Gary Gilmore, an intractably violent product of America'sprisons who became notorious for two reasons: first, for robbing two men in 1976, thenkilling them in cold blood; and, second, after being tried and convicted, for insisting ondying for his crime. To do so, he had to fight a system that seemed paradoxically intent onkeeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.Norman Mailer tells Gilmore's story--and those of the men and women caught up in hisprocession toward the firing squad--with implacable authority, steely compassion, and arestraint that evokes the parched landscapes and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah. TheExecutioner's Song is a trip down the wrong side of the tracks to the deepest sources ofAmerican loneliness and violence. It is a towering achievement--impossible to put down, impossible to forget.

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