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joakley's review against another edition
4.0
Compelling, informative, and confounding. The voice and sense of dread are great in both republican and democrat accounts. It was an intentionally biased account, and the narrative was engaging throughout. He could pick certain details to fixate on that felt off center, but in dwelling on them you still get a large scale sense of both conventions, and of the state of politics in America at the time. The book benefits from being a subjective account via mailers own personality, but that does get a little grating toward the end, and even possibly offensive at a few moments. I appreciated that he was exploring how these conventions were geared toward preying on the common persons inner dark feelings, but some of the dark feelings he was writing down weren’t that cool. But again, it was meant to be provocative, and I think the exploration was worthy of the point it was making beneath the surface. Toward the end it felt a little bit like he was writing about himself being a hero, even though all the while he was like “I’m no hero I was afraid of getting beat up by the cops I felt shameful” but that just felt like it was meant to get sympathy? And then he becomes an annoying hardo in the final few pages? I just liked it better when it was focused on the events just with a splash of his voice/personal point of view rather than actually being about him
gregbrown's review against another edition
2.0
Mailer may be one of the most frustrating writers I've ever read.
He specializes in excess—never using one clause when three, five, ten would do. It's a blizzard of details and invocations that aims for transcendence, in the sense of someone firing an assault rifle straight up in the air. And the poorly-edited feeling only compounds when, amidst the mess, there's a few pages of clear insight that eggs you on to keep reading the rest.
The book itself is somewhat interesting as a contemporaneous account of the conventions, but just read Rick Perlstein instead.
He specializes in excess—never using one clause when three, five, ten would do. It's a blizzard of details and invocations that aims for transcendence, in the sense of someone firing an assault rifle straight up in the air. And the poorly-edited feeling only compounds when, amidst the mess, there's a few pages of clear insight that eggs you on to keep reading the rest.
The book itself is somewhat interesting as a contemporaneous account of the conventions, but just read Rick Perlstein instead.
bundy23's review against another edition
4.0
It's pretty sad that, other than all the assassinations, not much has changed in the past 40 years.
The children were crazy, but they developed honor every year, they had a vision not void of beauty; the other side had no vision, only a nightmare of smashing a brain with a brick.
The children were crazy, but they developed honor every year, they had a vision not void of beauty; the other side had no vision, only a nightmare of smashing a brain with a brick.
lauraellis's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Over blown and over rated—author has a high opinion of himself and writes floridly in imitation of Whitman and Faulkner—and his language about women does not stand the test of time. And yet, he is a fascinating man, and his book does a contemporary view of the conventions.
t_bone's review against another edition
3.0
Normal Mailer is America's greatest writer, according to Normal Mailer. I love and hate the man in about equal measures, though the love slightly won out on this occasion, mainly because it's fascinating to read reporting of the two 1968 political party conventions as they were unfolding. Plus there are some fabulous passages among the general bloat. When he's trying to sum up the world at large he's painful blowhard, but when Normy focuses in on individuals, he's such a delight.
I have a strong urge to quote just about every description of every person in the book, but I will restrain myself to just one sentence from a description of Nixon: "There was something in his carefully shaven face - the dark jowls already showing the first overtones of thin gloomy blue at this early hour - some worry which gave promise of never leaving him, some hint of inner debate about his value before eternity which spoke of precisely the sort of improvement that comes upon a man when he shifts in appearance from looking like an undertaker's assistant to looking like an old con seriously determined to go respectable."
Okay, maybe just one more quote: "at his worst, Daley looked in fact like a vastly robust old peasant woman with a dirty gray silk wig."
And then there's the description of the Vice President taking a question on Vietnam, "Humphrey took his time going to the podium. It was a question he had obviously been ready to expect, and yet he seemed agitated. It is one thing to know that some day we will die, it is another to wake in the middle of the night and hear your heart."
And the last example of my one example, Mailer exploring his own racism: "it was possible the reporter had influenced as many Black writers as any other white writer in America."
I have a strong urge to quote just about every description of every person in the book, but I will restrain myself to just one sentence from a description of Nixon: "There was something in his carefully shaven face - the dark jowls already showing the first overtones of thin gloomy blue at this early hour - some worry which gave promise of never leaving him, some hint of inner debate about his value before eternity which spoke of precisely the sort of improvement that comes upon a man when he shifts in appearance from looking like an undertaker's assistant to looking like an old con seriously determined to go respectable."
Okay, maybe just one more quote: "at his worst, Daley looked in fact like a vastly robust old peasant woman with a dirty gray silk wig."
And then there's the description of the Vice President taking a question on Vietnam, "Humphrey took his time going to the podium. It was a question he had obviously been ready to expect, and yet he seemed agitated. It is one thing to know that some day we will die, it is another to wake in the middle of the night and hear your heart."
And the last example of my one example, Mailer exploring his own racism: "it was possible the reporter had influenced as many Black writers as any other white writer in America."
2000ace's review against another edition
4.0
Oh, yah, baby, Norman Mailer scored a home run. Mailer may have been a misanthropic bastard, but Holy Toledo, the man could write. He was a chronicler, a first-rate observer, and a commentator the likes of which we may never see again. In his coverage of the Miami and Chicago conventions, he kowtowed to no one. Unlike the reporters on the national beat today, who seem to still be reeling from the punishments they received during the Bush administration, Mailer barreled his way though both conventions, demanding to be spoken to and demanding to be heard. His is a uniquely American voice, covering a uniquely American time period. I don't know if passions in this country will ever again run as high as they did in the summer of 1968. I, for one, am glad that Mailer was there to cover some of the most confrontational moments in our modern history.
grahamiam's review against another edition
4.0
Some beautiful writing, but gets repetitive and full of ego.
darwin8u's review
4.0
"Men whose lives are built on the ego can die of any painful disease but one--they cannot endure the dissolution of their own ego, for then nothing is left with which to face emotion, nothing but the urge to grovel at the enemy's feet."
- Norman Mailer, Miami and the Siege of Chicago
It is closing in on the 2020 primaries and all to soon we will be watching at least ONE party conventions of 2020. Makes me look back on some crazy times in American politics. Perhaps, the only years within recent memory to rival 2016 and 2000 would be 1968. It was the middle of the Vietnam war, MLK was assassinated, Johnson had dropped out and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. American was bat shit. And nobody captures batshit better than Norman Mailer (well, maybe Hunter S. Thompson).
I've recently come back to Mailer after an intermission of 20 years. He is a writer you need to take in small doses, but as usually happens, I read over 1000 pages of Mailer and discover like alcohol he might just be no good for me, but maybe just one last book. I do tend to prefer his nonfiction writing to his fiction, so this book was a delight. One can still enjoy something that isn't healthy, right?
- Norman Mailer, Miami and the Siege of Chicago
It is closing in on the 2020 primaries and all to soon we will be watching at least ONE party conventions of 2020. Makes me look back on some crazy times in American politics. Perhaps, the only years within recent memory to rival 2016 and 2000 would be 1968. It was the middle of the Vietnam war, MLK was assassinated, Johnson had dropped out and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. American was bat shit. And nobody captures batshit better than Norman Mailer (well, maybe Hunter S. Thompson).
I've recently come back to Mailer after an intermission of 20 years. He is a writer you need to take in small doses, but as usually happens, I read over 1000 pages of Mailer and discover like alcohol he might just be no good for me, but maybe just one last book. I do tend to prefer his nonfiction writing to his fiction, so this book was a delight. One can still enjoy something that isn't healthy, right?
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