The Big Empty, Norman Mailer
The Big Empty, Norman Mailer
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The Big Empty
Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America

Author: Norman Mailer, John Buffalo Mailer

Narrator: John Buffalo Mailer, Stephen Mailer

Unabridged: 3 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 12/06/2016

Synopsis

“Questions are posed,” writes Norman Mailer, “in the hope they will open into richer insights, which in turn will bring forth sharper questions.” In this series of conversations, John Buffalo Mailer, 27, poses a series of questions to his father, challenging the reflections and insights of the man who has dominated and defined much of American letters for the past sixty years.Their wide-ranging discussions take place over the course of a year, beginning in July 2004. Set against the backdrop of George W. Bush’s re-election campaign and the war in Iraq, each considers what it means to live in America today. John asks his father to look back to World War II, and explore the parallels that can—and cannot—be drawn between that time and our current post-9/11 consciousness.As their conversations develop, the topics shift from the political to the personal to the political again, as they duck and weave around one another. They explore their shared admiration of boxing and poker, the nature of marriage and love, television, movies, writing, and what it means to be a part of this extraordinary family.

About Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1955, he was one of the co-founders of The Village Voice. He is the author of more than thirty books, including The Naked and the Dead; The Armies of the Night, for which he won a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; The Executioner's Song, for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize; Harlot's Ghost; Oswald's Tale; and The Gospel According to the Son. He lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with his wife, the novelist Norris Church Mailer.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on March 22, 2025

I am making it my mission to read all Mailer books and so got my hands on this one, which I didn't know much about. I would say overall, it is fine, and compared to some of the other weaker books of Mailer's career that is pretty good. It is also very easy to read and I got through it very quickly. I......more

Goodreads review by Umar on January 24, 2022

Some of these, such as the chapter on poker, I didn't find interesting. Other chapters were great and I really enjoyed the father and son banter. I miss this kind of dialog- not afraid to be profane, offend, and pick at taboos. Of course when you have as high of an opinion of yourself as the great N......more

Goodreads review by João on December 17, 2024

preguiça de toda primeira parte do livro......more

Goodreads review by Neil H on February 26, 2017

This is my first book from Norman Mailer and in this his views on various ideas are given a voice. Most is entertaining and somewhat illuminating. The analogies that he shares about boxing as a primal and yet possible constructive social help is simpler in its execution. His views that individuals e......more

Goodreads review by Kent on January 01, 2017

I was wishing I could hear Mailer on 2016. One comment from my notes when I was reading this: "You are so young that you still believe in the power of individuals. The hard fact which I would like to see you develop in you my friend over the next ten years is a deeper sense of social structure. Becau......more

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