Modest Gifts: Poems and Drawings

By Norman Mailer

An unexpected collection from Norman Mailer a book of his selected poems and more than one hundred of his drawings, most of them never before published. Modest Gifts is full of what the author calls... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812972376
• ISBN13: 9780812972375
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

It's nice to see that Mailer can be modest

I remember reading many of these poems years ago and wondering how Mailer dared call them poetry. They were slight little remarks, and sketches and did not have anything of the penetrating depth, the moving power of real poetry. They are a kind of light verse and have at times a certain humor. I remember Mailer writing then that he wrote these poems only because he was going through a time when he could write nothing of real importance. I do not think it is a disaster or harms his reputation or his important books in any way. Most writers who are known are known for one or two of their works, and the rest go largely unread. These poems the 'promo material ' says show another side of Mailer, light, whimsical tender, etc etc. Perhaps. But as he himself says he has always taken it to be the writer's task to deepen the reader's understanding and consciousness of life. These poems do not do this. A smile here and a smile there may be found especially from the drawings. The great advantage of the work is that you can read it fast, and forget it faster.

God Bless Norman Mailer

After all these years some humble pie. Some of this is yet still too sour for our friends in Haters Review Row. Too bad. Norman Mailer is one of the greatest writers of our time, whether you like him or not. If you don't like him, don't waste your time "reviewing" his work, just go away and leave us alone, we don't need any more of your whining. This book gave me a lot of little laughs, and some "modest gifts" of insightful and not-so-great "poems" or "prose-snippets", whatever you would like to call them. It was a fun release from the more arduous "Of a Fire On the Moon" which I am currently reading. I just finished The Prisoner of Sex, written by Mailer in 1970-- quite an interesting take on the "Women's Lib" movement at that time-- a bit heady, but with other equipment as well (!) God Bless Norman Mailer, one of the last great American authors.