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A review by ampregnall
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
1.0
I first came across The Naked and the Dead in my college history course on World War Two, and after hearing praise about the book from both my professor and family, I had high hopes that I would enjoy this war novel. I did not. It was terrible.
My many problems with the novel included: It has almost no plot (it takes 430 pages for anything to really start happening); the characters were not distinguishable from one another (they are all angry, horny, insecure, morally bankrupt without purpose, and they view women as sexual objects); the stakes of the invasion never seemed too high (i.e. all of the victories came so easily to General Cummings and his soldiers); Mailer's writing of dialect was just awful; the "Time Machine" sections approached nonsensicality; the "Chorus" sections were useless; and the philosophizing revealed nothing meaningful about the human condition. In short, the book was a slog. I would not recommend it.
My many problems with the novel included: It has almost no plot (it takes 430 pages for anything to really start happening); the characters were not distinguishable from one another (they are all angry, horny, insecure, morally bankrupt without purpose, and they view women as sexual objects); the stakes of the invasion never seemed too high (i.e. all of the victories came so easily to General Cummings and his soldiers); Mailer's writing of dialect was just awful; the "Time Machine" sections approached nonsensicality; the "Chorus" sections were useless; and the philosophizing revealed nothing meaningful about the human condition. In short, the book was a slog. I would not recommend it.