Book Review - "The Executioner's Song" by Norman Mailer

There is not much that needs to be said about this book that its' Award winning Pulitzer Prize does not already say. Norman Mailer's account of Gary Gilmore and the events that happened between the summer of 1976 and January, 1977 are one of the great pieces of American literature that has even been printed. Mailer brings to life the stories of an American culture, the Utah Mormon culture, and the struggle of criminal rehabilitation that has plagued this country. Mailer brings us the backgrounds and characteristics of these ordinary people and makes an extraordinary novel.

In the summer of 1976 Gary Gilmore killed two innocent civilians. He was sentenced to death and forgave his right to appeal. Gary Gilmore wanted to the court to fulfill its verdict. Gilmore's lawyers petitioned an appeal, against Gilmore's wishes, and Gary was fighting a battle to die instead of live. Gilmore became an symbol of morality in this country and which line a citizen stood on. Mailer chronicles every step along the way, from Gilmore being released from prison, to him being on Death Row dealing with his instant celebrity, to his eventual execution.

The book is 1050 pages, not the lightest read either. If you are a journalist, an English major, an aspiring writer, or a Mailer fan this really is not a giant chore, but for the casual reader this book may be taxing. The length actually becomes part of the beauty of the book. Mailer makes sure that there is no stone unturned. There is no character in the book, main or supporting, that the reader does not feel that know exactly what type of person these characters are. The book divides itself into two separate parts. Part One, centers around Gilmore being released from prison in 1976 and the events that occur to his murders. Mailer paints us a picture of the Mormon culture of Salt Lake Utah and the towns surrounding the capitol. Part Two, centers around Gilmore and his fight for death. Part Two, also is concentrated with Gilmore and his dealings with Larry Schiller, the man who bought the rights to Gilmore's story and eventually made a TV movie off of the events in his life. Schiller is also the man, that signed Norman Mailer to write the book.

Mailer's work on this novel in unlike one that I have ever read. The attention to detail and the brutally honest account of what happened in Gilmore and every character in the novel leaves the reader almost haunted after finishing. Mailer makes sure the reader understands the poverty and struggle that these people go through. The book is also welcoming because it does not preach which side of the death penalty it is on. The book just gives a stunning and honest (and sometimes graphic) account of what the processes of an execution are, leading to and the actual execution itself. The book does not give you the exact answer in why Gilmore would kill two innocent men, even though there is an hypothesis that is thrown to the reader towards the end of the novel, but it is never proved to be true or false.

If you are a reader have some free time and wants to read a work of journalism that can be compared to the best in the industry than this book is for you. Whether you believe in the death penalty or not, this book will bring you inside the mind of a killer and the legal system's fight to kill and save a human being's life. This book gets my highest recommendation to anyone that can endure the length. Mailer will not let you down.