The Executioner’s Song
Quick Summary
The Executioner's Song is a 1979 novel by Norman Mailer that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The book is a work of nonfiction novel, a genre that tells true stories using the techniques of a novel.
The novel recounts the life and crimes of Gary Gilmore, an American murderer whose execution in Utah in 1977 ended a nearly 10-year moratorium on capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore's case garnered significant attention because he resisted efforts to commute his death sentence and even chose death by firing squad. Mailer's novel explores Gilmore's troubled youth, his criminal behavior, and his final days, presenting a complex portrait of a man who became a cause célèbre for death penalty opponents while simultaneously wishing to die.123
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