Why Are We in Vietnam? A Novel

"Since the action of the book serves as a preliminary to the hero and his buddy embarking for Vietnam, it might be described as a sexual obstacle course in the basic training camp of contemporary life. Every page is studded--the word is used advisedly--with sexual references, generally boasts or threats...As a work of literature, this is not worthy of Mailer. Even after An American Dream, it's a nightmare. Still, a book by Mailer is news; the rock he throws usually has a message wrapped around it. Because he experiences ideas instead of thinking them, his messages are not always clear, but they are almost always interesting enough to repay the effort. If one listens to what this book says, an admittedly old-fashioned procedure, it goes something like this: American's frustrated sexuality--homo or hetero--crystallizes in a murderous impulse which we palm off on the worls as foreign policy....Why Are We in Vietnam? may be a third-rate work of art, but it's a first-rate outrage to our sensibilities."Mailer, Norman is the author of 'Why Are We in Vietnam? A Novel', published 2000 under ISBN 9780312265069 and ISBN 0312265069.