FBI kept tabs on Mailer

I'm reminded of a movie character who once left a nervous voicemail to her Lit major ex-boyfriend and said, "Oh, and I read War and Peace, which was good! [beat] Like that was a surprise...."

So now we discover that J. Edgar Hoover once wrote to a subordinate, "Let me have a memo on Norman Mailer." No kidding. "Like that was a surprise." I think we all expected that the FBI would have something on Mailer. Personally, I think Gore Vidal could provide more provocative gossip, but presumably we'll have to wait a while for that one, if the person-of-interest being kind of passed-away is a prerequisite.

Anyway, onward to the block quote!

In 1969, at Hoover's direction, an agent prepared a five-page, single-spaced review of Mailer's book "Miami and the Siege of Chicago," about the 1968 political conventions. The review carefully itemized all six references made to the FBI.

"It is written in his usual obscene and bitter style," the agent wrote. "Book contains reference to . . . uncomplimentary statements of the type that might be expected from Mailer regarding the FBI and the Director."

(via Paper Cuts)