A Fear of Dying: Norman Mailer's An American Dream: Difference between revisions

{{notice|Reprinted here with the permission of the journal.}}

How paradoxical then, if seriously conceived, is Mailer's alleged intention, reportedly embodied in a recent London ''Observer'' interview, to abandon the United States because of the novel's harsh reception! A man delighting as much in physical and literary battling as Mailer ought to welcome sparring partners without worrying about such matters as envy, pique, brutality, and misunderstanding. He surely knows that a forceful essayist and fictionist will garner retaliation; instead of fleeing, he should welcome all occasions for additional tests of his courage. This idea, at least, is a major motif in ''An American Dream'', whose central character (Stephen Richards Rojack) transcends his disgust for American life, its persistent manhandling of him, by developing heightened sensuous and muscular powers. Yet, it is apparent in the novel's conclusion, which finds the transcendent Rojack heading for Guatemala and Yucatan as Sergius O'Shaugnessy in ''The Deer Park'' earlier sought sanctuary in Mexico, that Mailer does not foresee the possibility of reconciliation with American life as presently constituted.