56
PAln lSAN REV IEW
to whi ch she returns th o usa nds of do lbrs ri cher. Finall y, Puttermesser
meets her dea th , like a true N ew Yo rker raped and murdered by a ski –
masked burglar. Fantasy return s to the narrative as we fo ll ow o ur hero in e
to Heaven , wh ere " th e los t, th e mi ssing, th e wi shed fo r," are recovered–
th e love o f a man who had rej ec ted her when she was nin eteen and the
birth o f a child she neve r had . Bu t like th e go lem-created paradi sa l N ew
Yo rk o r th e perfec t marri age of th e two Geo rges o r the m yth of th e ide–
ali stic revoluti o nary, paradi se crumbl es: "Th e sec ret mea ning o f Parad ise is
that it too is hell." On thi s no te of fin al di sillusio n a poe ti c and bizarre
book closes .
In 1970, O zick wro te that N o rman Mail er was, to her mind , "a trag ic
Ameri can exempl ar of was ted powers and large-sca le de ni al [w ho,] bo rn in
the
shIell
ca ll ed Brookl yn, so strenuo usly and with littl e iron y turns him–
self into Esa u ." She predi cted , "On e day he will beco ll1 e a small Ge ntil e
footn o te, ab out th e size of H . L. Mencken. And th e H o use of Israel w ill
know him no mo re. And he w ill have had hi s three decades o f Diaspo ra
fl attery. Esa u ga ins th e sho rt run but th e lo ng run belo ngs
to
Jacob." I
would guess that her view has not altered and that Mail er' s lates t wo rk
seems
to
her a fulfillment o f her predi cti on. Thi s, hi s thirti eth book, may
be th e ul timate express io n o f what O zick mi ght consider hi s ro le as
Esau- th e rewritin g o f th e ca noni cal life of th e fo under o f C hri sti anity. It
is, in any case, no maj o r additi on to a reputati o n that co ntinu es to be that
o f o ne of o ur mos t talented w ri ters whose bes t ac hi evements have often
fa ll en short of compl ete success whil e prov in g hi s abund:mt versa tility, hi s
interes t in th e who le of life, hi s readin ess to take ri sks and to change.
The Gospel Accordillg
10
the
5011
is eith er a novel o r a nove li zed " tr ue
life," th e lates t in th e successio n o f fI-ee-fo rm Mail er biographi es o f di verse
rem ar kabl e p erso ns-Maril yn Mo nroe, Lee H ar vey O swa ld, Gary
Gilmo re, Pabl o Picasso. Th e subj ec t has appea led to noveli sts ever sin ce
David Fried ri ch Strauss (whose
Dns Le/JclI J e.l"lI
was first translated into
Engli sh by George Eli o t) first o ffered th e image of a rea l man who li ved
an extraordinary life with o ut necessaril y perfo rming th e mirac les attrib–
uted to him. Ern es t R enan's hi stori cal
Vic dc Jeslls
( 1863) became as
popular as th e novels that began to be written in whi ch Jes us is at leas t a
min o r character (as in Geo rge Moore's
The Brook Kerirh)
and sOJll etimes
th e central o ne. Even Dickens wro te a
Life of O llr Lord
fo r children .
Among recent noveli sti c recapitula tio ns and vari atio ns o f th e story
intensel y fa mili ar
to
milli o ns have been boo ks w ri tte n by N ikos
Kaza ntza ki s, Antho ny 13urgess, G uy Davenpo rt and Jll any o th ers; las t yea r
Walter Wangerin 's 850-page
The Book
<!f
God: Ih e Bible
I1S 11
Novel
was pub–
li shed, as was nove li st R eyno lds Pri ce's
Thrce Gospels.
What seeJllS strange
in M ail er's case is th e fac t that thi s fa mous nose-thumbe r so dri ven in the
