Point of View

Executioner's Song is written in the third person narrative voice, but the narrator makes no attempt to remain invisible. He takes on for himself the persona of his characters, speaking - even from the omniscient perspective - in a mock dialect and lexicon intended to mirror the status and near-illiteracy of his characters, who live in a semi-violent world of drugs, rip-offs, deceit and double dealing. Norman Mailer is an erudite author who has turned out some very good work, and he looks foolish trying to dumb down for effect. At times, it appears that he is ridiculing these supposed real-life characters, and at others it appears he is trying to be just one of the guys. He also uses this technique when describing the antics and insensitivity of the reporters and TV types who descend on the bar in the Salt Lake City Hilton to...