S1Ep7: American Dreams

Mailer’s violent ways continue both off and on the page. He fictionalizes the stabbing of his wife in an absurd, grotesque little novel aptly titled An American Dream. Not to be outdone, Jerzy Kosinki and his finest ghostwriter get to work on an even more grotesque little novel called Steps which will win him the National Book Award for fiction in 1969. That year's non-fiction winner is our guy Norman Mailer with his book The Armies of the Night about the Anti-war movement and his experience getting arrested at the March on the Pentagon. When he’s not getting arrested, Mailer’s now making movies. One devolves into a porno, another ends in Mailer getting nailed in the head with a hammer by Rip Torn.