BY NORMAN MAILER
Definitely not in the league of “All Quiet on the Western Front”
3 stars out of 5 stars
It gave me no pleasure writing this negative review.
Having read “All Quiet on the Western Front” and several more of Erich Maria Remarque’s other novels, I was curious whether there is a good war novel written by an English-speaking author. I came across “The Naked and the Dean” by Norman Mailer, which Time Magazine labelled it as “Best novel yet about World War II.” San Francisco Chronicle added “Perhaps the best book to come out of any war”. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Naked and the Dead 51st on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. With such accolades, I naturally wondered how it compares with “All Quiet on the Western Front”, which was widely regarded as the best war novel ever. I thus began reading the 711 page book with great expectation. Unfortunately, I felt quite let down about half-way through the book.
The central characters were several members of a platoon who was to land and secure the fictional island named Anopopei. somewhere in the Pacific, which was occupied by the Japanese. I was expecting the description of a realistic and brutal scene when their landing crafts were charging to land on the beaches, as the setting is similar to the memorable scene depicted at the beginning of the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. Nothing of this sort is described. Instead, there were conversations among the comrades about their past, their fears, their frustrations with the army, their opinions about women. Before the reader realized it, they already landed on the island, apparently with little difficulty.
There were no descriptions of battle scenes, other than skirmishes. ambushes, and the exhaustion of several of the platoon members hauling guns up and down hills. There was a haunting scene of a Japanese prisoner being executed in cold blood. Before he died, he asked the American soldiers to take out of his wallet containing photos of his wife and young son. He was given food and cigarettes before he died by Sargent Croft, who shot the prisoner, claiming that the prisoner died with a happy expression on his face. The corpse of another Japanese caused the soldier named Red to reflect that the dead man had a childhood, a youth and a young manhood, and there had been dreams and memories.
The reader does not know the background of the main characters until the sections labelled “Time Machine”. These sections are scattered throughout the book. Each Time Machine depicts the background of a particular character. The last Time Machine appeared on p. 608 of the book. The late introduction of the prior experiences of the characters may prevent the readers from appreciating the interactions and conflicts among them which occurred earlier in the book. There were also sections labelled “Chorus”, the first one titled “Women”. Such organizations are unique to this book. Another singular feature is that the author is fond of the f word. I guess in those days, the actual f word had a hard time getting printed. Instead, we see the word “fug” scattered through the pages.
In “All Quiet on the Wester Front”, There are many memorable passages about the horrors of war and many memorable utterances and reflections. I still remember the quotes: “We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world, and we had to shoot it to pieces” and “We reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.”. I found no comparable utterances in “The Naked and the Dead”.
In summary, this reader finds the novel very slow moving and many sections rather boring. Midway into the book, I quit reading it. Despite the accolades by Time Magazine and others, there is no way I would put it in the league of “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Link to Amazon Review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3VHJ75YBLZYWL?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
