1965*1st* An American Dream - Norman Mailer(Andre Deutsch)

Good book good jacket unclipped. Sprayed top edge page

An American Dream by Norman Mailer, published in 1965, is a dark, intense novel that explores themes of power, violence, sexuality, and existential struggle in the America of the 1960s. The story follows Stephen Rojack, a former war hero, television personality, and college professor, as he spirals into a personal crisis marked by murder, moral ambiguity, and emotional upheaval.

Mailer crafts a complex protagonist in Rojack, who becomes a symbolic figure representing both the allure and the dark underbelly of the American Dream. After killing his estranged wife in a fit of rage, Rojack tries to avoid punishment by navigating a morally corrupt, high-society world. The novel deals with ideas of masculinity, ego, and violence, as well as the existential pursuit of meaning within a world of corruption and excess.

Mailer’s An American Dream combines realism with surrealism, giving it a hallucinatory quality that mirrors the era’s tension and the protagonist’s psyche. The novel was both controversial and acclaimed upon release, as Mailer boldly confronted the American ethos and the promise — or illusion — of the American Dream through Rojack’s tragic and harrowing journey.