An American Dream – Norman Mailer

An American Dream – Norman Mailer p.238


Mailer’s ‘classic’ story of a supposedly all-American life gone astray is at times very good, but all too often it doesn’t reach the heights that it is aiming for. The concept of the American Dream is something that has loomed large in popular culture both in the US and in the exported version of that culture abroad. Many authors and artists have attempted to explore and seek out the essence of this rather ambiguous concept (Hunter S. Thompson comes to mind). More often than not they have not really known where to look and have come to the conclusion that the American Dream is dead or at least decaying. This view is central to Mailer’s own investigation into the Dream. In this book he attempts to convey a broader picture of society through the fall from grace and respectability of a middle-aged successful former Congressman.

Certainly the downfall of one man’s life from seeming respectability and contentment into upheaval, the underworld and the margins of his former society can be seen as a metaphor for an American generation in general or even the entire society. The fixation on suicide throughout the book seems almost a forced symbolic element when taken as part of the surface or primary story; it definitely makes more sense when applied to the death of the American dream as a whole. That Mailer sees US society standing on the ledge of building and alternating between the impulse to jump and self-preservation I think is a rather accurate assessment of the times he was writing about. The problem is that the effort to tie this into the story of the individual is too obvious or unnatural for lack of a better term.

Mailer set his goal high in writing this book, but for this kind of work the parallel meanings have to both be obvious, be able to stand independent of each other, and most importantly, naturally intertwine with each other. The failure to do so results in something that might have been great and yet clearly is not. All that being said, I did enjoy the book for the most part and would recommend it as a decent story and summation of a challenging time in the history of US society. One certainly cannot fault Mailer for the attempt.