An American Dream (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) - Softcover

Mailer, Norman

3.44

3,824 ratings by Goodreads

9780007204960: An American Dream (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007204965 ISBN 13: 9780007204960

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2006

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Paperback. Pub Date :2006-05-15 Pages: 240 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK A key backlist title from the highly acclaimed author of The Naked and the Dead and The Fight.War hero. ex-Congressman. a professor of ' popular but somewhat notorious reputation '. television personality and husband of the rich and beautiful Deborah (' a girl who would have been bored by a diamond as big as the Ritz '). Stephen Rojack lived the American Dream.But his enviable life concealed a strange tension. the constant 'itch to jump'. and when one day he finally cracks and strangles his luscious wife. he unleashes a personality of undreamt-of ferocity.A wanted murderer. Rojack is suddenly catapulted into an alien world of gangsters. crumbling tenements and downtown bars.Here. he meets Cherry. a small-time singer who ekes out her living in sleazy nightclubs. waiting for a break.She 's...

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Review:

‘Mailer writes like an angel – a master of small surprises that are precursors of seismic shocks.’
London Review of Books

From the Back Cover:

War hero, ex-Congressman, a professor of 'popular but somewhat notorious reputation', television personality and husband of the rich and beautiful Deborah ('a girl who would have been bored by a diamond as big as the Ritz'), Stephen Rojack lived the American Dream. But his enviable life concealed a strange tension, the constant 'itch to jump', and when one day he finally cracks and strangles his luscious wife, he unleashes a personality of undreamt-of ferocity.

A wanted murderer, Rojack is suddenly catapulted into an alien world of gangsters, crumbling tenements and downtown bars. Here, he meets Cherry, a small-time singer who ekes out her living in sleazy nightclubs, waiting for a break. She's the woman Rojack falls for, dangerously, desperately, tragically...

A powerful exploration of one man's quest for depravity, 'An American Dream' shocked the USA on first publication in 1965 with its graphic depictions of sex and violence. One of the key works of twentieth-century American literature, the novel's white-hot prose makes it, for many, Mailer's finest achievement.

“Mailer writes like an angel – a master of small surprises that are precursors of seismic shocks.”
LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

“A devil's encyclopaedia of our secret visions and desires”
LIFE

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