The Executioner's Song

Rating:
Summary: Much Ado About Nothing
Review: Executioner's Song is the story of Gary Gilmore; the first convicted murderer to be executed after the death penalty was restored in the United States. Gilmore, a career criminal who had spent one half of his life incarcerated, had been sentenced to death for robbing and killing two people. He did not want to spend any more time behind bars so he insisted that the State of Utah carry out his sentence.

Norman Mailer makes a verbose attempt to turn Gilmore's story into an epic. Not having much to work with, he exaggerates the story to the point that some claims seem unreal. An example would be Gilmore's mother having had a strong feeling when he was three years old that his life would someday end by execution. Other trivial details include allusions to the Gilmore family being related to Houdini, the great escape artist.

While trying to turn Gilmore's relationship with his lover Nicole, who is a lost and aimless soul with a taste for drugs, into a modern Romeo And Juliet, Mailer is uncharacteristically brief when describing his victims. The story of Gary Mark Gilmore could have been the subject of a fine true crime book. However, Norman Mailer's extra long version turned it into a melodramatic account that does justice to no one.

Rating:
Summary: The finest book ever written in the true crime genre!
Review: Having read more than 150 true crime books, I feel qualified to tell you that Norman Mailer has written the finest, by far, tome of the genre. The story of Gary Gilmore and Nicole Baker reads, at times, like a white trash Romeo & Juliet. The movie of the same title did a great injustice to Gary Gilmore. Yes, he was a thief and a murderer, but he was also an extremely intelligent and artistic man. Gilmore ended up spending 18 of his 36 years institutionalized in one form or another, so when the state of Utah sentenced him to die in 1976 Gary fought to make them follow through with their threat. He, as well as anyone, knew what prison was like and that he wanted no more of that kind of life. This is one of the only 1,000+ page books that left me wanting more when it was over. Mailer had access to nearly everyone needed to pull off this monumental undertaking. The narrative is stripped of frills and the author's opinions are held in check beautifully when you consider the inflammatory nature of the subject matter. Mailer also does an admirable job of letting Gilmore's victims appear as human beings, not merely as the props used by Gilmore to achieve immortality and release. This book has the potential to spark debate on a variety of issues that still make headlines today, such as prison reform, incartceration v. education, the death penalty as a deterrent, right to die. Gilmore's case was monumental in regard to American justice. Gilmore himself was a complex and fascinating individual with underdeveloped emotional control and no social skills to speak of. He was taught how to be an adult in institutions. Mailer does not flinch or miss a single beat. He tells the story of Gary Gilmore and the lives that Gilmore touched and/or destroyed. He does not take any obvious liberties to fit the story to his own beliefs. I was not a fan of Mailer until I read this book. It is one of the top five books I have ever had the privilege of reading.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly absorbing
Review: I started reading "The Executioner's Song" after completing Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banners of Heaven," a largely scathing account of the history of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and the culture of violence it has spawned during its 150 year existence. While Gary Gilmore isn't a Mormon, most of the story takes place in Utah, and many of the characters are Mormons, which shapes to some degree their views of the death penalty as a necessary "blood atonement" for murder.

I ended up plowing through the entire book in two weeks--that's how compelling a story Mailer paints in this lengthy, but engaging true-crime fiction hybrid. As others have mentioned, it's the first-half of this book that is the true masterpiece, the frenzied tale of the few months between Gilmore's release from prison and his cold-blooded murder of two young Mormon men, told in spare and unadorned prose. I was stunned by the level of detail he employs, and unlike some who found it tedious, thought that it brought the characters to life in a way I have rarely encountered in either fiction or non-fiction. While the second half of the book is somewhat overly drawn out, his portrayal of the marketing of the Gilmore myth (which, ironically, Mailer is involved in himself) is worth the time.

"The Executioner's Song" is full of people and moments told with a clarity that makes it unique and memorable.

Rating:
Summary: Long Journey, but Worth it in the End
Review: This is an excellent true crime book, despite Mailer's verbosity and arrogant style. Gary Gilmore--a bright man who spent half his life in jail and eventually murdered two men in cold blood while on parole before being given a death sentance--is a fascinating example of a modern criminal. His life before his final crime and then his court battles to speed up his execution is an interesting case study and since this book is written like an extended newspaper article, it provides great insight. It also contains terrific accounts of the other tragic characters in Gilmore's life (his mother, father and girlfriend). The big fault of this book, of course, is its overwhelming length. There is no reason it needed to be over 1000 pages and after finishing it I was more than ready for it to be over. There is enough drama and action to keep the narrative flowing and to keep readers interested, but it isn't a book you can sit down and read in an afternoon, you will have to devote serious time and energy to finish it. I think the effort is worth it, but for people who do not want to commit to such an endeavor, do not read this book and buy the book by Mikal Gilmore (Gary's younger brother) or avoid Gilmore all together and buy In Cold Blood, which is a must read book and the best true crime I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: A portrait of the Average Joe running amok...
Review: This novel seems to have received mixed reviews from Mailer fans. On the one hand, it's a 1000+ page book written in an unpoetic, detached style; but it's also a story about an incredibly tragic, weak man whose one redeeming act was his realization that he deserved to die. Perhaps this book will make you hate Gary Gilmore, maybe make you pity him, but any reader can see after reading this book that this murderer was jarringly close to being a regular guy. Sure, there's the whole killing thing... but otherwise one must admit to oneself that the line between a cold-blooded murderer and everybody else is a little blurry. As for Mailer's style, the subject of the book facilitates a cool, objective narration; the surgeon-like detail, precision and sterility serve as sort of an ironic commentary on Gilmore's life. It was nowhere as tedious, however, as some other "true-life crime" books I've read where every other sentence is dedicated to meaningless facts; how many centimeters deep a stab wound was, and so forth. Anyway, if you can sit through a book for several weeks, this one is worth it.