BOOKS

A Powerful Read

My off-the-shelf piece on the “The Executioner’s Song”

David Conte
2 min readApr 5, 2023

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Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels

“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…

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David Conte
David Conte

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