Customer Reviews

Harlot's Ghost: A Novel

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

HARLOT'S GHOST

A novel by Norman Mailer
Synopsis by Steven Travers

Screenwriter Steven Travers proposes adapting Norman Mailer's magnum opus, "Harlot's Ghost", into a blockbuster screenplay. The story revolves around Herrick "Harry" Hubbard. Harry was raised to become a crack CIA agent. His father is a career Company man, and he comes under the wing of his Godfather and mentor, Hugh Tremont Montague (bases on James Jesus Angleton). Montague, also known as Harlot, shepherds him through the Ivy League and into the cloistered, early 1950s world of the Central Intelligence Agency. A battle for Harry's "soul" occurs between his father and Harlot.

Harry falls in love with the beautiful and redoubtable Kitteredge, who has also come under Harlot's spell. Kitteredge becomes a CIA psycho-analyst, charged with getting to the root of male-female differences by studying the Alpha and Omega of human personality. She marries the older Harlot, and has a long affair with Harry, all of it supposedly kept "secret" from Harlot.

Harry matures into a top CIA operative. His station assignments take him to Latin America, where the Company orchestrates political overthrows and fights a desperate propaganda war against Communist insurgents. The CIA in the 1950s is composed of pipe-smoking, tweed-coated Ivy Leaguers obsessed with defeating atheistic Marxist-Stalinists in every corner of the globe. They go by a staunch code of Episcopalian Christianity, convinced beyond all doubt that they fight on the side of good against the worst possible evil. They are the new Church of America, where the secrets are kept.

Harry's assignments range from Latin America to Berlin to Washington, D.C. to the Bay of Pigs. He works closely with real-life historical figures, such as Watergate "plumber" E. Howard Hunt. He is directed to start an affair with a beautiful femme fatale based on Judith Campbell Exner, and becomes a CIA liaison/spy between the Company, John F. Kennedy and a Sam Giancana character.

Eventually, Kitteredge divorces Harlot and marries Harry. Harlot dies in mysterious circumstances, just as Harry is learning of a nefarious plot to assassinate President Kennedy. His failed attempts to get to the bottom of the assassination plans before they are carried out, mixed with his "taking" the young wife from his mentor, represent the loss of innocence in an end-of-Camelot scenario.

I admit I didn't read it all. As a critic wrote, "This will be one of the great unread bestsellers." Well, I did read SOME of it, and actually enjoyed what I read. But when I checked the last page to read the last words of this FAT book are "To be continued," I thought "forget it!" Since the book ended "To be continued" anyway, why didn't Mailer and his publishers just cut this book up into three smaller volumes, and publish one volume a year? They would have made more money, and it would have made for more palatable reading for readers like me. Anyway, you've at least got to read the famously ungrammatical opening sentence, where it looks like a person named Recollections is driving through the fog. Who is this fellow named "recollections?" Mailer, of course, wouldn't allow it to be corrected in subsequent printings, "I like how the sentence hangs there," he said. Let anyone who ever scored a "D" on a grammar exam like me be reassured!

I admit I didn't read it all. As a critic wrote, "This will be one of the great unread bestsellers." Well, I did read SOME of it, and actually enjoyed what I read. But when I checked the last page to read the last words of this FAT book are "To be continued," I thought "forget it!" Since the book ended "To be continued" anyway, why didn't Mailer and his publishers just cut this book up into three small volumes, and publish one volume a year? They would have made more money, and it would have made for more palatable reading for readers like me.

This sprawling 1,000+ page epic about two generations of CIA officers is difficult to characterize: part history, part period piece, and part fiction. Mailier mixes the comings and goings of historical figures and real events with a well-developed cast of fictional characters in a way that reminds the reader of E.L.Doctorow's masterpiece Ragtime.

Harlot's Ghost impresses as an authentic and comprehensive glimpse inside the inner workings of the CIA. The book's strongest message is that this infamous organization of spooks and bogey-men is no more than the sum of it's parts - the officers and agents - and by giving us a view of their motivations and desires we understand a bit more about how and why the CIA does what it does.

The protagonist, Harry Hubbard, is a second generation CIA officer who bounces around the globe from assignment to assignment, managing to land in each hotspot long enough for us to see the Agency's role through his eyes as events unfold - from Cold War Berlin to the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Enjoyable though this novel is, not everything works. Hovering as a backdrop to all the action is the idea of deceit and duality: East vs. West, intelligence vs. counterintelligence, information vs. misinformation, the means vs. the ends, idealism vs. pragmatism. This theme is captured by the theory of Alpha and Omega - a theory developed by Kitterdge Montague, CIA research psychologist and love interest of Harry Hubbard. The theory, in brief, states that there are two fully formed and competing personalities trapped within every individual, and that the key to human nature is to understanding the relationship between these two personalities. In an early scene a soon-to-be-wed Kittredge offers an elegant explanation of this theory while flirting with Hubbard. The problem is that over the next thousand pages the same theory pops up every ten pages or so, until the reader feels beaten over the head with this particular bit of symbolism. Enough already. We get it.

But overall, this is an immensely enjoyable novel. Mailer creates realistic three-dimensional characters that mingle seamlessly with real historical figures and actual events. Mailer has taken on a hugely ambitious task and manages to pull it off. This is not only a definitive view of the CIA, but an excellent piece of literature as well. Through Hubbard's first person accounts, thoughts, and letters the reader experiences an amazing range of events and environments - from seedy Berlin safe-houses to luxurious Uruguayan villas to combat on the Cuban beachhead.

The book's thousand pages notwithstanding, there are huge questions which Mailer leaves unanswered. Harlot's Ghost would have benefited from a more aggressive editor, but my final analysis is that I'll be the first in line to slog through the sequel to learn the resolution to the questions that the book's "to be continued" ending leaves. Highly recommended.

Note: In the final pages Mailer includes a glossary of names, code-names, events, and places. Very useful for keeping track of the acronyms, aliases, and code-words. I didn't discover the glossary until I was a third through the book; don't make the same mistake.

A lot of these other reviews have rather unfairly criticised the length of Harlot's Ghost. To me, without doubt, it is the one of the greatest books ever written. Mailer's characterisation is always strong, and especially, I feel, with the Naked and the Dead and Harlot's Ghost. In fact, when you compare the two, the similarities become clear - the "masterful introspection of the American male". Yes, I would definitely say that those two novels are his best. Consider the frankly superb relationship between Cummings and Hearn in 'Naked...' - it is as profound as that of Harlot and Harry in the later novel. In short, if you liked either you will love them together, as I did.

I'll start off by admitting that I have read this tome twice! Let me explain why.

Students of the glory years of the CIA will appreciate Mailers' research. No where else will you find such vivid characterizations of William Harvey, E. Howard Hunt and other less known figures. The accuracy and detail of the content is impressive.

Students of literature will appreciate the prose. There are a few nuggets of gold in the tons of granite. The writing is above average for Mailer.

Yes, this is volume one. I believe it was also the spore for Mailer's research into the Kennedy assasination that resulted in his work "Oswald". This read is well worth the time for fans of Mailer or CIA / Kennedy assasination afficianados.

The writing is mostly brilliant but some scenes drag a bit. Vividly evokes locations such as New England, Berlin, etc. so that you're spirited away to observe events. Could be a masterpiece if aggressively edited and shortened.

If a book were ever measured by its weight, than Harlot's ghost would be a masterpiece. Unfortunately, you may want to read the book. Once you open Harlot's Ghost and try to sit down to enjoy it, you realize you are not reading a masterpiece, but instead a long-winded, boring tale about characters that you really could care less about. This book is such a waste of time and paper, it breaks my heart to think about how many trees died to print this...

At 1400 pages, this book is about 1000 pages too long, - and on top of that the plot is never resolved. I only kept reading to see what became of "Harlot", - but Mailer saves that for later, evidently.

The most torturous element of the book is the collection of wholly unlikeable characters. By the end of the book I didn't care what happened to any of them, - in fact I would have liked the book more if they had all died in a fiery car crash at the end. Mailer tried to portray them as highly intelligent and complex individuals. Toward this end he had the characters wax poetic on a variety of subjects from Christianity to Psychology, but their diatribes came across as overblown, pretentious yammerings which only served to point out that for all their supposed intelligence they couldn't avoid screwing up their own lives and the lives of others. In fact they seemed entirely unaware of the hypocrisy, emptiness and idiocy they epitomized (and I don't think Mailer intended for me to regard them this way).

As for the CIA, while the story might be an accurate depiction, it draws a picture of a disfunctional organization that I found laughable. Grandiose and ill-conceived operations such as their plans to assasinate Castro, ultimately fail in true Wylie Coyote-ish fashion. And Mailer's CIA, apparently is composed mostly of bisexuals from east coast prep schools. None of the male characters can have a relationship with another male without the thought or act of sex coming into play. Who knows, - maybe CIA operatives in the 60's were all bisexual, but I got the impression that it was merely a projection of Mailer's (is he gay/bisexual?) that, for me, detracted from the believability of the story.

This book represents 30 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Needless to say, I won't be reading the sequel if it ever comes out (Did it already come out? Is Mailer still even alive? My ambivilence shows itself). The second star is only because I'm an open-minded guy who can acknowledge that others apparently liked the book for some reason.

What a book! Very long and and very good. It is the story of a neophyte CIA operative and his mentor, and his mentor wife. Our hero goes through assignments in Berlin, Montevideo and his involvement in the failed Bay of Pigs operation. Mailer knows his spooks and the weirdness of its world. From the famous prostitute who might not be a woman to the ruthless agent to the future Watergate star we see the complexities of the Cold War after WWII. The book is big but it reads quick and brother you want more. Norm? Please finish this!