February 27, 2004
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD
This is certainly the best title for a work of fiction in the last 60 years, and at least one person, name of Norman, thinks it's the Great American Novel. It also rather accurately sums up my love life of late, although with the demise of the charnel house in modern America I find the pickings to satiate those particular cravings rather slim.
I must confess to having ploughed through this tome three times, with varying degrees of failure. I simply think it sucks.
If you want to read a first novel that tackles Dostoyevsky, try Soldier's Pay. If you want to read classic fiction exploring the plight of conscripts in wartime, read anything by James Jones. If you want to read a fearless taboo-breaker who writes "fug" instead of "fuck" about 800 times, Mailer's your man.
I don't know why I decided to bust this old fart's balls today, but I woke up pissed off at him for no reason a'tall. And I feel better now.
Fuck Mailer. He's a blowhard Hemingway Lite.