In the Belly of the Beast

In 1983–1985, William Petersen starred in several stage performances based on the book, for which he received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor.[2]

In 2004, the New York City theatre company 29th Street Rep ran a play based on the book, named In the Belly of the Beast Revisited.[3]

The book has no organizing principle of chronology, nor is it constructed along conventional tale-telling lines. Instead, it has an Introduction by Mailer, a Foreword, and twelve chapters. Each chapter bears a title that labels the chapter's content; the text consists of excerpts on the subject, extracted from Abbott's letters to Mailer. The chapters do not cleave cleanly into discrete matter; there is a lot of overlap in subject matter. Erroll McDonald, a Random House editor, was the organizer.

Critic Anatole Broyard, who reviewed the book in 1981, declared that the best segments of the book were Abbott's letters to Norman Mailer, demonstrating eloquence and an evident, if raw, talent for writing. However, Broyard also wrote that Abbott was less persuading when the topic turned to "rants about justice, politics and philosophy".[4]

Psychologist Robert D. Hare has suggested that Abbott was a probable psychopath, given his history of callousness, manipulative behavior, and lack of conscience; Hare's Without Conscience (1993) quotes Abbott in displaying these traits.[5]

The Australian movie Ghosts… of the Civil Dead, directed by John Hillcoat, was largely influenced by In Belly of the Beast. Hillcoat had corresponded with Abbott after his return to incarceration. One of the movie's co-authors, Nick Cave, was also inspired when writing the song "Jack's Shadow".[6] In Psycho II Meg Tilly's character is reading a copy of Belly of the Beast, while staying over in the Bates house.