The Armies of the Night, by Norman Mailer
In writing one of the first “non-fiction novels,” blazing a trail for a “new journalism,” and at the same time accurately capturing the mood, spirit, and rhythm of the 1960s by telling it from his own unique point of view, this was by far the best book ever written by one of America’s best authors of the 20th century. It’s not a question of honesty, of how much he “fictionalized.” He dramatized, but he also made it come to life all over again, for each and every new reader. Mailer’s passion and conviction, as well as his simple humanity, breathe life into the scenes depicted in his true story of the march on the Pentagon in 1967.
As Alfred Kazin wrote in 1968, “Of course Mailer presents this book as his nonfiction novel--he simply cannot stop dreaming about himself as a novelist. But it is a fact that only a born novelist could have written a piece of history so intelligent, mischievous, penetrating and alive, so vivid with crowds, the great stage that is American democracy, the Washington streets and bridges, the Lincoln Memorial, the women, students, hippies, Negroes and assorted intellectuals for peace, the M.P.’s and United States marshals, the American Nazis chanting “We want dead Reds.” (From the New York Times Book Review: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/04/reviews/mailer-armies.html)
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