Book Review: "An American Dream" by Norman Mailer

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Stephen Rojack is a former congressman, a contemporary of John F. Kennedy, a popular TV talk show host- and he has just strangled his estranged wife to death.

To cover his crime, he tosses her out a tenth story window, then meets up with a gangster's moll/lounge singer named Cherry. If ever a character was written to be played by Charlize Theron, this is it. The police suddenly drop their suspicions of murder against Rojack because they have bigger fish to fry- namely some of Cherry's mobster friends. The novel takes a look at a day and a half in the life of Rojack, following his rendezvous with Cherry, Ruta (his wife's maid), and his eventual meeting with his wife's father, culminating with his own high rise theatrics.

This book moves very fast. The reader loves to hate Rojack. The novel is from his point of view, so we see the inner workings of his alcohol-soaked mind. Mailer's descriptions are lucid, dense, and brilliant. You feel like you are in 1963 New York City, running from the police, smelling the smells of the squad room, and making love to exotic women. What does not work here are the kind of mobsters that were threatening in 1963, but come off like characters in a bad mafia comedy today. There is a subplot involving some of the characters' involvement in the CIA that is also dated, and Mailer's attempts at magical fantasies that Rojack takes us on in his mind are over-the-top and dull. Other reviews I have read have mentioned this is a good starter to a Mailerphyte, and I would agree.

"An American Dream" is entertaining, but not a perfect tome. Also adapted into a film.