Quotes from book
An American Dream

Name: An American Dream
Author: Norman Mailer

An American Dream is Norman Mailer's fourth novel. It was published by Dial Press. Mailer wrote it in serialized form for Esquire, consciously attempting to resurrect the methodology used by Charles Dickens and other earlier novelists, with Mailer writing each chapter against monthly deadlines. The book is written in a poetic style heavy with metaphor that creates unique and hypnotising narrative and dialogue. The novel's action takes place over 32 hours in the life of its protagonist Stephen Rojack. Rojack is a decorated war-hero, former congressman, talk-show host, and university professor. He is depicted as the metaphorical embodiment of the American Dream.

“I was now at a university in New York, a professor of existential psychology with the not inconsiderable thesis that magic, dread, and the perception of death were the roots of motivation.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 1
An American Dream (1965)

“Madness is locked beneath. It goes into tissues, is swallowed by the cells. The cells go mad. Cancer is their flag. Cancer is the growth of madness denied.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 8
An American Dream (1965)

“The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Detective Roberts, in Ch. 8
An American Dream (1965)

“I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity — it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 5
An American Dream (1965)

“Comfortless was my religion, anxiety of the anxieties, for I believed God was not love, but courage. Love came only as a reward.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 7
An American Dream (1965)

“Witches have no wit, said the magician who was weak. Hula, hula, said the witches.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 4
An American Dream (1965)

“Love was love, one could find it with anyone, one could find it anywhere. It was just that you could never keep it. Not unless you were ready to die for it.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 6
An American Dream (1965)

“Murder offers the promise of vast relief. It is never unsexual.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 1
An American Dream (1965)

“I met Jack Kennedy in November, 1946 … We went out on a double date and it turned out to be a fair evening for me. I seduced a girl who would have been bored by a diamond as big as the Ritz.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Stephen Rojack, in Ch. 1
An American Dream (1965)

“The only true journey of knowledge is from the depth of one being to the heart of another.”

Norman Mailer book An American Dream

Ch. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=BxRbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+only+true+journey+of+knowledge+is+from+the+depth+of+one+being+to+the+heart+of+another%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage <br class="br">An American Dream (1965)