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The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer/2. Barbary Shore: Difference between revisions

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer''/2. ''Barbary Shore''}}__NOTOC__{{Template:Structured Vision}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer''/</span>2. ''Barbary Shore''}}__NOTOC__{{Template:Structured Vision}}
''Barbary Shore'' (1951) is of more interest as a stage in Mailer’s development than as a artistically effective work in itself. Certainly it fits easily into a treatment of the five novels, dealing as it does with the two basic issues with which Mailer always concerns himself: the state of Ameri­can society and the problems of the individual in it. But the second novel, for several reasons, marks a faltering in Mailer’s progress. This is not to say that it is a retro­gression, for though it falls short of the artistic success of ''The Naked and the Dead'', ''Barbary Shore'' represents a step in the direction of an increasingly nonderivative art.
''Barbary Shore'' (1951) is of more interest as a stage in Mailer’s development than as a artistically effective work in itself. Certainly it fits easily into a treatment of the five novels, dealing as it does with the two basic issues with which Mailer always concerns himself: the state of Ameri­can society and the problems of the individual in it. But the second novel, for several reasons, marks a faltering in Mailer’s progress. This is not to say that it is a retro­gression, for though it falls short of the artistic success of ''The Naked and the Dead'', ''Barbary Shore'' represents a step in the direction of an increasingly nonderivative art.