Set on an island in the South Pacific where the American Army under General Cummings is trying to drive out the Japanese, The Naked and the Dead focuses on a single reconnaissance platoon. The novel is split between alternating chapters depicting ongoing action on the island and retrospective chapters focusing on a particular character''s personality and past. The Naked and the Dead contains several combat scenes and a great deal of description of Army protocol, as well as detailed descriptions of the many trials and agonies of the enlisted man. The novel deals with the difficulties of the campaign, the danger posed by the Japanese, the conflict between officers and regulars, each man''s own internal conflicts and fears, and the aggression between squad members. Everyone, from the General down, has character flaws, and there are few depictions of lasting happy family life or of good male-female relations. Later in the book, a former general''s aide, Hearn, becomes the Lieutenant of the squad, to the ire of Croft, the ruthless Sergeant previously in command, who withholds information from Lieutenant Hearn, leading to Hearn''s death in combat. The novel questions the competence and motives of high-ranking officers, as well as the integrity of each of the many men depicted. The men suffer physical hardship and even casualties, but there is little mourning or kindness. There is no mercy shown to the Japanese. Occasionally, individual soldiers show sparks of sensitivity or thoughtfulness. The Naked and the Dead was Mailer''s first published novel and is still his top ranked novel by sales; it established his reputation as a novelist and brought international recognition.

The Naked and the Dead

The main setting takes place in Fulda in 1633 and follows in four interlinking stories which ties together near the end of the novel. The New United States decided to accept the return of Johann Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg as the Abbot of Fulda, but the Abbot will have to give up the title of prince. Moreover, he will not be allowed to collect tithes. The N.U.S. is now the secular authority in Fulda and will collect the taxes. The Abbot surprises Wes Jenkins - the administrator of Fulda - in his attempts to persuade the monks to abide by the new rules of his order. The local monks have been difficult over abiding by these rules. Even the import of Saint Gall monks hasn''t won them over to the Tridentine doctrines. Dissatisfied Catholic conspirators in Bonn decide to unsettle affairs in Fulda, in which they initially arrange to post scurrilous flyers all over the town and then hiring Irish mercenaries led by Walter Leslie into abducting the Abbot and several N.U.S. administrators. The story focus on Martin Wackernagel. As a private courier, Martin delivers correspondence and small packages on a route stretching from Grantville to Gelnhausen along the imperial road. He also makes side trips to Barracktown and other locations near his route. Martin visits his mother now and then during his travels, but he is reluctant to face her. She keeps asking when he will be married. Then he takes Liesel Bodamer to Frankfurt to see her brother and his mother learns that he is married. “MAIL STOP” and “HAPPY WANDERER” tell the story of Martin Wackernagel, a private courier with a regular route. Martin maintains three separate households complete with wife and children unknown to his mother or his other “wives”. The woman he hopes to make his fourth wife is niece to Clara Bachmeierin, who married Wes Jenkins in the first story. The story examines the actions of the Mainz Committee of Correspondence. Bernard Eberhard - Captain Duke of the Swedish Army - is sent to Fulda by General Brahe to observe the interplay between NUS administrators and Abbot von Schweinsberg. Bernhard takes his brothers and his fellow CoC members with him to Fulda. He and his brothers began working for Major Derek Utt. Later, Utt plans an operation against the Irish soldiers who had abducted the Abbot. He sends Sergeant Helmut Herke and a small band of soldiers to determine the whereabouts of the colonels.

1635: The Tangled Web

Mma Ramotswe is asked to investigate a cook who is being blackmailed, and a doctor whose nurse believes he is doing something illegal. She discovers the identity of the blackmailer, who is a newspaper agony aunt abusing the confidences of her correspondents, and forces her to stop. The doctor is selling generic drugs at the full cost to his patients, and she causes him to be reported. During the investigation she becomes more aware of her excess weight and its health risks and even tries to diet, but decides the most important thing is to be herself and happy. Mr Polopetsi, the new employee, is happy in his work but still struggles with poverty and hostility from relatives due to his spell in prison. He wants to help Mma Ramotswe, his mentor, with detective work, and when superstitious fears disturb staff at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, it is he who discovers the cause: an injured ground-hornbill, believed to bring ill luck. He removes it, but it dies, and he fears he has lost Mma Ramotswe''s trust, but is relieved and grateful when she shows faith in him after all. Mma Makutsi fears her engagement to Phuti Radiphuti is over after a misunderstanding about feminism, but all is explained and, in the process, Mr J.L.B.Matekoni gains a comfortable new chair which will make him happy too. She begins to appreciate how her fortunes will change with her marriage, and indulges her passion for impractical shoes with a new blue pair, even though they do not fit very well.

Blue Shoes and Happiness

The Chiricahua Apache chief, Victorio, called his sister Lozen his wise counselor and his right hand. He said she had the strength of a man and was a shield to her people. Even in a society possessing extraordinary courage, endurance and skill, she was unique. The Apaches believe that when she was young, the spirits blessed her with horse magic, the gift of healing and the power to see enemies at a distance. In the Apaches’ 30-year struggle to defend their homeland, they came to rely on her strength, wisdom, and supernatural abilities. Because of her gift of far-sight, she was the only unmarried woman allowed to ride with the warriors and fight alongside them. After her beloved brother Victorio''s death, she joined Geronimo''s band of insurgents. With Geronimo and fifteen other warriors, she resisted the combined forces of the United States and Mexican armies, and the heavily armed civilian populations of New Mexico and Arizona Territories. She and the sixteen warriors, and seventeen women and children held out against a total of about nine thousand men. :Smoke from the grass fire smudged the blue sky of early May, but it did not obscure the footprints in the moist sand in the arroyo. The footprints weren’t a mystery. For miles the soldiers had been following the woman who made them. :“She’s heading up the canyon.” Lt. Howard Bass Cushing beckoned to thirteen of the sixteen privates in the company. “These men and I will trail her. Sergeant Mott, you and Collins, Green, Pierce, and Fichter cover the rear.” :“The tracks are too clear, sir,” said John Mott. :“What do you mean?” :“The squaw set her feet down heavy. She avoided places where the prints won’t show. Looks like she wants us to follow her.” :“More than likely she doesn’t know we’re here. She’s being careless.” :“Apaches aren’t careless.” Rafe knew that disagreeing with Cushing wouldn''t change his mind, but he had to try. … Rafe kept his peace on the subject of Cushing and stared at the thorny landscape until his eyes watered. :“If I were an Apache. I’d set up an ambuscade in that canyon,’ said Mott. “That dry gulch is a sack waiting to close around us.” :As though on cue, rifle fire reverberated across the canyon. Where no Apache had been, dozens appeared. Cushing and his troops retreated and joined Mott and Rafe to form a line, firing as they fell back. :The Apaches advanced down the slope in two lines, keeping formation rather than scattering…

Ghost Warrior

The protagonist and narrator is Ivan Smetski, a young Ukrainian-American linguist who specializes in Old Church Slavonic, a language from 10th-century Russia. In 1992, Ivan returns to his native town of Kiev to pursue additional graduate studies. While there he discovers the body of a woman, apparently sleeping in the woods. He awakens her with a kiss, and she tells him, in Old Church Slavonic, that she is Katerina, a princess of the kingdom of Taina. Transported back to the 10th century, Ivan follows Katerina back to Taina where he finds the Christian kingdom terrorized by the traditional Russian arch-villainess Baba Yaga. Ivan and Katerina marry and escape back to the 20th century to avoid the machinations of Baba Yaga, who has enslaved a god and laid claim to Taina''s throne, and the druzhinnik Dimitri who covets the throne. Baba Yaga''s magical powers, however, allow for her to follow Ivan and Katerina to modern times. Back in the Ukraine, Ivan discovers that his cousin is in reality the immortal god Mikola Mozhaiski. Returning to the United States, Ivan further discovers that his mother is a magic user, with the same powers as Katerina. After Katerina discovers Dimitri''s plot through scrying, Ivan and Katerina return to Taina, deftly avoiding Baba Yaga who magically "skyjacks" their intended 747 back to the 10th century. Returning to Taina, Ivan and Katerina confront Dimitri, the enslaved god, and Baba Yaga. Though the Castle of Taina is destroyed, the two emerge victorious, and return to the modern world to live.

Enchantment

The novel is set in Brighton, and concerns the grand high magus Hugo Rune (AKA The Reinventor of the Ocarina, the Mumbo Gumshoe, the Hokus Bloke, the Cosmic Dick, the Guru''s Guru, the Perfect Master, the Lad Himself) and his quest to solve the mystery of the Brighton zodiac, with the aid of his amnesia struck assistant, Rizla (revealed at the conclusion of the novel to be Jim Pooley of The Brentford Trilogy). The are opposed in the novel by Rune''s arch foe, the evil Count Otto Black. The following cases are featured:- {| border="2" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" !Case !! Description !! Connection |---- | The Hound of the Hangletons |Hugo Rune and the amnesiac Rizla are hired to investigate a strange lost dog, and Rune reveals to Rizla the secret of the Chronovision, a television that allows the user to witness any event in history |The lost dog of the original case |---- | The Curious Case of the Centenary Centaur |While attending a lecture on the size of the universe with Hugo Rune, Rizla is captured by a group of demented doctors seeking to dissect him for organ transplants, and a centaur is unleashed |A centaur appears from a fairy mound |---- | The Monstrous Mystery of the Moulescomb Crab |A conversation with a bog troll about his dead brother leads to Rizla and Rune learning of a terrible plot by the Secret Government to bring down the Royal Family with the aid of a group of space crabs |The crabs originate from a distant nebula |---- | The Lark of the Lansdowne Lioness |When a statue of Queen Victoria begins to cry tears of real Earl Grey Tea, Rune alone knows that a nightmare from the past is about to be unleashed |The ''Lioness'' is Queen Victoria, who according to Rune was the reincarnation of King Richard the Lionheart |---- | The Curious Case of the Woodingdean Chameleon |With Rune away on business, it is up to Rizla to avert an assassination attempt at a game of croquet while posing as fictional private detective Lazlo Woodbine |Rizla initially believes that the case refers to Count Otto Black in disguise at the Withdean Stadium- identified as ''Woodingdean'' by a barman by accident-, but Rune later claims that it referred to him (Continuing the running gag of Lazlo Woodbine''s name being mispronounced) |---- | The Scintillating Story of the Sackville Scavenger |Attending the opening of a nudist theme restaurant with Rune (All other Brighton restaurants no longer accepting Rune''s presence), Rizla is shocked to witness a group of dead rock stars dining with them |The scavenger is Robert Johnson, who aided the world around him with his music |---- | The Fantastic Adventure of the Foredown Man |While attending a garden party, Rizla witnesses the apparent murder of Lord Jeffrey - despite the fact that the man in question vanished over a hundred years earlier - and his various relatives subsequently begin to die in various horrible manners |Lord Jeffrey was the forefather of the others |---- | The Baffling Business of the Bevendean Bat |Reports of lost cats in the Bevendean area, coupled with radioactive doves, multiple roaring animals at regular intervals, and an encounter with an exploding uniped in the bar The Really Small Atlantean, lead to a confrontation between Rune and the evil Count Otto Black about a modern-day version of Noah''s Ark |The bar''s true name is the Bevendean Bathyscaphe |---- | The Sensational Sage of the Saltdean Stallion |While at a party in Lewes, Rune is apparently killed as a sacrifice to reveal the location of the Chronovision, leaving Rizla to escape Count Otto Black’s followers with the aid of an urban legend |The ''Stallion'' is Norris Styver, who became trapped in Lewes''s complicated street system and could not escape |---- | The Birdman of Whitehawk |The Chronovision now recovered after a trip into the Forbidden Zones, Rune and Rizla must tackle the mysterious apparitions that plague their current host |The Birdman is an native-american/Indian chief, Chief Whitehawk, who provides Rune and Rizla with accommodation |---- | The Wiseman of Withdean |Rizla is forced to disguise himself as a woman as he and Rune search for the last descendant of Jesus Christ at a Heavy Metal concert |The Wiseman is Lord Tobes, the last descendant of Jesus |---- | The Concluding Chaotic Conundrum of the Coldean Cat |Their forces gathered, Rune and Rizla prepare for the final confrontation with Count Otto Black and for their final parting after a long year of adventures |Coldean is Tobes'' recently-lost cat |---- |}

The Brightonomicon

Modoc tells the story of Bram, a German boy, and his elephant, Modoc. Bram and Modoc are born on the same day and the same hour. Brams'' father wished for a boy and girl. He felt his dream was fulfilled. Brams'' father is a third generation elephant trainer and from an early age Bram followed in his father''s footsteps. Brams'' family is unique in the way they trained the elephants. Instead of threat and intimidation the elephants are treated with praise and respect. Once old enough Modoc begins to perform in the circus. The circus owner fell ill and the circus is sold to an American, Mr. North. Bram is unwilling to be parted from his elephant and acts as a stow away across the Indian Ocean. The ship is wrecked, leaving Modoc, Mr. Pitt, Bram and others adrift in the ocean. The survivors stay afloat on Modoc’s back until help comes for them at the last possible second. Modoc and Bram recuperate in India where Bram [learns much about elephant training and care at the Elephantarium as well as Indian life becoming a favorite ''son'' of the maharaja]. Afraid the circus owner will find them, boy and elephant flee into the teak forests and [is able to] join the ranks of the mahouts and marry a village daughter because of his ''son of the maharaja'' status. Rebels eventually take the town, killing Bram’s wife along with many of the population. The circus owner is unexplainably able to find them through the rebellion and transports Modoc and Bram to America where they become stars of the big top. Modoc survives a poisoning attempt, a fire and a hook-wielding drunk before the circus owner decides she is too scarred to appear in the ring any longer and sells her without Bram''s knowledge. Ten years pass in which Modoc’s life deteriorates into abuse until she is purchased by Ralph Helfer, a Hollywood animal trainer. Helfer nurses her back to health and is surprised to find the variety of acts she already knows. Drawn by their supernatural connection, Bram locates her some years after. They spend the rest of their lives in constant contact [at Helfer''s ranch], nursing one another through old age. Bram is first of the pair to die, saying he is going to show Modoc the way.

Modoc

This Bildungsroman is set in the fictional Argyll town of Gallanach (by its description, reminiscent of Oban but on the north east shore of Loch Crinan), the real village of Lochgair, and in Glasgow where Prentice McHoan lives. Prentice''s uncle Rory has disappeared eight years previous while writing a book called The Crow Road. Prentice becomes obsessed with papers his uncle left behind and sets out to solve the mystery. Along the way he must cope with estrangement from his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, and failure at his studies. The estrangement from his father concerns belief in God or an afterlife. Prentice cannot accept a universe without some higher power, some purpose; he can''t believe that people can just cease to exist when they die. His father dogmatically denies the existence of God, universal purpose, and the afterlife. A parallel plot is Prentice''s gradual transition from an adolescent fixation on one young woman to a more mature love for another. Prentice''s efforts to piece together Uncle Rory''s fragmentary notes and the minimal clues surrounding his disappearance mirror his efforts to make sense of the world, love, and life in general. The narrative is also fragmentary, leaping days, months, years, or decades back and forth with little or no warning, so the reader must also piece things together.

The Crow Road

The novel interweaves two apparently disparate storylines: the first being an ancient Greek novel published in Athens just after the Peloponnesian War and the second contained within a modern-day scholar''s notes on his translation. In the ancient novel (which is itself called The Athenian Murders) a young ephebe named Tramachus is discovered on the slopes of Mount Lycabettus, apparently attacked by wolves. His tutor at the Academy, Diagoras, enlists the help of a "Decipherer of Enigmas" (a detective named Heracles Pontor) to learn more about Tramachus''s death. As Diagoras and Heracles investigate, more youths from the Academy are discovered brutally murdered. Their investigation takes them all over Athens, from mystery cult worship services to a symposium hosted by Plato. Meanwhile, the translator (who is never named) provides frequent commentary on the work, especially as it appears to him to be an example of a (fictional) ancient literary device called eidesis. "Eidesis" is supposedly the practice of repeating words or phrases so as to evoke a particular image or idea in the reader''s mind, as it were a kind of literary steganography. As the translator works on the novel, he soon deduces that the "eidetic" secret concealed within the novel is The Twelve Labors of Heracles, one labor for each of the twelve chapters of the novel. The translator becomes obsessed with the imagery, going so far as to see himself depicted within the ancient work. Partway through the novel, the translator is kidnapped and forced to continue the translation in a cell. His captor turns out to be the scholar Montalo, whose edition of The Athenian Murders is the only surviving copy of the work. Montalo himself had obsessed over the novel, hoping to find in it a proof of Plato''s Theory of Forms. He felt that should an eidetic text, such as this novel, evoke the same ideas in each reader it would then prove that ideas have a separate, independent reality. However, Montalo finished the translation only to discover that the book proved the opposite—that the book proved his (and the translator''s) reality did not exist. The translator finishes the work only to have the same realization: that they themselves are characters in The Athenian Murders, which was written by a colleague of Plato named Philotextus as a way to incorporate Plato''s theory of knowledge while criticizing the philosophical lifestyle.

The Athenian Murders

The narrator meets fellow American Clement Searle at an old-fashioned London inn. Searle has long wanted to settle in England to escape what he considers his arid life in America. But he is physically ailing, and he''s also depressed because his lawyer cannot uphold his claim to a share in a country estate currently owned by Richard Searle, a distant relation. Clement and the narrator visit the estate, where they meet the ethereal Miss Searle, who supports Clement''s cause. They also meet Miss Searle''s brother Richard, who is at first suspicious and then outright hostile and combative toward Clement. Upset by the conflict Clement and the narrator travel to Oxford, where they help a gentleman, Mr Rawson, down on his luck to travel to America. Clement is now very sick and sends for Miss Searle. She responds to his call and tells him that her brother has been thrown from a horse and killed. Clement might now have a real chance for a share of the estate, but the opportunity comes too late for him. He dies and is buried in the England which proved so inhospitable to him.

A Passionate Pilgrim

Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov is a land owner who stays in Saint Petersburg for a trial about a piece of land. He receives a visit from Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky, an old acquaintance who recently became a widower. Velchaninov had an affair with Trusotsky''s wife Natalia, and he realizes that he is the biological father of Liza, Trusotsky''s eight year old daughter. Velchaninov, who doesn''t want Liza to be raised by an alcoholic, brings Liza to a foster family. Liza dies there. Trusotsky now wants to marry Nadia, the fifteen year old daughter of civil servant Zakhlyobinin. She''s the sixth daughter of eight. Trusotsky takes Velchaninov with him to visit his fiancee, and buys her a bracelet. Trusotsky is ridiculed by Zakhlyobinin''s daughters and locked up during a game of hide-and-seek. Nadia gives the bracelet to Velchaninov, asking him to return it to Trusotsky and tell him she doesn''t want to marry him. Nadia is secretly engaged to Alexander Lobov, a nineteen year old boy. Trusotsky spends the night in Velchaninov''s room and tries to kill him with a razor knife. Velchaninov manages to defend himself, injuring his left hand. Sometime later, when Velchaninov has won his trial, the two meet again at a railway station. Trusotsky is remarried, but a young army officer is travelling with him and his wife. Trusotsky''s new wife invites Velchaninov to visit them, but Trusotsky asks him to ignore this invitation.

The Eternal Husband

In the first book, Warlord of the Air, Bastable finds himself transported to an alternate late-20th century Earth where the European powers did not stir each other into a World War and in which the mighty airships of a British Empire on which the sun never set are threatened by the rise of new and terrible enemies. These enemies turn out to be the colonized peoples trying to break free, supported by anarchist and socialist Western saboteurs opposing their own imperialist societies, and led by a Chinese general whose country is still nominally under Western control and ravaged by civil war. In The Land Leviathan, Bastable visits an alternate 1904 in which most of the Western world has been devastated around the turn of the 20th century by a short, yet terrible war fought with futuristic devices and in which also biological weapons were used. In this alternate world, an Afro-American Black Attila is conquering the remnants of the Western nations, destroyed by the wars. The only remaining stable surviving nations, aside from the African-based Ashanti Empire, are an isolationist Australian-Japanese Federation, which opposes the Ashanti Empire, and the wealthy Marxist Republic of Bantustan. Bantustan is the equivalent of our world''s South Africa and is led by its Indian-born president Mahatma Gandhi; having never known apartheid or hostilities between the English and the Boers, it is a wealthy, pacifist nation, in which there is no racial tension. In the final book, The Steel Tsar, Bastable witnesses an alternate 1941 where Great Britain and Germany became allies around the turn of the 20th century and thus neither a World War nor the October Revolution took place. In this world''s Russian Empire, Bastable encounters the rebel Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Naked and the Dead

By Norman Mailer

1635: The Tangled Web

By Virginia DeMarce

Blue Shoes and Happiness

By Alexander McCall Smith

Ghost Warrior

By Lucia St. Clair Robson

Enchantment

By Orson Scott Card

The Brightonomicon

By Robert Rankin

Modoc

By Ralph Helfer

The Crow Road

By Iain Banks

The Athenian Murders

By José Carlos Somoza

A Passionate Pilgrim

By Henry James

The Eternal Husband

By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A Nomad of the Time Streams

By Michael Moorcock