In the current issue of a magazine called The Face there is an article on Norman Mailer's recent visit to this country. He was here, it seems, to promote Tough guys don't dance, his latest novel: he did some 'major' TV interviews, a bit of radio, and - towards the end of his stint - he called a press conference in order to complain about the low quality of the reviews he had been getting. His tone was querulous. He felt that we (I myself was one of the 'wimp' critics he objected to) had been made nervous by his powerful masculinity and, to cover up our fear, we had tried to get macho with his book. Mailer was angry, says The Face, and he was spoiling for a fight.

LRB 19 September 1985 | PDF Download