After a 10 year absence from book publishing, Norman Mailer is back. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author has a new novel coming out in January called The Castle in the Forest (Random House).
Mailer was one of the founders of The Village Voice and became widely recognized for his essays in the 1950s. He is well known for his work in creative non-fiction, a mode of writing sometimes classified as New Journalism.
Mailer won the Pulitzer, along with the National Book Award, for 1968's The Executioner's Song, a work of non-fiction about the anti-Vietnam War march on the Pentagon. He was also awarded with the Pulitzer for The Executioner's Song (1979), a "true-life" novel about Gary Gilmore, a career criminal who was the first person executed in the U.S. after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
The Gospel According to Mark, the last novel Mailer published, told the Gospel from the point of view of Jesus Christ. He wrote two non-fiction books in 2003 - The Spooky Art: Some Thoughts on Writing and Why Are We At War?
Other well-known Mailer books include 1963's Marilyn, 1968's Armies of the Night, and 1970's Of a Fire on the Moon.
The snarky "Is Norman Mailer Still Relvant" articles are already popping up in the press, which we find apalling. After all, whether he writes another book or not, he's still a great writer whose work remains relevant.
It will be interesting to see how the new novel fares with the reading public. We think it will do well, especially from fans who have been wondering if he was ever going to publish another book.
