Norman Mailer's achievement lies primarily in his treatment of the conflict between man's search for self-actualization and the strictures society places upon him. Mailer has rendered this theme with an energy of style, an ideational power, and a vivid drama that have earned him an international reputation. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. They stir foreign audiences because, notes Anthony Burgess, they are "political, which is a great recommendation to all Europeans, and British fiction is just about unexportable manners. I mean 'political,' of course, in the widest sensethe sense of protest or counterprotest."
Mailer presents a special problem to anyone trying to arrive at a clear understanding of his work, for he has gained notoriety as a public figure as well as a writer. His extraliterary activitiesacts of civil disobedience, running for mayor of New York, tempestuous marriages, contentious remarks on television talk shows, belligerent behavior at parties—have caused him in many quarters to be more read about than read.
