ÀÏ»¢»úÎÈÓ®·½·¨

The Executioner's Song tells the story of Gary Gilmore, a convict released on parole who returns to Utah to restart his life with the help of some family members. It doesn’t go well. After struggling to reintegrate himself into society, Gilmore commits two separate murders for no apparent reason. He is caught, charged, found guilty, and sentenced to die. In fact, Gilmore actually demands to die. He was the first death-sentenced convict to be executed after the the lift of death penalty suspension in the U.S.

Gilmore had been in and out of prison for 22 of his 36 years. He was attracted to very young women in their late teens. He begins a relationship with Nicole Baker. I wondered if Mailer wanted readers to care about Gilmore and Nicole. I didn't come to care for either of them. Nicole, who at times appeared somewhat dim, seemed more despicable for the indifferent treatment of her children. Gary and Nicole didn't strike me as star crossed lovers as much as people from bad backgrounds who made really bad choices on a regular basis. There is a lot of graphic and sexual correspondence between Gary and Nicole, where they don't say much, except how they love each other and need each other badly.

Of course, the ending of "The Executioner's Song" is never in doubt, but as a reader I wondered what happened and how he ended up being the first person to be executed in the United States in a decade.

This book was just way too long for me. The first half was interesting, although I hated the majority of the characters and found Gary and Nicole's relationship to be repetitive and tiresome. The last half of the book, where endless pages are devoted to law suits fighting over movie/book rights for Gary's story, was a lot of work to get through.

"The Executioner's Song" won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1980. I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it, but there are more interesting killers out there that have better stories. The only reason Gilmore is even remembered is because he was the first person executed after the return of the death penalty and because he actively sought to be executed by firing squad.

While I was listening to this book, Brad Sigmon was executed by South Carolina, only the fourth firing squad execution in the US.