces. The psychopath inhabits the same place. It's just that he feels stronger. The psychopath sees himself as a potent force in that field of forces. Sometimes he even believes he can go to war against them and win. So if he really loses, he is close to collapse and can be as ghost-ridden as a psychotic. "
Mailer has reconstructed the conversations and events leading up to the murders, the trial and circumstances after the killings. All the participants were interviewed at considerable length, and he has forged an extraordinary book. It is a riveting account that opens a window into the lives of Gilmore and those he influenced. Extremely difficult to put this book down. But also very discouraging in the questions it asks and the answers that are revealed.
