Long, comprehensive and meticulously researched biography of Norman Mailer, a revised edition of the author’s earlier book entitled The Lives of Norman Mailer. It’s an impressive biography, detailed and thorough, and will be of particular interest to the Mailer scholar. For myself I found it just a bit too detailed, especially the analysis of Mailer’s books, of which I am not a fan. Nor am I of the man, and Rollyson certainly doesn’t manage to make him in any way likeable or admirable. Nevertheless, as a biography it does what it should – explores the life and work of this renowned author and does so in an accessible and lively way.