Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost

Have any of you read (surprise) Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost? What did you think of the book? How did your arms recover from its unrelenting weight? *grins*

I'm not sure whether or not to pass off that second question as a joke. My arms are really aching after a couple of hours spent lugging around the used hardcover I bought today.

At more than a thousand pages though, I'm glad I have an edition that's a bit more sturdy than a paperback. Here's a review, but I'd still like to hear from anyone here who has read it.

And yeah, feel free to compare with Robert Littell's similarly epic The Company, though I haven't read that one either.

You know? I actually rarely meet people that have read this book, and yes my arms are in lean and muscular shape after the read.

I have read very little Mailer, but this one just managed to grab me. I also feel, and i am 100 percent sure i am wrong about this, that had Mailer lived to complete the second part, it would have been balls to the wall action. I just felt like thats where it was headed.

How could the man possibly die without finishing it. I'll admit I am none too happy with him.

Harlot's Ghost was the first Norman Mailer book I read. It was WAY back in high school and I just loved it. I have read some of his other works, but none quite grabbed me in the same way. When I was in college, I had the honor of meeting him. I think I behaved with the proper composure - it was at a cocktail party and I was out of my league.

Aside from his novels, Mailer led a colorful life here in NYC. Sometimes an author's life can be just as intriguing as his/her life - sometimes even more so.

I am a sucker for OSS/CIA books - I usually prefer fiction. If nothing else, the Cold War gave writers a wonderful opportunity. Mailer's description of training will always stay with me.

Wow, after several months, two responses on the same day...thanks!

And not just for responding either, but also for how you both enjoyed the novel, making my decision to read it sometime even stronger than it already was.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Sleepytimes expected a sequel to be "balls to the walls action," but I'm not really familiar at all with Mailer's writing.

And, colleenfleisch, you must have turned heads when they saw you reading such a massive tome in high school!

Also, I still haven't read The Company either, so I'll be reading Harlot's Ghost with nothing to compare it to.

(Didn't the Littell novel also end around 1963, or am I confusing his novel with Mailer's?)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to finding the right mood to read this. My interests as a spy fiction reader is more MI6 during the Cold War rather than CIA though, but I'm open to anything set in that era.

Still haven't read it, but here's a review.