Условие:
The Naked and the Dead (1948) brought Norman Mailer unexpected and unnerving acclaim. But he turned his back on his easy success and began a deeper exploration of the contemporary consciousness than the technique of his first novel would allow. He has been savagely attacked for the "failure" of his later work, as well as for his unorthodox public opinions and behaviour. It was over a decade after the publication of his first novel before critics began to realize that Mailer's own instincts were surer than those of his reviewers. Structurally, The Naked and the Dead is well made. The events of the novel, reinforced by Mailer's ironic commentary, illustrate a deterministic view of the war. The war is shown to be irrational, a series of almost random accidents, despite the huge, intricate military organizations which nominally direct it. It is, in the structural metaphor of the whole novel, like a wave whipped up somewhere far offshore, gathering amplitude and direction, crashing upon a beach, receding once again. Mailer's soldiers - even his general - are like the molecules of water involved. The only fact is death, and confronted by the fact, man is naked. Much of Mailer's technique is derived from Dos Passos, Steinbeck, Hemingway, and later Fitzgerald - much, much later. And Thomas Wolfe, of course.
