Ancient Evenings: A Novel

A bit of a snore for me. I found myself skimming large chunks of what I found to be tediously boring. I think there have been better books written about Egypt and the pharaohs.

Norman Mailer is one of the literary daddies and I've read a few titles of his in the past. At first I wasn't sure about this one, but the deeper I got into it the more addictive it became. Perhaps it's the fact that Mailer is a master at his art and conjures up the ancient Egyptian past so vividly that you can taste the corruption and hedonism that he describes. And perversion abounds in this story, so if you're of faint heart go listen to Harry Potter! For me the final chapter is perfect, but you need the measure of the book, which is the journey of death (and therefore about a life... or several), to appreciate the full impact of those final lines.

It's also really well read!

A startling work of creative imagination.

Norman Mailer - love him or hate him - had a mastery of the language that very few could rival. It is apparent in all his works, including "Ancient Evenings", which takes place at a variety of Egyptian locales, from royal dinners to family barge rides, from distant mining camps to tombs. Much of the story is told in flashback, much of it recited by a ponderous old man. The highlights of the book are:
a) Mailer's immense knowledge of the age. I adored Ancient Egypt as a study topic when a student, and still I'm not sure how much of this is verified/historically theorised truth, and how much is Mailer's imagination. Either way, he creates a world in which every cultural nuance and spoken idiosyncracy feels foreign and yet genuine;
b) That sense of magic - speculative fiction, I guess we'd call it now - that allows us never to be sure what is real, without ever succumbing to the dreaded "fantasy"; and
c) yes, it is true: Mailer's ability to tell those lecherous tales while rarely coming across as just a perv.

As others have said, this book will beguile or disgust: sodomy and incest (sometimes both!) are high on the agenda, and Mailer is as unapologetic as his characters.

I would never call this book my favourite, not by a long shot: like many works, I appreciate it as much intellectually as I do viscerally. For instance, Menenhetet speaks using a lot of similes and analogies, often quite ponderously. It makes reading this book a tougher experience than one would like, but this is a genuine part of the character and his culture, not a flaw in Mailer's writing.

In the end, this is a work that won't speak to anyone. It's highly idiosyncratic, explores many abstract or challenging themes, and takes no pains to explain itself until it feels the time is right. However, by the same token, the novel refuses to pander to cliche or the simple answers, and is one of those amazing books where - by the time you're reading the final chapters - you realise how strange and incomprehensible they would be to the uninitiated, yet they make perfect sense to you. "Ancient Evenings" makes you work for your reward, and in this case the reward is a fantastic and unsettling portrayal of life in Egypt under the Pharaohs, and of a world so far removed from our own. The final chapter is startlingly beautiful, and puts my previous favourite literary ending - that of "The Great Gatsby" - to shame. Lovely.

I recently completed my 4th or 5th re-reading of this book. My familiarity with the characters and their environments allowed for an enriched reading experience and did not detract in any way. Mailer wrote with such precision and care that I expect to have an even deeper experience the next time I pick this book out of my shelves. Like Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer often elaborates on a specific subject for pages or even entire chapters, but because I am so immersed in the world he has created, I find that level of detail illuminating.

Ancient Egypt is not an area where I have much background, so this book is rated almost purely on its entertainment value. It wasn't more than entertaining. Mr. Mailer continues his quest for a definition of manhood that will allow him to feel good.

Oh, what the fuck, Norman. You've completely lost it.

I respected The Naked and the Dead very much. A true epic of the Pacific War, no question. This is something by a different person entirely. Now, in his later career, he just seems to be fascinated with shit - literally. The historical novel about Hitler seemed to have too much rambling rants about piss in it. I refuse to read too much into his personal life, but this almost seems fetishistic.

Aside from that, I've always had a fascination for the mythology and history of Ancient Egypt, and it takes special effort to make this seem boring. What a waste.

Not for the faint of heart and take plenty of liquids. Evokes well the time of the pharoahs and the carnality at times excessive ring true.

If you like the word "phallus", then this is the book for you. (Actually, this novel was kinda interesting from the historical/mythological perspective.)

I hated this book. I didn't even finish it, and I normally finish a book no matter how bad it is.