I'll have to return to this book once I've actually read Mailer's fiction. He's a wonderful writer, but my ignorance of the bulk of his literary corpus basically had me flying blind (e.g. I don't know how he had previously "vilified the homosexual"; so I can't really judge the merit of his semi-apologetic column on the subject). Turns out there's a lot more to Mailer than one can learn in a single passion-filled weekend withThe Executioner's Song.