Joan Didion
. . .[N]o one but Mailer could have dared this book. . . .the very subject of The Executioner's Song is that vast emptiness at the center of the Western experience. . .a dread so close to zero that human voices fade out. . . .This is an absolutely astonishing book. -- The New York Times Books of the Century, reviewed October 7, 1979
Philadelphia Inquirer
Not since The Grapes of Wrath has there been an American book that so discovered the voices in our culture.
AudioFile
Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work of journalistic fiction, centered on convicted killer Gary Gilmore, boasts a terrific narration by Maxwell Hamilton…Hamilton is spot-on as he delivers Mailer’s well-drawn sketches of the people in Gilmore’s life—his family and friends—and their hardscrabble existence, capturing Utah’s rigid moral code and scofflaw Gilmore’s low regard for its restrictions. A remarkable tale and narration. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.”
Miami Herald
Literature of the highest order…It lives in the mind long after the last page has been read.”
New York Times Book Review
No one but Mailer could have dared this book…The very subject of The Executioner’s Song is that vast emptiness at the center of the Western experience…a dread so close to zero that human voices fade out…This is an absolutely astonishing book.”
Houston Chronicle
A harrowing, absolutely eyes-on account…elevated by Mailer’s genius into art.”
New York Times
The Executioner’s Song takes you inside Gilmore’s head and the harrowing fight he launched against those who tried to save him against his will.”
JUNE 2018 - AudioFile
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning work of journalistic fiction, centered on convicted killer Gary Gilmore, boasts a terrific narration by Maxwell Hamilton. After Gilmore was tried and convicted of the cold- blooded murder of two men, he insisted that he be executed for the crime. However, the state of Utah and the anti-death-penalty ACLU fought to keep him alive, frustrating his wishes. Hamilton embodies Gilmore from his small-time crook mentality to his self-aggrandizement, from his alcoholic rages to his complete indifference to other people’s feelings. Hamilton is spot-on as he delivers Mailer’s well-drawn sketches of the people in Gilmore’s life—his family and friends—and their hardscrabble existence, capturing Utah’s rigid moral code and scofflaw Gilmore’s low regard for its restrictions. A remarkable tale and narration. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
