After spending the 1950s trying to follow up The Naked and the Dead with another hit, Mailer writes two poorly-received novels and mostly spends the decade getting stoned, drunk, angry and delusional. By 1960 he’s so far gone that he decides to run for Mayor of New York City. To celebrate his decision he throws a party that begins with him announcing his candidacy and ends with him stabbing his wife Adele in the chest with a rusty penknife, puncturing her pericardial sac and missing her heart by a matter of millimeters. Aside from a couple-week stay in the Bellevue Psych ward, the great white American writer receives no punishment for nearly murdering his wife and his career continues with hardly any blemish.
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