{"product_id":"9780812985979","title":"An American Dream","description":"In this wild battering ram of a novel, which was originally published to vast controversy in 1965, Norman Mailer creates a character who might be a fictional precursor of the philosopher-killer he would later profile in \u003ci\u003eThe Executioner’s Song\u003c\/i\u003e. As Stephen Rojack, a decorated war hero and former congressman who murders his wife in a fashionable New York City high-rise, runs amok through the city in which he was once a privileged citizen, Mailer peels away the layers of our social norms to reveal a world of pure appetite and relentless cruelty. One part Nietzsche, one part de Sade, and one part Charlie Parker, \u003ci\u003eAn American Dream \u003c\/i\u003egrabs the reader by the throat and refuses to let go.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eAn American Dream\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Perhaps the only serious New York novel since \u003ci\u003eThe Great Gatsby\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cb\u003e—Joan Didion, \u003ci\u003eNational Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A devil’s encyclopedia of our secret visions and desires . . . the expression of a devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A work of fierce concentration . . . perfectly, and often brilliantly, realistic [with] a pattern of remarkable imaginative coherence and intensity.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “At once violent, educated, and cool . . . This is our history as Hawthorne might have written it.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eCommentary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for Norman Mailer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A devastatingly alive and original creative mind.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Cincinnati Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079853195504,"sku":"9780812985979","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812985979_p0.jpg?v=1763742593","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812985979","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}