Norman Mailer - The Naked and The Dead

Details
Paperback - Used

Rating
3.9/5 Goodreads

Synopsis
The Naked and the Dead traces the story of a platoon of young American soldiers as they pick their way, through treacherous terrain, across the Japanese-held Pacific island of Anopopei. Caught up in the confusion of close-armed combat, preyed upon by snipers, the men are pushed to the limit of human endurance. Held together only by the raw will to survive and barely sustained dreams of life beyond the maelstrom, each man finds his innermost hopes and deepest fears laid bare by the unrelenting stress of battle.
In his early twenties Mailer was himself a Second World War combatant in the Far-Eastern theatre. Published three years after the war ended, The Naked and the Dead, a shattering masterpiece of nightmarish realism, catapulted Mailer to instant fame.

"Mailer writes like an angel - a master of small surprises that are precursors of seismic shocks." - London Review of Books
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"Mailer recorded every foul thought and word of his characters, wrote about ignorant, savage, primitive men... For maturity of viewpoint, for technical competence, and for stark dramatic power, The Naked and the Dead is an incredibly finished performance." - New York Times