This book is no exception and to me it feels like a spiritual, though clearly not an actual, autobiography.

Reader beware, the remarkably interesting beginning sees absolutely no fruition, simply a "To Be Continued". This is true neither to tenors nor to the tone of Allen Dulles -- nor, I should think, to the tenor of C. I remember the scene where the protagonist and Kittredge walk out of a Lenny Bruce show, offended at his jokes. Sometimes I view it as a community of bees who cling to the leader in an ecstasy of enthusiasm and patriotism.When my wife is depressed, no color stirs in my own heart, and her skin is not luminous but hooded in pallor.

The most provocative plot throughout this epic and complex novel, though, is Hubbard's subversive relationship with Kittredge, as I'm sure Mailer intended; what with his more and more obviously waning libido (If anybody in recent memory spent more time talking about the sexual application of the least sexual of topics I'd like to see how).The Berlin and Montevideo sections appear meaningless until the Kennedy and other big characters arrive post the halfway mark and the book takes on the Cuban chapters. Featuring a tapestry of unforgettable characters both real and imagined, Harlot’s Ghost is a panoramic achievement in the tradition of Tolstoy, Melville, and Balzac, a triumph of Mailer’s literary prowess. The personalities were the most prominent from every conceivable field including music (Sinatra), media (Monroe) and corporate (Hughes) apart from the worlds of criminals, sleuths, politicians, and the police. The book is clearly written by someone is aware of and has come to terms with many of his own shortcomings and conceits. e., achieving supremacy in some profession such as politics or the military, and possessing the most beautiful women in the world.

It is too close to the hard facts, not only on Kennedy but the Bay of Pigs and the wiretapping in East Berlin, by the CIA, who got caught in tunnels maintaining the equipment.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. So, let’s begin with the sheer stupidity of telling such a massive, detailed, discursive tale by structuring it as a series of letters between two navel-gazing narcissists. Mailer comes up with a truly ingenious plot device: Harvey assigns Harry to track down the cryptonymous C. It becomes particularly obstreperous and tiresome in "Harlot's Ghost," where Kittredge keeps evolving -- for the C.