In the past, Norman Mailer has written about religious and social icons such as Jesus and Marilyn Monroe, as well as documenting society's outcasts in books like The Executioner's Song.

Now in Mailer's new novel, The Castle in the Forest, he features a protagonist literally from Hell who documents the life of Adolf Hitler.

Before any attention is paid to any of the actual content of the novel, potential readers should note the summary of the novel on the dust jacket. The summary begins by discussing Mailer himself -- never a good sign for anyone expecting a good read. This is a warning flag that the book will have to thrive on the past successes of the author.

"No career in modern American letters is at once so brilliant, varied and controversial as that of Norman Mailer." Most of the rest of the first paragraph of the summary continues to laud Mailer. Then two skimpy paragraphs outlining the plot of the novel follow. But the last sentence of the synopsis couldn't help but go back to Mailer. "Now on the eve of his eighty-fourth birthday, Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before."

Historical fiction is never a good idea, no matter who the writer is -- Harry Turtledove, Philip Roth or David Duke. The idea is especially bad when a writer takes a subject as serious as Hitler and adds a fictional demon.

Mailer's demon, a self-described "protagonist" of the story, isn't much of a protagonist at all. In fact, for most of the first half of the novel, one wonders why the demon/devil is a factor in the book at all, other than to make a tenuous connection to the fact that Hitler may be the Antichrist. The most dynamic figure in the novel is Hitler's father Alois, whose exploits are chronicled in excruciating detail but not enough to excite the reader into finishing the book.

No one should ever write off Mailer or think he is down for the count. He used to box occasionally, so he knows what it's like to come back. But given Mailer's age, and figuring that this is his first novel in more than a decade, The Castle in the Forest could very well be Mailer's last novelistic endeavor. What a sad swan song that would be. Grade: C-

-- Reviewed by Steve Hughes