97.3

“Mailer Goes to the Mountain.” Interview by Sean Abbott. At Random, no. 17 (spring-summer), 48–55. First and best interview on The Gospel According to the Son (97.13). Interviewed in New York just before Christmas 1996, Mailer discusses his Jewishness, the causes, source materials and language of the novel, his first-person point of view, miracles and his personal religious beliefs. He says, “I would say this book was written to fill an empty space in my mind. What’s almost never discussed, because it’s too tough a subject, is how it feels to be Jewish growing up in a benign Christian country.” See 83.44, 91.29.