03.2

“Old Brawler Won’t Grapple with History: Norman Mailer Ruminates on Literature and Life.” Article-interview by Julie Salamon. New York Times, 22 January, E1, E10. On the eve of his 80th birthday and the publication of The Spooky Art (03.7), Mailer talks in Provincetown about the coming war in Iraq and the diminishing power of the novel to affect the life of the nation. “The novel now rides in a sidecar.” Accompanied by a harshly negative review of The Spooky Art by Michiko Kakutani, one of a string of negative reviews by Mailer’s bête noir among reviewers. See 95.36, 05.10, 07.2.