BOOKS
A Powerful Read
My off-the-shelf piece on the “The Executioner’s Song”
“The Executioner’s Song” by Norman Mailer
“Do ya know what I mean?” It’s that trite colloquial expression frequently used among students and fast-talkers.
In her deadpan delivery, Professor Brooks, without exception, would routinely counter with, “No, I do not. You’ll have to tell me what you mean.”
She asked that we make logical arguments — our opinions, substantive and coherent, must always be matter-of-fact.
And there it was: my legal studies class on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Thompson Hall, the provocation to my proverbial moral high horse that all ambitious youths are on at one time or another.
I was a junior in college and still struggling to find myself. Social injustice frustrated me, and I had an interest in public policy and a passion for anything that was intellectually debatable.
When I embarked on the required reading of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, I had my work cut out for me.
This bold, exhaustive, and compelling book about a convicted murderer, a recidivist who spent most of his life in and out of prison, sparked a national debate on capital punishment, with…