Rating: 
Summary: The first classic novel of WW II
Review: This is the novel that made Norman Mailer an overnight literary sensation, and was perhaps the first famous literary work dealing with events in WW II. Unlike some of the other great WW II classics like CATCH-22 and GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, it was written immediately following the war. From the comments I read from other reviewers, I seem to like this novel a bit less than others. While it is unquestionably a novel of great scope and seriousness, I found much of it to be stiff and somewhat dated. Many of the characters seemed to me to be stock characters, and almost all of the conversation struck me as stiff and artificial. I should add, however, that I have heard Mailer interviewed on several occasions, and interestingly I find his own conversational style to be somewhat stiff and artificial. So, it might be that the style in THE NAKED AND THE DEAD follows his own inner voice. Nonetheless, even for a relative nonfan of the book, there is much to admire in this book. One scene describing a battle at night possessed a great deal of power. And while I found the conversations awkward, over the course of time you get a sense of the dynamics and personalities of the various platoon members. What especially surprised me about the book was how cynical and disillusioned the novel felt. It was, after all, published in 1948, and the flush and pride of victory already feels stale and faded. This is not the John Wayne in THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA. One disconcerting aspect of the book was the extensive use of pseudo-profanity. Obviously, in 1948 Mailer or his editors either felt or knew that the novel would face censorship charges if the F-word were used. Instead, the word "fug" is substituted liberally throughout, and the effect for modern reader is jarring and unpleasant, almost as if the men were speaking a different dialect. It may have been one of the factors that made the prose seem somewhat artificial to me. After more than 50 years, it would be nice to see Mailer authorize a new edition with more explicit speech. This makes the novel sound more dated than it ought. While I found this somewhat disappointing and less moving than I had anticipated, this is nonetheless well worth reading. From a literary standpoint it features one of the most full-blooded tales of combat in WW II and from a historical standpoint it was the first great English-language fictional account of the conflict. Either of those reasons would suffice to make this a worthy read.
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