The Executioner's Song, Part 3: Gary & Nicole

Nobody trusts Gary. And he doesn't exactly give anyone a reason to trust him: he is dishonest, has a temper, terrible work ethic, immature social behavior.....

But I don't get the feeling that he is a pedophile. He has Nicole. She is young enough to be his child but she is not shaped like an actual child.

So when Pete Guloven--the man who rents his Uncle Vern's cottage--notices Gary propositioning Toni--the young daughter of Annette--to babysit while he and Nicole plan a romantic trip to the canyon, he nosily misinterprets Gary's proposition as something perverse when he sees Gary give her a peck on the cheek.

Gary can only solve disputes with fighting. First, he threatened to fight Pete, then did fight him, and was surprised when this did not inspire Pete to apologize to Gary for telling Ida--Gary's aunt--what he thought Gary was saying to Annette.

Pete believes that "Gary is getting more out of line every day" and Gary confirms  this by telling Nicole "...in prison you don't leave things like Pete undone..."

Nicole also threatened to kill Pete for pressing charges. It takes love to threaten someone else's life, so she must really be in love. Pete was a Mormon and prayed that Gary would control himself and dropped the charges. He also could have feared for his life, now that Gary and Nicole want him dead.

Meanwhile, Gary and Nicole continue to live excessively. A girl named Rosebeth (who is also a minor) is introduced into Gary and Nicole's relationship. (Ok, this technically makes Gary a pedophile, though Annette was 14, but Gary would "never hurt you [Toni] or your family.) Nicole "liked the idea of giving this gift [Rosebeth] to Gary."

Rosebeth is a gift Nicole gives herself too; she cheats on Gary with Rosebeth. It doesn't make a difference that Rosebeth is a girl because Nicole's lust is a slippery slope. Many men want her, and she wants them. It is only a matter of time before she cheats on Gary with an ex-husband or someone else, and then it is only a matter of time until Gary finds out.

Gary's relationship with his boss, Spencer is crumbling. Gary is an increasingly bad worker, takes too many breaks, shows up late. The government pays half of Gary's salary, so a disappointed Spencer rationalizes Gary's behavior.

Gary is also stealing more and more. He steals beer from the store, then he steals things he doesn't need and tries to sell, like guns and water skis. Nicole doesn't approve because Gary is on parole. Getting caught could endanger his freedom, but Gary wants to buy a crappy truck to replace his unreliable mustang and doesn't think things through.

The fights between Nicole and Gary intensify. Nicole, feeling cooped up with Gary, was thinking of her ex-husband Barrett after receiving a letter from Kip, her fourth ex and the father of her second child. The men in her life return.

Gary had bad timing with a sweet though and told Nicole he loved her. She responded "Yeah and so do seven other motherfuckers." Gary hit her, then later apologized. Nicole said she wanted to die, then Gary held a knife to her stomach and asked her if she really wanted it. She said no.

Nicole got invited to Sterling Baker's (her cousin) birthday party. She jokes about having a crush on him, and then open mouth kisses him in front of everyone! Her lust does not obey familial bounds. Gary asks her if she's "Had Enough" then picks a fight with some Chicanos over sunglasses, gets his ass kicked, and Nicole questions her loyalty and attraction to Gary.

Gary drinks beer and eats Florinal for his headaches and can't get it up. Nicole thinks he is a "bad package." She is very tired of Gary's behavior, eventually has sex with Barrett and tells him "I love you" if Gary catches them together and kills them. Nicole leaves Gary, moves out of the apartment she shares with him in Spanish Fork and in with Barrett.

Both Nicole and Gary and immature cheaters who have not learned from their mistakes, and therefore continue to make them with consequences worsening. In this part Mailer introduces many "characters" that Gary has reason to murder.

Tune in next time to see which one it is!

"The Executioner's Song" Part 2: Nicole

This part begins with Gary and Nicole's life together then segues into Nicole's life before she meet Gary. Mailer is slick; he knows that the reader will see Gary and Nicole's relationship as another pattern of her history if the story lines are swapped. 

While visiting Sterling with Ricki's wife Sue one Saturday night, Nicole and Gary met. Nicole was immediately fascinated by him, but didn't want to let him know it, so she and Sue told Sterling they used to have crushes on him while Gary sat silently.

One thing lead to another and Nicole agreed to go out with Gary to buy some beer, taking her son Jeremy "for protection." Instead, things go well between them, and they kiss. Not wanting to seem like she "dates too much" in front of Sue, Nicole refuses Gary's inquiry for her phone number. 

But she can't resist. She drives back to Sterling's house after dropping Sue at home and spends the night, putting her daughter Sunny and son Jeremy to bed. When Gary tells her that he spent half of his life in jail, she questions his status as "another loser." She didn't want to be with somebody "who didn't think enough of himself to make something of himself." 

This time, Sterling sat there silently; Nicole and Gary talked for hours as if Sterling was not even in the room! This was the best conversation Nicole ever had, and when Gary came on to her she couldn't refuse. Gary blamed his lack of a hard-on on the beer and Fiorinal, but Nicole didn't want him to worry too much about it. 

Gary didn't move in with Nicole completely for a week.

They got along very well with each other and Gary got along well with Nicole's children. It was the honeymoon period, after all. This is when the relationship is supposed to be perfect. The only time Gary seemed off was when Nicole found out--by snooping--that Gary had fake teeth. He acted like "someone had turned out the lights." She already knew that he had fake teeth when she kissed him, and teased him a little bit because she she wanted him to know that it didn't bother her. Gary still didn't take it well, but when they made love he told her it felt like he was "breathing into her soul."

Gary mentioned his mother to Nicole and it made him cry to mention her arthritis. This moves Nicole,who normally views a man crying as "disgusting" especially when they've cried over her. But they make plans to go to Portland to see her. For the time being money is very tight; they can barely afford to put gas in the car. 

Nicole doesn't want to spook Gary and make him uncomfortable, so she tells him eventually her history. She is completely driven by sexual desire and has a problem controlling herself around men. She seems to sleep/marry men like a normal woman greets one. This is why she has had 2 children and 4 husbands by age 19.

Her history and habits make Gary look like just another fling. This was a good reason for her caution when telling Gary about her life. 

Two major factors contributed to Nicole's history of deviant sexual behavior: her looks and her Uncle Lee. 

Her "Uncle" Lee was her father's army buddy that lived with her family on and off since she was 6. Before he was shipped off, and killed, in Vietnam, he touched her inappropriately and made her touch him. When she was old enough to know better Nicole slept with her sister to protect herself from his advances but the damage had already been done. 

Nicole was targeted by this man because of her looks, and she received attention from the boys at school because she had the biggest boobs in elementary school. She would let the boys touch her, but "no one could put it in her before she was 11." 

Like most kids at that age, Nicole got into a bad habit and could not see any problem with it. Her mother tried to discipline her, but Nicole was caught stealing and sent to a reform school/nut house when she was 13. It was there that she met her second husband. (When she escaped reform school and went to an orgy at a party, she met her first.)

Nicole's life was very messy: she married multiple men, all of them a different kind of loser: dumb/drug dealer/paranoid/abusive. She mothers two children by two different men because she doesn't understand methods of successful birth control, and won't get an abortion because she can't fathom killing a baby.

Eventually Nicole keeps the good memories away from Gary because she was afraid that it would "bring down more spooks".

From the little we know about Gary's past and the reasons he went to jail/reform school, Nicole and Gary are the male and female equivalent of one another. Gary is violent and Nicole is sexual. 

Lesson: Being a looker with big boobs is a curse for a young girl with a bad father. 

Prediction: Gary's wish for "no unnecessary tragedies" goes unheeded.

Book Club: "The Executioner's Song" Part 1: 'Gary' Recap/Review

A house becomes a mess when its inhabitants cease their interaction and become accustomed to its degrading state. Book shelves are no different. If they are not interacted with, they start to resemble the wall they stand in front of. The Executioner's Song has lived on my shelf for so long that it was beginning to look like it was painted there.

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.

Eventually Gary meets Rikki's sister Nicole, a 19 year old "space cadet"and "looker" with a four year old son. They fall in love. Brenda disapproves because of her age, but Gary says he 'feels' 19, and Brenda tells him he needs to grow up.

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.