“The Castle in the Forest is Mailer’s first novel for a decade, and the work of a writer in his eighties. Traces of competitiveness have been observed in his personality from time to time, and it seems likely he is determined to outdo Saul Bellow’s late-career triumph, Ravelstein, in length and ambition – perhaps also to cram in more compacted information about beekeeping than Philip Roth managed when writing about glove-making in American Pastoral. The book is highly impressive for long stretches, but its flaws are perverse and even preposterous.”