Joseph Lennon, remembrance
Reflections: Norman Mailer at 100, ed. Gerald R. Lucas and Maggie McKinley (The Norman Mailer Society, 2023), p. 39; transcribed from the final interior PDF
From Reflections: Norman Mailer at 100 (The Norman Mailer Society, 2023), p. 39.
The last time I sat with Norman was in Provincetown, in 2005 or 2006. He was in his duct-taped, moon-booted, zipper-vested phase — not caring about the figure he cut. We talked about technology, his kids, my folks, my ex-girlfriend and our recent breakup. That night he did not seem famous at all. Our talk began with food and proceeded through concern and familial reports and digestive jokes. There was no rush, no event to attend, just a quiet night meal, with dessert insisted upon. He could have been my uncle.
How different from the first time I met him as an adult, in the fall of 1987 as a budding English major. A friend and I drove from Galesburg, Illinois in a borrowed old Dodge that rattled at speeds over 50, to hear him read in Iowa City. I had not seen him in years, since my family had visited the Mailer clan in P-Town when I was a boy. After the reading, we stood in line and introduced ourselves — once he recognized me, he laughed and insisted we come to a party. When we arrived, the party was packed with Mailer fans. We found him holding forth in a corner; he pulled us in, peppered us with endearing questions, and eventually offered advice for others to overhear — “writing is like fucking, the more you do it, the better you get.” Then he was swept away, and a man asked how we knew him, a gleam in his eye.
That night I first witnessed the circus surrounding him and saw how fame bends gravity around a star. I had only recently seen the movie of Tough Guys Don’t Dance and was not yet fully a fan. But the smoke-haze aura, the liability and benefits of that circus, thrilled me. For years, I saw how it affected people in his orbit. So, our last dinner, our good health and warm food, was a night to remember because of its lack of dazzle, because he was just checking in over a good meal.
Joseph Lennon