A review by brdwilliams
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

dark emotional sad slow-paced

2.0

This was a slog. It has been on my list to read since law school and while I can see how it may have once had impact in conversations about the death penalty, the language is absolutely galling with 2024 eyes, and I couldn't help but think about how much investigative journalism could have been done about systemic and racial injustice with the untold funds Mailer and all if the other journalists has to cover this sensational case. I would like to think that if this book came out today it would have been EDITED HEAVILY, wouldn't have even been in contention for a Pulitzer, and would have given far more time to the voices of Gilmore's victims and the systemic injustice inherent in the death penalty instead of turning Gilmore into a celebrity martyr. Honestly, I hated this book and it reaffirmed my feelings about "the canon" and how we need to stop elevating and excusing problematic books as "products of their time" and instead publishing/assigning/funding/celebrating newer books on mass incarceration, the death penalty, wrongful conviction and the like rather than continuing to make legends out of white male murders and their white male documentarians! 
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