Lipton’s Journal/January 25, 1955/261
What I wrote about Sergius[1] and his father is true for my father and me.
| “ | He was a workingman all his life, but he wanted to be an actor. Once he confessed to me that my name was not really O’Shaugnessey at all, but something which resembled it remotely in Polish or Hungarian. There is nothing in the world like being a false Irishman. |
” |
But I was saying it so directly. My father was born in Russia and has pretended to be born in South Africa for so long that he believes it himself. And our name is not really Mailer but something which resembles it remotely in Russian or Jewish. Truly, there is nothing in the world like being a false Englishman. Which is what my pop has been all his life, and what I have been. That’s why I always get so nice-nelly and affected and talk with an English accent when I’m with Englishmen, American society people, or even the genteel rich-poor who live in Connecticut and Vermont. And this is true for my sister as well.
note
- ↑ The narrator of The Deer Park, Sergius O’Shaugnessey, is a veteran U.S. Air Force pilot who flew combat missions in Korea. After his discharge, he settles in Desert D’Or, where he has an affair with movie star Lulu Meyers.