A towering figure in American literature, Norman Mailer has in recent years reached a new level of accessibility and power. His last novel, The Castle in the Forest, revealed fascinating ideas about faith and the nature of good and evil. Now Mailer offers his concept of the nature of God. His conversations with his friend and literary executor, Michael Lennon, show this writer at his most direct, provocative, and challenging. βI think,β writes Mailer, βthat piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought.β
In moving, amusing, probing, and uncommon dialogues conducted over three years but whose topics he has considered for decades, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, one that rejects both organized religion and atheism. He presents instead a view of our world as one created by an artistic God who often succeeds but can also fail in the face of determined opposition by contrary powers in the universe, with whom war is waged for the souls of humans. In turn, we have been given freedomβindeed responsibilityβto choose our own paths. Mailer trusts that our individual behaviorβalways a complex mix of good and evilβwill be rewarded or punished with a reincarnation that fits the sum of our lives.
Mailer weighs the possibilities of βintelligent designβ at the same time avowing that sensual pleasures were bestowed on us by God; he finds fault with the Ten Commandmentsβbecause adultery, he avers, may be a lesser evil than others suffered in a bad marriageβand he holds that technology was the Devilβs most brilliant creation.
In short, Mailer is original and unpredictable in this inspiring verbal journey, a unique vision of the world in which βGod needs us as much as we need God.β
From The Naked and the Dead to The Executionerβs Song and beyond, Mailerβs major works have engaged such themes as war, politics, culture, and sex. Now, in this small yet important book, Mailer, in a modest, well-spoken style, gives us fresh ways to think about the largest subject of them all.
Media Buzz
CBS Sunday Morning - December 30, 2007 CBS Sunday Morning - November 11, 2007 All Things Considered - November 10, 2007
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