''Barbary Shore'' is

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

's second published novel, written after Mailer's great success with his 1948 debut ''

The Naked and the Dead ''The Naked and the Dead'' is a novel written by Norman Mailer. Published by Rinehart & Company in 1948, when he was 25, it was his debut novel. It depicts the experiences of a platoon during World War II, based partially on Mailer's experiences ...

''. It concerns a protagonist who rents a room in a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

boarding house with the intention of writing a novel. Wounded during World War II, he is an

amnesiac Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

, and much of his past is a secret to him. After

Rinehart & Company Rinehart & Company was an American publishing company founded in 1946. Renamed Rinehart & Company in 1946, the publishing company merged with Henry Holt and Company and the John C. Winston Company in 1960, to form Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW). ...

published the novel in 1951, it received poor reviews and sold poorly. The failure of ''Barbary Shore'' and only moderate success of Mailer's next novel, ''

The Deer Park ''The Deer Park'' is a Hollywood novel written by Norman Mailer and published in 1955 by G.P. Putnam's Sons after it was rejected by Mailer's publisher, Rinehart & Company, for obscenity. Despite having already typeset the book, Rinehart claime ...

'' (1955) triggered a decade-long hiatus from the novel by Mailer, which ended with the publication of '' An American Dream'' in 1965.

Reviews

* 1951 American novels Rinehart & Company books Novels by Norman Mailer Novels set in New York City {{1950s-novel-stub