Reviews

An American Dream by Norman Mailer

worm_man's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

NOT GOOD

catherine_80's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

jacobbou's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

beaukowski's review against another edition

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3.0

Was very good then very bad also Mr Rojack is very unlikeable but not in a Patrick Bateman way but in a ‘this man is a walking ick’ kind of way

jackb_93's review against another edition

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Brilliant, maddening, furious, frustrating. The epilogue is one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read

kasualobserver's review against another edition

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5.0

An extraordinary novel, whose incredible power is hard to describe or explain. Like a impressionist painting - but a thousand times more violently - it directly addresses your emotions and bypasses your intellectual understanding of the text. It is a literary version of a good Tarantino movie, 40 years early. The violence and the sex are not pointless, they are geared to punching you in the stomach and making you react to the style of the book as strongly as the author wrote it.

Much of the story is purposefully unrealistic, incredible, over the top - clearly just a tool in the hand of the writer to make the book a weapon that he can strike you with - a way to imprint you, the reader, with raw emotions which no other book I have read was able to express with the same power.

Not a book that should be read by anyone younger than a mature teenager:-)

oceanlistener's review against another edition

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1.0

A woman writes about relationships and family, it's chick-lit.
Norman Mailer jerks off, leaves his mess all over paper, and we're supposed to call it literature? Rather, this book is the pinnacle of dick-lit: a genre referred to as "literature" by the establishment, but is actually male fantasy trash.

bloomability47's review against another edition

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2.0

Hypermasculinity, misogyny, and racism. It gets two stars for some pretty writing, though overall... Bullshit. Now to write a fucking essay on this asswash.

manavisharma's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is incredibly insane! It's so fast paced and unreal that I simply could not put it down, yet, when I was done, I was left with thinking what really was that? I would recommend it but be prepared to just go on the ride, not yet and rationalize it.

eporter13's review

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5