I always wanted to read a Norman Mailer book. I managed to tackle the audio book in a few weeks, this is a 42 hour long story. Beautifully written. There is something about the writing style of Norman Mailer that makes every word just worthy of listening to. You know how at some point, especially stories that are this long, you get bored, you zone a bit, you cannot wait for a point to be made? Well, this story was not like that. Every word was worth hearing. Now, there were a few things about the story that annoyed me, but nothing to do with the author. Hearing the lawyers and prison staff that went on about what a travesty it was that Gary Gilmore was executed, I was pretty annoyed with that. Throughout the entire story, I never felt an ounce of sympathy for the man, and truly believe he would have killed again, and was just so cold blooded in how he killed the two men that he killed. So to hear people go on and on, and lament about the loss of him made me roll my eyes nearly out of my head. Gary Gilmore was not a good man. It was disgusting how he wanted his girlfriend to not go on living and to promise to never be with anyone else, just an example of the vile man that he was. I think it took me three weeks to finish this story, but I enjoyed the beauty of the words as written by such a wonderful writer as Norman Mailer. The narrating was excellent too.

Wow, I wanted more of the why with Gary. Yet the book still remains powerful.

Wow! Just wow! This is a remarkable piece of work. The amount of research that went into this book is incredible. And it’s been so well constructed. The 42 hours flew by. So glad I came across it. Well worth your time - if you have that much to spare. Narration is excellent too!

Gilmore’s story is both tragic and lethal. Mailer spares no one in the telling. Goes into depth about a world rarely spoke of but which exist alongside the one we take for granted. Don’t think a guy asking for death penalty would cause such a stir these days, but it was a novelty in the US in the late 1970s.