Writing is spooky according to Norman Mailer. There is no routine of an office to keep you
going only the blank page each morning and you never know where your words are coming from
those divine words. In The Spooky Art Mailer discusses with signature candor the rewards and
trials of the writing life and recommends the tools to navigate it. Addressing the reader in a
conversational tone he draws on the best of more than fifty years of his own criticism advice
and detailed observations about the writer s craft. Praise for The Spooky Art The Spooky Art
shows Mailer s brave willingness to take on demanding forms and daunting issues. . . . He has
been a thoughtful and stylish witness to the best and worst of the American century. The Boston
Globe At his best as artists should be judged Mailer is indispensable an American treasure.
There is enough of his best in this book for it to be welcomed with gratitude. The Washington
Post [The Spooky Art] should nourish and inform as well as entertain almost any serious reader
of the novel. Baltimore Sun The richest book ever written about the writer s subconscious. The
Philadelphia Inquirer Striking . . . entrancingly frank. Entertainment Weekly Praise for Norman
Mailer [Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of
his generation. The New York Times A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent. The New
Yorker A devastatingly alive and original creative mind. Life Mailer is fierce courageous and
reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance. The New York
Review of Books The largest mind and imagination [in modern] American literature . . . Unlike
just about every American writer since Henry James Mailer has managed to grow and become
richer in wisdom with each new book. Chicago Tribune Mailer is a master of his craft. His
language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream. The Cincinnati Post
