98.9

“After Half a Century, Still Writing, Still Questing.” Article-interview by Rick Lyman. New York Times, 7 May, Sec. E, pp. 1, 8. The chief theme of this piece, based on Lyman’s visit to Mailer’s home in Brooklyn Heights, is religion: “For the last 50 years, my preoccupation has been religion. What might God be? I am searching for a notion of God that is alive to me.” Mailer also compares New York and Provincetown as places to work, reveals his summer reading plans (Cormac McCarthy and Don DeLillo), lauds Warren Beatty’s new film Bulworth, discusses abortion, fiction vs. nonfiction, the nature of 98.7, his plans for a sequel to Harlot’s Ghost (91.26), and J.F.K., who, he says, “is as vivid to me as Bill Clinton, and he’s been gone all these years.” In sum, a typical Mailer interview, wide-ranging, pungent and self-revealing.