Mailer was never the 'norm'

When people in Utah hear the name Norman Mailer, those a little longer in the tooth automatically think of Gary Gilmore and "The Executioner's Song." Mailer's 1979 book about the Utah killer's death by firing squad won the Pulitzer Prize and created a gunslinger reputation around Utah that, at times, lingers to this day.

Mailer died on Saturday at age 84. In his bout with mortality he had six different wives and fathered nine children. He was, pardon the French, a life-long provocateur. Whether punching author Gore Vidal in the face, stabbing his second wife with a penknife or running for the presidency of the United States, he never missed the chance to take a chance. He once complained that his image had been so distorted by others that he would never be able to clear it up. Ironically, that's the same complaint many had about Norman Mailer's prose versions of them.

Like Truman Capote, Mailer's persona was so large that his antics and behavior often over-shadowed the quality of his prose. Besides the Gilmore book, Mailer won a second Pulitzer in 1968 for "Armies of the Night," a fictional-style account of his protest against the Vietnam War. In 1981 he helped secure the release of Jack Abbott from prison because of the inmate's writing ability. Once out, Abbott killed a restaurant worker.

Of all his books, Mailer thought the novel "Ancient Evenings" was his best, though history will probably return most often to "The Naked and the Dead," the novel about World War II he wrote when he was a mere 25. He wrote it — he said at the time — to help him meet more women.

Mailer's critics will continue to write him off as a literary gadfly — a stunt man. But careful readers will see in his books and essays a major American voice. As a young man, Mailer claimed — like James Joyce before him — that he would be the one to forge the conscience of his race. He didn't, of course. But what he did do will remain in the canon of American literature for years to come and extend his influence deep into the 21st century.

Norman Mailer was a pain when he was alive. Now that he's gone, readers will be able to finally take full stock of his prose.