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The Executioner Song Norman Mailer 9780375700811 Books

Download As PDF : The Executioner Song Norman Mailer 9780375700811 Books

The Executioner Song Norman Mailer 9780375700811 Books

I chose my rating based upon the level of interest I had to keep reading this incredible piece of work. Gilmore and his personality are what make this book captivating and a desire to see his influence on how events unfold.

From the beginning this book was not what I expected it to be. Very few books I have read on any event have been so completely documented. The insistence upon giving all sides their voice in regards to Gilmore's latter days and execution is really charming. The dedication of the author to convey the thoughts of every major player involved gives a better view into what people were experiencing at this time.

One area I would liked to have seen more strongly represented is the experience of the victim's survivors. However, the picture is so complete otherwise it seems quite intentionally left out.

I can recommend this book to anyone curious about the effects of the sentence of capitol punishment not only for the criminal, but also for their family, friends and lovers. Included as well are the litigators and reporters that eventually become involved.


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The Executioner Song Norman Mailer 9780375700811 Books Reviews

This is the first Norman Mailer book I’ve read. WOW! Every time I picked up my , I read twice as long as I excepted to. This story, being true, I didn’t know what to expect. A thousand pages? And then you’re reading and a thousand page just fly by. I felt like I was there watching everything happening. I remember the News article on TV and in the Newspapers. I remember the TV News showing the Chair and the description of the execution. You have got to read this. N. Mailer. I’ll be reading him much more...much more.
I expected a book by Norman Mailer to be so much better! The writing was awful, almost juvenile. I was shocked by the poor quality of the writing. Mailer did an incredible amount of research, but this book was bogged down with so much useless information, it could have used a better editor. If anyone wants a better version of Gary Gilmore's story, get the book written by his brother, Mikal. This Mailer effort was a thick tome. I was looking forward to it, but the style of the writing put me off. Crude, very elementary and a struggle to finish. Only giving stars because I know the extensive research done . Poor effort. This book has not aged well.
I finished the book in three days. It held my interest most of the time, except when it seemed to really lag during the portion of the book dealing with who would have rights to Gary's story. I remember his story in the news quite well. I would guess that Nicole is approximately my age. I felt that they were both very immoral. I feel no empathy for either one of them. I felt that their relationship was extremely disfunctional, and based solely on the sexual. I felt that he manipulated her in extraordinary ways, and tried to get her to die for him. It was a very selfish and immature. I did think the writing itself was exceptional. I have not seen the movie and doubt that I will.
This book would be much better if it were 500 pages shorter. The author gets completely bogged down in minutiae, at the expense of the story. He managed to take a fascinating legal case and make it horrendously boring. He is way too hung up on Gilmore's sex life. The book could really do without the excessive inclusion of Gilmore's graphic letters to his girlfriend, which are rather explicit and in no way enhance the story. I really, really wanted to like this book, but I just can't.
The tale of Gary Gilmore is one of those "You can't make this stuff up" kind of stories. Gilmore, whose name shall live in infamy, spent 18 of the last 22 years of his life in reform schools and prisons for crimes mostly in the nature of robbery and burglary; he was 36 years old when he was executed for murder by the State of Utah in 1977. Beginning as a tale of a career criminal, the Executioner’s Song evolves into what is tantamount to a modern-day morality play.

During a release on parole, in a terrible twist of fate for his victims (a gas station attendant and a motel manager), Gilmore, in the course of robbery, murdered two people (family men both) in cold blood, execution style, for no greater reason than he needed money to buy a used car.

Gilmore is tried, convicted and sentenced. Sentenced to death, that is, in a case that culminated in the first state-sanctioned execution in American history in the prior ten years. His sentence, or more accurately, his resigned acceptance of his sentence, is the very crux of this story.

Having languished in “the system” for so long, Gilmore is adamant that he does NOT want to spend the rest of his life in prison and, more significantly, that he will NOT fight or appeal his conviction or his sentence.

Ironies are rife and abounding in this story, to the point where it would be comedic…if it weren’t so tragic.

Gilmore is both cowardly and brave at the same time cowardly in the dastardly acts he perpetrated with seemingly no moral compunction, but brave in his acceptance of his fate with no vacillation and no trepidation, fully steadfast and prepared to take his lumps. Throughout the story – while everyone else, it seems, is trying to save his hide - Gilmore is unwavering in his determination and has no second thoughts about accepting what is doled out to him. It is almost darkly comedic to read of his angry reactions full of cuss words upon learning that the Court has granted him yet another stay of execution. He is quite prepared to die, and chooses death by firing squad as his preferred method.

The overriding irony of this story is that while Gilmore himself is accepting of his fate, all manner of third-parties, including the ACLU and NAACP and members of his own family, are rallying and litigating on his behalf (against his wishes!) to appeal and/or stay his sentence. The notion of “mandatory appeal” is one I found particularly intriguing. Did Gilmore have the “right” to waive an appeal? Is it Constitutional to allow an execution to proceed without at least one appeal? Since these issues posed such a novel legal encounter at the time, the courts – local courts, appellate courts and even the Supreme Court of the United States – were bombarded with appeals and various requests on Gilmore’s behalf (regardless of his own intentions), resulting in a whirlwind of orders, stays and writs.

There is a harrowing description as the book nears its climax of how, on the eve of his scheduled execution date, a small group of attorneys takes a treacherous helicopter flight over the mountains to the Tenth Circuit Court to try to stave off the execution. When that fails, the matter is taken to the U.S. Supreme Court in an “eleventh hour” attempt and there is a scene – just like in old Hollywood movies – where the Warden is awaiting a call to say that the execution is off. (Except in this case, the call comes in to say that the execution is NOT off, and Gilmore is ultimately put to death, on January 17, 1977.)

In addition to the “mandatory appeal” question, there is also great hair-splitting on the question of “day versus time,” i.e. if the execution cannot for whatever reason be carried out at the exact time of day as set forth in the order of execution, does that nullify the sentence? Or can the execution still legally take place at another time during the same day?

In a secondary stroke of irony, during his incarceration, Gilmore makes not one but TWO suicide attempts. In addition, he embarks on a month-long hunger strike. The authorities ensure that each time he is at death’s door, he is revived, all for the end of putting him to death anyway!

Bottom line is that The Executioner’s Song offers up a banquet of ironies and legal and moral conundrums.

Then there is the love story. During his (brief) period out on parole Gilmore meets and falls deeply in love with a beautiful young girl by name of Nicole, who almost serves as his muse. In fact, the two are so obsessed with one another, they actually enter into a suicide pact. A good part of the beginning of the book is devoted to this symbiotic relationship and it serves to underscore yet another great irony in this story Apparently Gilmore was a gifted artist and poet and could even be a tender lover, as evidenced by his love letters to Nicole, many of which are excerpted throughout the book. And yet at the same time he could be prone to fits of anger and rage, enough to end in a cold-blooded double murder.

Ironically (once again), Gary Gilmore is larger in death than he ever was in life, certainly larger than the two poor souls who so tragically lost their lives to his violent outburst, whose names have been practically lost in the mists of time.

As for the way this book is written, this is going to sound downright iconoclastic to the mighty Norman Mailer, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with his style of writing. In fact, I found some of his turns of phrase rather awkward and at times even cringe-worthy. Citing but one example on page 990 "….his bowels flared up like a calf bawling." That being said, I certainly was impressed with his thoroughness and this book (weighing in at 1109 pages) is no doubt an ambitious undertaking. Moreover, Mailer excels at describing the machinations of the attorneys involved in this case and the veritable circles upon circles of appeals by outside parties and parties acting without Gilmore’s consent, encompassing state, circuit and Supreme courts. He also describes to a “T” the ghoulish members of the press and other hangers-on who want a piece of Gilmore and strive to make a buck off of him.

The Executioner’s Song is fact but reads almost like a legal thriller. The actual execution is a “down to the wire” experience such as you might read in a work of fiction or view in an old-time movie-of-the-week. But this is NOT a work of fiction; instead Mailer’s tale ranks among the classics of true crime, right up there with Truman Capote and Joe McGinniss and Joseph Wambaugh.

The story is told in excruciating detail. This may be a criticism in the early chapters of the book, but edging toward story’s end, the tension mounts and we are given a sense of immediacy such that the reader can almost hear the clock ticking inside his head. We are walking that last mile side by side with Gilmore. And it doesn’t end with the execution, as we are subjected to the gruesome descriptions of the autopsy and the cremation, as well as touching excerpts from his eulogy by his family and, oddly enough, the attorneys who had gotten to know him so well over those last few nerve-wracking months.

All in all, this was a good easy-to-read book that will really draw the reader in and pose numerous life questions to ponder, not the least of which is the morality of capital punishment and the taking of a life in vengeance for another.
This book is amazing. I have never read anything like it before and I doubt I ever will again. It is an indescribable experience. The story itself is incredible but it is the writing that makes this book worth reading. I could not recommend this book more highly.
I chose my rating based upon the level of interest I had to keep reading this incredible piece of work. Gilmore and his personality are what make this book captivating and a desire to see his influence on how events unfold.

From the beginning this book was not what I expected it to be. Very few books I have read on any event have been so completely documented. The insistence upon giving all sides their voice in regards to Gilmore's latter days and execution is really charming. The dedication of the author to convey the thoughts of every major player involved gives a better view into what people were experiencing at this time.

One area I would liked to have seen more strongly represented is the experience of the victim's survivors. However, the picture is so complete otherwise it seems quite intentionally left out.

I can recommend this book to anyone curious about the effects of the sentence of capitol punishment not only for the criminal, but also for their family, friends and lovers. Included as well are the litigators and reporters that eventually become involved.