Synopses & Reviews
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. I think, writes Mailer, that piety is oppressive. It takes all the air out of thought.
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 freedom-indeed responsibility-to choose our own paths. Mailer trusts that our individual behavior-always a complex mix of good and evil-will be rewarded or punished with a reincarnation that fits the sum of our lives.
Mailer weighs the possibilities of intelligent design at the same time avowing that sensual pleasures were bestowed on us by God; he finds fault with the Ten Commandments-because adultery, he avers, may be a lesser evil than others suffered in a bad marriage-and he holds that technology was the Devil's most brilliant creation.
In short, Mailer is original and unpredictable in this inspiring verbal journey, a unique vision of the world in which God needs us as much aswe need God.
From The Naked and the Dead to The Executioner's Song and beyond, Mailer's 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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
The final book from Norman Mailer, towering figure of American literature, in which he offers his concept of the nature of God
“I feel no attachment, whatsoever, to organized religion” wrote Norman Mailer. “I see God, rather, as a Creator, as the greatest artist. I see human beings as His most developed artworks.” And in this collection of moving, amusing, probing, and uncommon dialogues conducted over three years before his death, 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. Mailer weighs the possibilities of “intelligent design,” at the same time avowing that sensual pleasures were bestowed on us by God; he finds fault with the Ten Commandments-because adultery, he avers, may be a lesser evil than others suffered in a bad marriage; and he holds that technology was the Devils most brilliant creation. In short, Mailer is original and unpredictable in this inspiring verbal journey, in which “God needs us as much as we need God."
Praise for On God:
“[Displays] the glory of an original mind in full provocation.”
-USA Today
“[Mailers] theology is not theoretical to him. After eight decades, it is what he believes. He expects no adherents, and does not profess to be a prophet, but he has worked to forge his beliefs into a coherent catechism.”
-New York
“At once illuminating and exciting . . . a chance to see Mailers intellect as well as his lively conversational style of speech.”
-American Jewish Life
Synopsis
In this collection of moving, amusing, probing, and uncommon dialogues, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, one that rejects both organized religion and atheism and presents instead a view of the world as one created by an artistic God.
Synopsis
Born in 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, and raised in Brooklyn, New York,
Norman Mailer was one of the most influential writers of the second half of the twentieth century and a leading public intellectual for nearly sixty years. He is the author of more than thirty books.
The Castle in the Forest, his last novel, was his eleventh
New York Times bestseller. His first novel,
The Naked and the Dead, has never gone out of print. His 1968 nonfiction narrative,
The Armies of the Night, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He won a second Pulitzer for
The Executioner’s Song and is the only person to have won Pulitzers in both fiction and nonfiction. Five of his books were nominated for National Book Awards, and he won a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in 2005. Mr. Mailer died in 2007 in New York City.
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
“I see God,” wrote Norman Mailer, “as a Creator, as the greatest artist. I see human beings as His most developed artworks.” In these moving, amusing, and probing dialogues conducted in the years before his death, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, rejecting both organized religion and atheism. He avows that sensual pleasures were bestowed on us by God; he finds fault with the Ten Commandments; and he holds that technology was the Devil’s most brilliant creation. In short, Mailer is original and unpredictable in this inspiring journey, in which “God needs us as much as we need God.”
Praise for On God
“[Norman Mailer’s] theology is not theoretical to him. After eight decades, it is what he believes. He expects no adherents, and does not profess to be a prophet, but he has worked to forge his beliefs into a coherent catechism.”—New York
“The glory of an original mind in full provocation.”—USA Today
“At once illuminating and exciting . . . a chance to see Mailer’s intellect as well as his lively conversational style of speech.”—American Jewish Life
“Remarkable . . . [Mailer’s] a believer—in his own fashion. . . . He has made [God] into a complex character.”—The Globe and Mail
Praise for Norman Mailer
“[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”—The New York Times
“A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”—The New Yorker
“Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure.”—The Washington Post
“A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”—Life
“Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”—The New York Review of Books
“The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”—Chicago Tribune
“Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”—The Cincinnati Post