This favorite Firing Line guest, with his white suits and his rapid-fire delivery, had just published his first novel in 11 years, to significant but not universal acclaim. But let's let him tell it: "It was not only Norman Mailer but also John Updike rushed into print. These old men--and since I am about their age I can call them that--these old men who should be reserving their strength, conserving their energy, suddenly had to rise up from off of their pallets and try to shoot this book down. I think it was because I had predicted in 1973 ... that the future of the American novel, if it was to have a future, was in a highly detailed realism achievable only by reporting along the lines of what Zola meant when he talked of naturalism.... Suddenly this book... cast a shadow in the minds of people like Mailer and Updike, and they suddenly found themselves in the dark. Because if this kind of novel, highly detailed realism based on reporting, was to be any sort of new standard, their reputations were in serious trouble."