num_pages: 709
description: Egypt, 1100 B.C.: a narrator without memory ("I still did not know who I was, nor how old I might be") finds himself in the Necropolis, in the tomb of young, dead nobleman Menenhetet the 2nd...&amp; only slowly realizes that he's in fact "nothing but the poor Ka" of Meni II. An unnerving, disorienting, promising beginning for this 700-page novel--but then, alas, the Ka of Meni II meets the Ka of his great-grandfather Meni I, a much-reincarnated High Priest who will be the primary narrator in the six long, lifeless sequences that follow. In "The Book of the Gods," Meni I offers a minihistory of Ra, Isis, Horus, Set et al., seen in terms of "shit, blood-sacrifice &amp; fucking" (especially homosexual rape--a major preoccupation throughout). In "The Book of the Child," Meni II remembers a childhood visit--with father, mother Hathfertiti &amp; Meni I--to Pharaoh Ramses IX, an endless evening during which Meni I tells the four-"Book" story of his previous existence in the bygone era of Ramses II: he is the Pharaoh's Charioteer &amp; rape victim ("I was no longer myself but His, &amp; loved Him...but I also knew I would never forgive him"); he's a leader in the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites (powerful war scenes), indulging in cannibalism; he then becomes "Nanny of the harem," consorting in kinky rituals with the sorceress/courtesan Honey-Ball (but also having threesies sex with the Pharaoh &amp; a pig); next he's courtier/lover to Nefertiri, the Pharaoh's dumped queen ("you fucker, give Me your obelisk," she murmurs); eventually, in life #2, he'll become High Priest. &amp;, while Meni I's reminiscences go on &amp; on, Meni II's passive father sleeps (one can hardly blame him)--but the 6-year-old Meni II himself becomes increasingly aware of the sexual cracklings in the air: the lust between Ramses IX &amp; Hathfertiti, the sexual secrets of Meni I and Hathfertiti...&amp;, above all, Meni II's own simmering "desire for my Mother" (they'll indeed become lovers). Did Mailer's research into Ancient Egypt reveal a cultural fixation on Oedipal incest, fellatio, anal rape &amp; castration anxiety? Or is this a willful projection of Freudian preoccupations onto the world of the Pharaohs? Whichever the case, the result is oddly stagnant fiction--straining to conjure up a nexus between mysticism &amp; sex. Though there are passages of vividly exotic Egyptology, along with a few of coarsely amusing anachronism, this flatly episodic epic most often seems embalmed in its own obsessions--with little to reward the many readets who'll be drawn by the Mailer name &amp; the media interest.--Kirkus
language: English
title: Ancient Evenings
titlecomplete: Ancient Evenings
genres: Literature, Egypt, American, Fantasy, Mythology, Novels, Historical, Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 1916
places: Egypt, Ancient Egypt
publisher: Little, Brown