Harlot's Ghost

This post-modern novel by Mailer is inarguably the most informed novel of the CIA. This is not callow, veneered, cinema-informed CIA, or any of the "tell-all" non-fiction embellishments of CIA activity. This is a psychological study of the necessary duality of agents, teased from the central soul of the duality of humankind. Mailer has a comprehensive insider's knowledge of the structure and workings of the CIA. Paradox lives on every layer; the characters in this fiction, other than the main characters, are people such as Howard Hunt, Che Guevara, Marilyn Monroe, John and Robert Kennedy, Allen Dulles--and the list goes on. Mailer cheekily provides notes at the end of the book stating that changing the names to fictional ones would cause readers to say, "That is really Howard Hunt," or, "John F Kennedy," etc., "He just changed their names." By using their known names, he expects readers to say the opposite. There is a very thin membrane separating historical fiction from fact. With cozening and cunning guile, Mailer writes about cozening and cunning in the CIA. The prose is gorgeous, with sharp imagery, layered references, wry observations, and poetic paragraphs. This novel also has Mailer's most fully realized female character, Kittredge. She is a CIA psychologist specializing in duality of spirit in both academics and in her career. The public self, the secret self and the inner conflicts that cloud an agent's ethics and takes over his soul are well-developed in Kittredge, as well as in the characters of Harlot and Harry. This book contains the intricacies of Cold War politics and treachery. I was deeply fraught after reading about Operation Mongoose (as well as other subversive operations) in all its explication. It allowed me to connect the dots better on the enigma of 9/11. I was deeply disturbed, enlightened, and exhilarated to read a colossal, mammoth, unafraid novel about how trespasses into other minds and other countries are accomplished; this does not exclude state-sponsored terrorism by our government. This is astonishing literature and a spine-tingling filter remover. Eric Roth (screenwriter of Forrest Gump and The Insider), heavily based the movie, The Good Shepherd, on material from Harlot's Ghost.

Norman Mailer has produced a profound work in Harlot's Ghost. The research alone must have taken him in, around, and through some of the deepest levels and recesses of the intelligence 'industry'. As much a work of historical NON-fiction as fiction (as some other reviewer so aptly put it), Mailer basically writes one of the definitive 'inside' novels of the CIA. Anyone who has studied American Intelligence history, both overt and covert, since the National Security Act created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, has to be mightily impressed with how much Mailer gets across without actually coming out and being too obvious; though, Dix Butler surely parallels "Rip" Robertson...Montegue is more than a vague parallel of Angleton, and, perhaps my favorite, the double parallel, Mo-dene Murphy, a combination of Judith Exner, and a play on words at the same time. What really strikes me as brilliant about Mailer's novel is his ability to tell a basically true to life expose/story on a subject which nobody could have gotten away with in any other fashion. A long read, yes, but I was never bored; in fact, I have read the novel three times over the past ten years. I sincerely hope Mailer finds the time - certainly the material is there now more than ever - to give us another installment of this "to be continued" novel. As far as I'm concerned, his time would have been beter spent on this than the total flop on Oswald...

This sprawling 1,000+ page epic about two generations of CIA officers is difficult to characterize: part history, part period piece, and part fiction. Mailier mixes the comings and goings of historical figures and real events with a well-developed cast of fictional characters in a way that reminds the reader of E.L.Doctorow's masterpiece Ragtime. Harlot's Ghost impresses as an authentic and comprehensive glimpse inside the inner workings of the CIA. The book's strongest message is that this infamous organization of spooks and bogey-men is no more than the sum of it's parts - the officers and agents - and by giving us a view of their motivations and desires we understand a bit more about how and why the CIA does what it does. The protagonist, Harry Hubbard, is a second generation CIA officer who bounces around the globe from assignment to assignment, managing to land in each hotspot long enough for us to see the Agency's role through his eyes as events unfold - from Cold War Berlin to the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Enjoyable though this novel is, not everything works. Hovering as a backdrop to all the action is the idea of deceit and duality: East vs. West, intelligence vs. counterintelligence, information vs. misinformation, the means vs. the ends, idealism vs. pragmatism. This theme is captured by the theory of Alpha and Omega - a theory developed by Kitterdge Montague, CIA research psychologist and love interest of Harry Hubbard. The theory, in brief, states that there are two fully formed and competing personalities trapped within every individual, and that the key to human nature is to understanding the relationship between these two personalities. In an early scene a soon-to-be-wed Kittredge offers an elegant explanation of this theory while flirting with Hubbard. The problem is that over the next thousand pages the same theory pops up every ten pages or so, until the reader feels beaten over the head with this particular bit of symbolism. Enough already. We get it.But overall, this is an immensely enjoyable novel. Mailer creates realistic three-dimensional characters that mingle seamlessly with real historical figures and actual events. Mailer has taken on a hugely ambitious task and manages to pull it off. This is not only a definitive view of the CIA, but an excellent piece of literature as well. Through Hubbard's first person accounts, thoughts, and letters the reader experiences an amazing range of events and environments - from seedy Berlin safe-houses to luxurious Uruguayan villas to combat on the Cuban beachhead. The book's thousand pages notwithstanding, there are huge questions which Mailer leaves unanswered. Harlot's Ghost would have benefited from a more aggressive editor, but my final analysis is that I'll be the first in line to slog through the sequel to learn the resolution to the questions that the book's "to be continued" ending leaves. Highly recommended.Note: In the final pages Mailer in

You know that a book is good when you feel compelled to reread all 1200+ pages of it. Each passing page casts new lights on events and relationships described only a few hundred pages earlier. The passage where Harlot questions the evolutionary record of the fossil beds and god's role in it is absolutely priceless and crystallizes the essence of this book. IF YOU'VE EVERY READ LeCARRE, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!

Mailer really deserves credit for not just his innate writing ability (as good as any living writer's) but for the immense effort he must have put into this. It is impossible to read Harlot's Ghost and not be utterly amazed at the brilliant metaphors or beautiful characterizations of Maine, Berlin, Moscow, Harlot, CIA men, power, the world, life... THIS IS THE WORK OF A GENIUS AT HIS BEST.