The Deer Park

By Norman Mailer

Book Overview

Amid the cactus wilds some two hudred miles from Hollywood lies a privileged oasis called Desert D'Or. It is a place for starlets and would-be starlets, directors, studio execs, and the well-groomed lowlifes who cater to them. And, as imagined by Norman Mailer in this blistering classic of 1950s Hollywood, Desert D'Or is a moral proving ground, where men and women discover what they really want and how far the are willing to go to get it. The Deer Park is the story of two interlacing love affairs. Sergius O'Shaugnessy is a young ex-Air Force pilot whose good looks and air of indifference launch him into the orbit of the radiant actress Lulu Meyers. Charles Eitel is a brilliant director wounded by accusations of communism and whose liaison with the volatile Elena Esposito may supply the coup de grace to his career. As Mailer traces their couplings and uncouplings, their uneasy flirtation with success and self-extinction, he creates a legendary portrait of America's machinery of desire."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399505318
• ISBN13: 9780399505317
• Release Date: March 1981
• Publisher: TarcherPerigee
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Mailer's best

This is by far the best Mailer novel I have read. I appreciate that it is not for everyone - the characters are not particularly likeable and the plot rambles forwards without any real structure. But this is a work of verisimilitude and the writing is superb. I have read several Mailer novels now and I consider him to be one of the most talented American writers of the twentieth century even if he did not quite live up to his potential. This book is probably his masterpiece and I believe he considered it himself to be his best work for many years. I encourage anyone interested in Mailer or American literature to have another, closer look at this one.

Most Provoctive Book I've Read In Years

'The Deer Park' should become compulsary reading for the human race - forget school reading lists. It is an absolute masterpiece and Mailer's way words could knock Donna Tartt (author of Secret History) for six any day of the week. If you want to read a real masterpiece - sink your teeth into Mailer's 'Deer Park.' James P. Robinson