Nonetheless, there was an almost consistent opinion and agreement that the book was a significant depiction of the inhumanity of war and that it deserved attention and reading. Despite its disappearance from the popular press, The Naked and the Dead has remained present in the academic environment when making references to post-World War II literary fiction, from books with an ethnic perspective like The Jewish Soldier in Modern Fiction to the political references in The Naked, the Dead, and the Machine. This goes to show that The Naked and the Dead’s literary relevance never really faded just as many other bestsellers did; it has remained in print and, regardless of the lack of publicity as the decades go by, it is still read by the general public and referred to by …show more content…
In 1981, Book World released an article where the author, referring to The Naked and the Dead, wrote that "there is little dispute that it is the finest American novel to come out of World War II,” and just as well, another 1981 article in Changing Times, mentioned Mailer's novel under the heading of "Popular works from recent decades" and called it "the first major about World War