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The Executioner's Song
 
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The Executioner's Song (School & Library Binding)

by Norman Mailer (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

The Executioner's Song is a work of unprecedented force. It is the true story of Gary Gilmore, who in 1977 became the first person executed in the United States since the reinstitution of the death penalty. Gilmore, a violent yet articulate man who chose not to fight his death-penalty sentence, touched off a national debate about capital punishment. He allowed Norman Mailer and researcher Lawrence Schiller complete access to his story. Mailer took the material and produced an immense book with a dry, unwavering voice and meticulous attention to detail on Gilmore's life--particularly his relationship with Nicole Baker, whom Gilmore claims to have killed. What unfolds is a powerful drama, a distorted love affair, and a chilling look into the mind of a murderer in his countdown with a firing squad. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize

In what is arguably his greatest book, America's most heroically ambitious writer follows
the short, blighted career of Gary Gilmore, an intractably violent product of America's
prisons who became notorious for two reasons: first, for robbing two men in 1976, then
killing them in cold blood; and, second, after being tried and convicted, for insisting on
dying for his crime. To do so, he had to fight a system that seemed paradoxically intent on
keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.

Norman Mailer tells Gilmore's story--and those of the men and women caught up in his
procession toward the firing squad--with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a
restraint that evokes the parched landscapes and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah. The
Executioner's Song is a trip down the wrong side of the tracks to the deepest sources of
American loneliness and violence. It is a towering achievement--impossible to put down, impossible to forget. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

54 Reviews
5 star:
 (32)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Long Journey, but Worth it in the End, Jun 7 2004
By Z. Blume (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Paperback)
This is an excellent true crime book, despite Mailer's verbosity and arrogant style. Gary Gilmore--a bright man who spent half his life in jail and eventually murdered two men in cold blood while on parole before being given a death sentance--is a fascinating example of a modern criminal. His life before his final crime and then his court battles to speed up his execution is an interesting case study and since this book is written like an extended newspaper article, it provides great insight. It also contains terrific accounts of the other tragic characters in Gilmore's life (his mother, father and girlfriend). The big fault of this book, of course, is its overwhelming length. There is no reason it needed to be over 1000 pages and after finishing it I was more than ready for it to be over. There is enough drama and action to keep the narrative flowing and to keep readers interested, but it isn't a book you can sit down and read in an afternoon, you will have to devote serious time and energy to finish it. I think the effort is worth it, but for people who do not want to commit to such an endeavor, do not read this book and buy the book by Mikal Gilmore (Gary's younger brother) or avoid Gilmore all together and buy In Cold Blood, which is a must read book and the best true crime I've ever read.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly absorbing, May 27 2004
By Dario M. Zagar "drziggles" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Paperback)
I started reading "The Executioner's Song" after completing Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banners of Heaven," a largely scathing account of the history of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and the culture of violence it has spawned during its 150 year existence. While Gary Gilmore isn't a Mormon, most of the story takes place in Utah, and many of the characters are Mormons, which shapes to some degree their views of the death penalty as a necessary "blood atonement" for murder.

I ended up plowing through the entire book in two weeks--that's how compelling a story Mailer paints in this lengthy, but engaging true-crime fiction hybrid. As others have mentioned, it's the first-half of this book that is the true masterpiece, the frenzied tale of the few months between Gilmore's release from prison and his cold-blooded murder of two young Mormon men, told in spare and unadorned prose. I was stunned by the level of detail he employs, and unlike some who found it tedious, thought that it brought the characters to life in a way I have rarely encountered in either fiction or non-fiction. While the second half of the book is somewhat overly drawn out, his portrayal of the marketing of the Gilmore myth (which, ironically, Mailer is involved in himself) is worth the time.

"The Executioner's Song" is full of people and moments told with a clarity that makes it unique and memorable.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Too many words, Mar 11 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Paperback)
A heart wrenching story that got drowned in too many irrelevant details. The way that Gilmore and his compatriots spiraled downwards is gripping, but the number of cigarettes smoked each day, banal conversations, and details of each person's daily life, made me lose interest in these miserable people after the first 800 pages.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars I Could Finish It But I Won't
Arrogant windbag, Norman Mailer, is at his most self-indulgent in this one. This thing needed an editor, and why can't Mailer just tell a story without resorting to excess detail... Read more
Published on Dec 7 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW
"The Executioner's Song" is an incredibly intimidating book, and if reading the whole thing constitutes a great accomplishment than writing it is akin to a feat of God... Read more
Published on Nov 12 2003 by scott89119

3.0 out of 5 stars Gary Gilmore: The Criminal As Celebrity
Was I blown away by this book? No. But I read it to the end, and given that the version I read clocks in at over a thousand pages, it's a testament to the... Read more
Published on Sep 11 2003 by S. Pactor

5.0 out of 5 stars long, but worth your time
Few authors could pull this off: to write a book about a crazed sociopath, his grim and pathetic life, his senseless crimes and the legal hassles they trigger and do it all while... Read more
Published on Aug 19 2003 by Nunov Yerbusiness from massach...

2.0 out of 5 stars conjecture can be tiresome
mr mailer's style of writing using conjecture to create moments in time in gary gilmore's life left me uninterested. Read more
Published on Aug 3 2003 by William D. Tompkins

4.0 out of 5 stars Life and crimes of Gary Killmore...I mean Gilmore
Mailer writes with the unembellished style of a newspaper reporter in this work which traces Gilmore's actions from his last prison release to his long-awaited execution. Read more
Published on Dec 17 2002 by J. England

3.0 out of 5 stars Did anyone else notice all the typos?
Yes, it was an important event in our nation's history. No one would dispute that, but Mailer's account follows all the wrong roads. Read more
Published on Oct 21 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing journey
For anyone interested in the criminal mind (and although I think it's sick at times, I am), this is an incredible book. Read more
Published on Feb 19 2002 by Huszar

2.0 out of 5 stars Much Ado About Nothing
Executioner's Song is the story of Gary Gilmore; the first convicted murderer to be executed after the death penalty was restored in the United States. Read more
Published on Jan 27 2002 by bookville

5.0 out of 5 stars True crime classic
One of my all-time favorite true crime books, "The Executioner's Song" is a quick read despite its length, though it slows in the second half. Read more
Published on Dec 29 2001 by James G. Greenhill

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