The Executioner's Song was famous 40 years ago, but I don't think my generation knows it. I only know of it because I was a Matthew Barney fan in college--an obscure filmmaker by trade--and Cremaster 2 was more or less about The Executioner's Song. Before that I'd never heard of Gary Gilmore or Norman Mailer. Through my cursory research I learned that Norman Mailer was a renowned writer--about as much as Matthew Barney was a renowned artist, but who can quantify these things anyway--and I should know him.
I took the book when I found it on a 'free' shelf in a coffee shop a few years ago. Because of its girth and my excuses it has remained on my book shelf since.
Reading big books that take a long time is my recommended way to escape the hysteria of the mass media. Thinking about them helps to extend that escape, so I am trying something new: taking notes and writing little reports.
Dave Eggers wrote the introduction, and it was the best introduction I almost read. (I always get the feeling that the authors of introductions are writing to an audience of non-readers.) Eggers tells us that if we don't know anything about Gary Gilmore to skip the introduction, read the book, then come back to his introduction. (He also said it would be the fastest 900 pages we ever read, which depends on the reader. I get the feeling that Eggers really wants us to get through the book so we can read his introduction, which I might actually do since I'm trying new things.)
The first part is called "Gary," and is divided into 3 sections that are artfully named "The First Day," "The First Week," and "The First Month." This gives us an idea about the time frame it takes Gary to wear out his welcome with his generous and supportive extended family.
The story begins with Gary's cousin Brenda's childhood memory of Gary. She remembers climbing up her Grandmother's forbidden apple tree then the branch breaking. Gary helped her move the branch. He was a year older than she was and was a quiet boy. Then she didn't see Gary for a very long time. She found out through her mother Ida that Gary was in Reform School, then years later, jail.
Brenda was in touch with Gary, writing letters to him while he was in prison, and in the meantime got married and had children. Gary sounded so mature and intelligent in his letters to her, like he had been educated while behind bars.
Gary is released and Brenda decided to sponsor him. When the buses take too long he decides to treat himself to a flight. He alerts Brenda to his arrival at the airport at 2am. Brenda and her husband Johnny drive out to meet him there. The way Brenda talks about Gary it sounds like she is attracted to him. She wants to know how tall he is, a trait woman find attractive.
They travel to Provo, Utah from the airport, and Gary is reacquainted with his relatives: Brenda's sister Toni and mother Ida, and father, Vern.
Vern gives him a job at his shoe store as a favor, then gives him some cash because "A man without money in his pocket can get into trouble."
Vern tells Gary that he has time to correct his life, but it will take some time for him to readjust to life outside of prison. Maybe in a year he can have all the things that he wants Vern says.
Gary works at the repair shop and is quick to learn but slow to master, and loses patience quickly. Vern and his partner, a good young man named Sterling Baker, are too busy to teach Gary and he feels slighted. He still manages to befriend Sterling Baker, and his cousin Rikki Baker.
As time goes on Gary's immaturity and selfishness shows. He begins asking Vern for cash, then buys beer with it. Vern is nice but proud, and gives the money to Gary despite his need to save it for his knee surgery.
Gary doesn't know what he shouldn't do or say, and needs someone to tell him everything. Brenda had to tell him that asking Vern for beer money was selfish, that maybe he could buy groceries with it instead. He listens to Brenda and impresses Ida, who decides to set him up on a date.
The date is with a divorcee named Lu Ann and it does not go well. Gary is immature, and wants to drink beer before going out. Lu Ann says that she wants friendship, and drunk Gary asks her if she wants to go to a motel with him. She says 'No,' then says she wants to be his friend because he needs a friend and they never see each other again.
Gary tells some horrible stories about his time in jail, and he chuckles, disturbing Brenda and Johnny. One story involves him tattooing a penis on his friend Fungoo's neck. Gary laughs and mocks the Fungoo because he never gets mad at Gary, he always blames weed, or jail. Another time, Gary's childhood friend LeRoy was beaten up by his Valium dealer, Billy. Gary worked construction with the guy and hit him in the head with a hammer in retaliation. The witnesses didn't want to speak against Gary, so the warden gave him four months in the hole. Billy had brain damage and wasn't right after that.
Gary plays poker with Rikki and Sterling, but there friends don't like him because he always cheats. Rikki eventually gets Gary to leave the game. They try to get girls, but Gary is terrible at talking to them. Rikki teases him by offering his wife, who he is fighting with, then takes it back when he sees how Gary reacts uncontrollably. He tells Rikki that he wants to rape and Rikki tells him that he can't do that.
He demands that Vern drive him to Salt Lake City one night when his second date refuses to meet him. It is over an hour away, so Vern refuses. Gary decides to hitchhike and lands in Idaho. Vern tells him to call Brenda for a ride, and Brenda tells him to hitchhike back. Gary is arrested for driving a vehicle, and changes the story multiple times. First the guy was trying to hit on him so he knocked him out and decided to take him to a hospital. Then the guy fainted and Gary had to take the wheel and drive him to the hospital.
Even Gary's parole office, Mont Court indulges him. He doesn't believe that Gary can be all evil because he has seen his paintings and drawings from prison. He wants to give Gary another chance and not lock him up in an overcrowded prison so soon.
To celebrate the purchase of his new car he goes to see One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with Johnny and Brenda. He talked loudly, oblivious to the other moviegoers. He couldn't stop, even when they asked him nicely. Brenda eventually tires of Gary's antics and lies . She is disappointed by who he is, and she and Johnny tell him but he does not understand why.
He can't. And he can't avoid trouble. This is his nature. It got him in jail and it follows him out of jail. This is why Brenda is disappointed: Gary doesn't know that some of his actions bother people. (Also he had horrid table manners.) This doesn't make them exceptionally acceptable; it makes Gary dangerous.
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