When The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. the novel earned Norman Mailer overwhelming popular and critical acclaim. In fact, it claimed the top spot on the The New York Times "Bestseller List" for eleven consecutive weeks. Most critics, like Atlantic reviewer C. J. Rolo, considered (he novel to be "the most impressive piece of fiction to date about Americans in the Second World War."

David Dempsey asserted in The New York Times that it is '"undoubtedly the most ambitious novel to be written about the recent conflict, it is also the most ruthlessly honest and in scope and in integrity compares favorable with the best that followed World War I." Richard Match contended in his review in the New York Herald Tribune, "With this one astonishing book ... [Mailer] joins the ranks of major American novelists."

Several reviews focused on the novel's realistic account...