The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition, With a New Introduction by the Author [L0141]

2000 PB 50th anniversary printing of the 1948 original, in Gift-Worthy condition. Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since enjoyed a long and well-deserved tenure in the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer. Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows a platoon of Marines who are stationed on the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948 with the wisdom of a man twice Mailer's age and the raw courage of the young man he was, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Less a war novel and more a rumination on class and military structure, Norman Mailer's World War II book is a hard-edged "Catch 22" that dispenses with satire and revels in cynicism. Unlike Joseph Heller's masterwork, perhaps the definitive WWII book in close contention with Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," The Naked and the Dead contains no character we may call completely sympathetic, and is perhaps the only war novel out there that lacks a strict protagonist. The main character in The Naked and the Dead is the Army, and what it does to the psyche of the Greatest Generation."; "Near the end of this book Sgt. Brown says that part of war is "finding out things about yourself that, by God, it don't pay to know." The key to this book is viewing it as an examination of man's warring impulses. Each man in the platoon fights an internal war, between what he believes he is and what he really is."; "I'll admit I was skeptical- how could a book about World War II cause such a stir and be considered a great novel of our time? But it is. One of the best I have read. Exceptional writing. Gripping story. Character depiction that not only paints a picture of the man but also of the time. Timeless themes that inspired much reflection."