Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir

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not palimpsest

Wide Ranging Thoughts and Experiences Recalled

When Character Was King

Squeak, Memory

Better to draft your own obituary

Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385517211
Release Date: 2006-11-07

Book Description

The brilliant sequel to Gore Vidal’ s acclaimed, bestselling memoir, Palimpsest.

In Point to Point Navigation, the celebrated novelist, essayist, critic, and controversialist Gore Vidal ranges freely over his remarkable life with the signature wit and literary elegance that is uniquely his. The title refers to a form of navigation he resorted to as a first mate in the Navy during World War II. As he says, “As I was writing this account of my life and times since Palimpsest, I felt as if I were again dealing with those capes and rocks in the Bering Sea that we had to navigate so often with a compass made inoperable by weather.” It is a beautifully apt analogy for the hazards (mostly) eluded during his eventful life and for the way this memoir proceeds—far from linear but always on course.

From his desks in Ravello and the Hollywood Hills, Gore Vidal travels in memory through the arenas of literature, television, film, theater, politics and international society where he has cut a broad swath, recounting achievements and defeats, friends and enemies made (and on a number of occasions lost). Among the gathering of notables to be found in these pages, sketched with a draftsman’s ease and evoked with the panache of one of our great raconteurs, are Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy, Tennessee Williams (the “Glorious Bird”), Eleanor Roosevelt, Orson Welles, Johnny Carson, Greta Garbo, Federico Fellini, Rudolph Nureyev, Elia Kazan, and Francis Ford Coppola. Some of the book’s most moving pages are devoted to the illness and death of his partner of five decades, Howard Austen, and indeed the book is, among other things, a meditation on mortality written in the spirit of Montaigne.

Elegiac yet vital and even ornery, Point to Point Navigation is a summing-up of Gore Vidal’s time on the planet that manages to be at once supremely entertaining, endlessly provocative, and thoroughly moving.

Customer Reviews:

not palimpsest.......2007-09-17

Yes there's the charm, the wit, the astonishing offhand stories about his friendships with a diverse crowd of 20th century legends, but in a nutshell: read Palimpsest instead! He actually repeats a couple stories from that book here. A few good new stories, but not many. If you have already read Palimpsest, this is something of an addendum.

Wide Ranging Thoughts and Experiences Recalled.......2007-09-09

Vidal starts with his views on the future of the novel which got me wondering about the future of memoirs. Since books like this are not usually converted to film, sadly, it may be the memoir that publishers drop from their lists.

Later in the book Vidal writes of Paul Bowles who's agent needs celebrity names and corresponding anecdotes in order to shop a memoir, which Bowles will reluctantly write. Celebrity anecdotes are not problem for Vidal, who has plenty of names (of both US and European royalty) to drop. From lunch in Thailand with Barbara Cartland to dinner with Princess Margaret to being airbrushed out of his proximity to JFK and being cryptically greeted by his widow in an elevator, this book meets any agent's celebrity anecdote quota.

The book's totality is more than any of its name-dropping parts. Vidal's interesting life, view of the world, and literary style make it a worthwhile read.

When Character Was King.......2007-07-29

My grandfather had it; nowadays those without it talk about it--and have no idea what it is, and wouldn't know it if they encountered it. But Gore Vidal has it. And in a stream of consciousness memoir that interweaves the public and the private; the political and the aesthetic; the psychological and sociological, Gore Vidal demonstrates that he is one of the few Americans who not only has it, but demonstrates its value. And that is CHARACTER. Gore Vidal is not afraid to opine on a number of sacred cows--and providing his version of the truth which may discomfort some but he has the merit, I believe, to not give a damn. He is a man of letters who is serious about politics, and is frank in his assessment of politics and politicians is extremely rare and more rare because he speaks in a voice of eloquence. Perhaps he can afford to be frank because he is a man of talent, who, so long as he has been able to earn a comfortable living from his opinions, does not have to fear being voted out of office. His observations are mixed with a blend of historicity and reason and with an emotional intution: isn't that how most people form their political traits? Gore Vidal's self-discipline allows him to call upon his reading and his experience to make reasonable assertions that might seem radical to some. For example, he notes how 'motherhood' as a sanctified position in American society is a recent value, and no one made much of George Washington's unkind view of his own mother. However, Americans, for whom history is a high school subject, rarely understand the historical perspective, favoring, unfortunately, the hysterical perspective. Gore Vidal may be wry and jaded, but any idealist would who has studied the history of a nation founded by intellectuals who were required to--in order to graduate from college-- translate Greek into Latin and vice-versa. Imagine if they were to see our government now with bureaucrats incapable of running a decent lemonade stand.

Squeak, Memory.......2007-07-14

That would be my memory, not Vidal's. His memory speaks - both precisely and compassionately in this book, as in "Palimpsest."
It took me years to appreciate Vidal's work - it was the "American Empire" series that turned that corner for this disciple of the great American historian William Appleman Williams. Since then, I've read most of his essays and a number of his novels. "Point to Point" is a fitting closure to a great and honourable body of work.
Back in the 90's, I had the (never-realised)idea of writing a book on William Blake and the American poet, Joel Barlow. Part of the theme was to relate "serious" and "mock" epic poetry. I couldn't imagine whom else better to write for insight than Gore Vidal. During a very short-lasting, hand-written correspondence, he did, indeed, share an excellent insight or two, in a tone both respectful and witty ("I memorized yards of Pope when I was young"). He also offered encouragement and respect. More to the point of "Point," he also offered personal memory. He wrote that, on his blind Grandfather Gore's return to the Senate, it was a Senator Kilgore who guided him to his seat. That was a piece of my own (very-extended) family's history I'd not known, and a moving piece at that.
So it was not news to me, as it has seemed to be to some, that Vidal is a flesh-and-blood person as well as a sharp tongue and penetrating intellect. I once wrote a thesis on a nineteenth-century figure, Parson Brownlow of Tennessee (about whom Vidal knew, of course). I called him "a public bastard and a private saint." Vidal would no doubt more-easily accept the first characterisation than the second. But I offer both. Read his two memoirs and see for yourself.

Better to draft your own obituary.......2007-06-30

The man has lifted the genre of society gossip to the level of high literary art. He gives name dropping a good name. As opposed to e.g. Bob Dylan, whose name dropping in his Chronicles was unbearably boring. (This may be my problem more than Dylan's). Maybe it is because GV can not write a bad sentence, while Dylan can not write a good one.
GV is a master of ironic and, importantly, self-ironic short excursions into almost anything related to politics, literature, cinema, history. Without the ability to be less than sanctimonious about himself, this would be intolerable and irrelevant arrogance. The way he does it, it is superb fun.
The book is something of a sequel to Palimpsest, but not pedantically. It also overlaps and does not respect chronology. Rightly so. But he does respect continuity in his enemies, which continue to be his mother, essential evil numero uno, and Truman Capote, the liar, and not to forget Bobby Kennedy, not such a hero for GV.
Has cinema replaced literature in American society? Probably so. His 'I once was a famous novelist' is charming from him, one can ignore that it can also be seen as whining, which it would be in almost anybody else.
Recently I listened to GV in a CNN interview with the lovely Anjali Rao. He invited pilgrims to his future resting place in Washington, next to Mrs.Henry Adams' monument of grief. Maybe I will come, Mr.Vidal. I have been to some other places of pilgrimage, e.g. Walter Scott's house somewhere near Edinburgh, or Nabokov's museum in Saint Petersburg, in the house of his childhood. (I know GV did not get along so well with Nabokov, but that does not keep me from liking both - as writers, that is.)

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For those of you who keep a diary...
Great in Parts, Weak as a Whole
An Amazing Life
A Personal History
For as much as I like Gore Vidal works, I found this book a disapointing reading

Palimpsest: A Memoir
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679440380
Release Date: 1995-10-03

Amazon.com

A candid memoir of Vidal's first 40 years of life. His famous skills as a raconteur, his forthrightness, and his wicked wit are brilliantly at work in these recollections of a difficult family, talented friends, and interesting enemies.

Book Description

This explosively entertaining memoir abounds in gossip, satire, historical apercus, and trenchant observations. Vidal's compelling narrative weaves back and forth in time, providing a whole view of the author's celebrated life, from his birth in 1925 to today, and features a cast of memorable characters--including the Kennedy family, Marlon Brando, Anais Nin, and Eleanor Roosevelt. of photos.

Customer Reviews:

For those of you who keep a diary..........2007-10-19

...have you ever had the experience of looking back at what you wrote and practically cringing at your own attempts to dissemble? This book reads that way. You feel held at arms length; the narrator is cool and distant, yet you feel so close to him it's almost uncomfortable.

There's an interesting tension between shielding your soul from people while at the same time longing for them to know every single thing about you -- what do you mean, your "fax machine has become a time machine." What are you talking about?? You don't need to make excuses to talk about your high school sweetheart; we were *hoping* you would.

Anyway, the events of this book were not very exciting to me, but Vidal's explanation of himself is really something. He does things most memoirists can't. It's very good.

Great in Parts, Weak as a Whole.......2007-08-28

The juicy bits are marvelous, like Tennesee Williams happily commenting on JFK's figure and Gore confronting Bobby K. The early years, in particular the stories about Gore's grandfather the blind senator, are deeply touching. But then this memoir flits from one big name to another, one celebrity to the next, without offering much understanding or coherence. It becomes repetitious. It does not measure up to Gore's essays, let alone his wonderful historical novels. But it's a good enough read if you're curious about the cast characters, including literary figures from the mid-20th century as well as various members of the Kennedy clan. There is even a bit about Hilary Clinton visiting Gore's house on a cliff in Italy--one of the duller sections of the book. If you're new to Gore, better go to Burr or Lincoln and then follow the series through 1876, Empire and Hollywood. Or start with Julian, a fictional take on the last great Roman pagan, and a unique reading experience.

An Amazing Life.......2007-05-21

Jackie Kennedy's step-brother shares the story of his extraordinary life, from his first love at age 18, through the age of 39.

A Personal History.......2007-05-04

Vidal, Gore. "Palimpsest", Penguin, 1996.

A Personal History

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

To write a good and interesting memoir, one has to have led as life of excitement and Gore Vidal has. He gives an inside view of his life until he reached the age of 39. During those years he was part of American history and stepped fully into the culture of those years. He is step-brother to the late first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy and he seems to have known everyone of any importance from playwright Tennessee Williams to another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. He has become an icon of culture and good taste, totally suave and sophisticated. As a [...] male he has been labeled but he has managed to rise above that. From Vida, we all get to read about the society in which he lives and is a part of and which is so lucky to have him. More than just a memoir, it is a witness to history.
Vidal's life reads like a roller coaster ride. At 18 he fell in love with a boy who was killed in World War II and he decided that love was not his cup of tea and swore to never love again. He decided to never fall in love again and to settle for just sex with no emotional involvement. His honest and revealing life story entertains through out. I find myself looking back into every once in a while for sheer pleasure. His family is fascinating from his relationship to his step sister, his mother with her attitudes toward him, his grandfather, a blind Senator named Gore that gave him family ties to former vice president Al Gore. He writes of these people in the stream of consciousness and goes from past to present at will and everything is commented upon. He has been a mainstay in the literary world since he entered in 1945 and one of the highlights of the book is when he goes back to find former friends like poet Allen Ginsberg and the mother of his lover who was killed. He attempts to recover what he lost and when he writes of his boy who was killed at Iwo Jima, he is bigger than life and extremely human. That death has haunted his life and by putting in on the page, he is relieved of some of his personal pain.
As an author Vidal has turned out 24 novels, two memoirs, five plays, 13 essay collections and a book of short story. He is indeed prolific and no stranger to best-seller lists. His wit and personal wisdom are his trademarks and his calling cards. He both loves and hates the United States. He exaggerates to make a point and makes what might not seem to be interesting to be of major importance. His opinions are wonderful even if not to your liking. His disdain is aristocratic and snobbish and wonderful. As he winds and turns through his personal history he evokes a bittersweet life.

For as much as I like Gore Vidal works, I found this book a disapointing reading.......2007-03-29

As you would expect, this book is very well written, as anything else that Vidal writes. But if you are looking for an insightful book, this is not a book for you. His has been, doubtless, an extraordinary life from sitting at the opera as a child next to Mussolini to being connected through a stepfather to Jackie Kennedy-Onasis.

At the end of the day, I found this to be an anecdotical as oposed as insightful autobiography, and it seems to me, the reason for this is his lack of emotional insight in his every day life. Nothing wrong with this, but is not something I like to read.

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A loving Portrait of Venice

Vidal in Venice
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Summit Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671645366

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A loving Portrait of Venice.......2000-12-12

Gore Vidal takes you across more than a thousand years of Venetian history ___from its improbable origins as a safe haven from the marauding hordes of Attila the Hun (5th century AD), through a thousand years of the great Venetian Republic ("The Serene Republic"!)____down to its present day status as a tourist Mecca . Vidal garnishes his observations of the city and its people with characteristic irreverant humor.The pace of the book is pretty informal with short chapters devoted to the origins of Venice, its geography , the great mercantile Venetian empire which lasted over a millenium ,the flowering of arts : Veronese , Tintoretto, Giorgione , Vivaldi & Palladio were all at some point or another associated with the city . Also interspersed are some observations about Venice which most foreigners may not be familiar with e.g: "There is no sight more beautiful than Venice under a snowfall .Venice is like a once-great beauty who deserves to be seen by candlelight , and the soft light of winter works like a photographer's air-brush on the city's many cracks and wrinkles .Venice is particularly beautiful in a winter mist " etc.Also included is a chapter on the high and mighty who chose to spend some time in Venice : Henry James, Byron, Richard Wagner not to mention that Stravinsky is buried there .This is a good light read and Vidal is an entertaining guide along the way.

Inventing A Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson

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One man's view on the Founding Fathers.
History At Its Purest
Vidal's Founding Fathers
He's Probably Right, But Man is He Arrogant About It
the passionate iconoclast

Inventing A Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0300101716

Book Description

Gore Vidal, one of the master stylists of American literature and one of the most acute observers of American life and history, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of the formidable trio of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. In Fathers of the Republic, Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal's splendid and percipient prose, in ways we have not up to now-their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate.

Customer Reviews:

One man's view on the Founding Fathers........2007-10-01

This is the first book I have read by Gore Vidal. This is probably not his best work, but you can see his political leaning in his writing. In his view, our present system is a tyranny, especially with the 2000 election in mind. In this book, he takes a negative view of our Founding Fathers. Perhaps other authors have made these men mythical, but Vidal returns them to the human species. They were men who made mistakes. None of them were perfect. However, I think Vidal is overly negative in his viewpoint of these men. They founded a new nation with great principles.

The author jumps around quite a bit in this history. He also has some new history with the revelation of Hamilton as a British spy. I think the author came to that out of his own conclusions. This was a uneven read, and some of the language was difficult to understand. Maybe someday I will appreciate his writings if I adapt his poltical philosophy.

History At Its Purest.......2006-12-27

Arch-iconoclast Gore Vidal, who made his name as a novelist, tackles non-fiction here, and does a fine job of it. This short and straight-to-the-point book hits US history head-on, and peels back the dust and whitewash to show America's authentic "greatest generation" (those who fought the Revolution and then created the nation in the 1780's) as it surely was. Walking a fine line between respectful praise and candid revelation, Vidal introduces Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and others as no history professor probably ever has. This book is not a slam biography of anyone, nor is it one of those tedious lambasting of our national institutions that too often masquerade as "warts and all" history. No, Vidal shines here in this story of the events behind the time-worn legends in early US history.

I personally found much to like in this book and discovered a last gem hidden in its closing pages, as Vidal describes a moment of relaxed conversation with his friend and distant relation by marriage, President John F. Kennedy. On that day shortly before the President's brutal murder, Kennedy turned to Vidal and asked how it was that so many great men all lived at once in the generation that formed our nation. Vidal's one-word answer was unique and while as he freely confesses, not comprehensive, it was good, and it's left me pondering it on more than one occasion since I read it. I won't say here what that answer was, but you'll find it in the last chapter of Inventing A Nation.

And it's worth seeking out.

Vidal's Founding Fathers.......2006-12-04

"How do you explain how a sort of backwoods country [Virginia] like this, with only 3 million people, could have produced the 3 great geniuses of the 18th century - Franklin, Jefferson, and Hamilton?" - this was the question John Kennedy asked Gore Vidal forty years before Vidal wrote "Inventing a Nation." Vidal says "this volume is hardly my definitive answer" to "dear Jack." Vidal produces this sentimental provocation at the end of his "Inventing a Nation" rather than the beginning.
Vidal "should" have given this anecdote in an introduction to his book if "should" means we want Vidal to approach the Founding Era as traditional historians do. In fact, Richard Eder is right in his New York Times book review (11/27/03) when he writes, "As history, 'Inventing a Nation' is likely to annoy the historian; it is not a novel, and the polemics come as half-choked asides, almost as if Mr. Vidal had been trying to hold back on them. Frequently, fortunately, he fails. He rambles with one founder, then with another, and then it's back to the first."
I might add that (except ending reflections on Kennedy) Vidal has no thesis to work. He attempts no argument that overarches his narrative. A good contrast with Vidal's open-endedness is Gordon Wood's Pulitzer Prize winner "The Radicalism of the American Revolution," where Wood carefully marshals evidence towards a grand historical interpretation.
Vidal not only offers no argument, he offers no real narrative, and he offers no citations to his quotations and sources.
What is Vidal doing? The LA Times book review said he is writing as "Pure Vidal." That is, he is an essayist and he is using the Vidal-approach to addressing the Founding Era.
I will go one step further in my argument, and I will end my review with my thesis like Vidal does his. First, it is right to say that this is "Pure Vidal" because there is much historical knowledge and contemporary interconnectedness in this book. Take for example these witty, controversial, colorful, and contemporary reflections:

Vidal can turn-a-phrase: "...Captain Shays, having sold Lafayette's sword to feed his family, took up the terrible swift sword of revolution" (6).

"The Electoral College, however, remains to this day solidly in place to ensure that majoritarian governance can never interfere with those rights of property that the founders believed not only inalienable but possibly divine" (67).

After Adams genuflects to his Senate a bit too much for Vidal's taste, the latter bites back saying: "The American megalomaniacal style of self-praise was now in place" (69).

"...neither empathy nor compassion is an American trait. Witness, the centuries of black slavery taken for granted by much of the country" (77).

Vidal comes ever so close to comparing traitors, double-agents, and spies with LOBBYISTS! These latter men, "profit from unpatriotic activities undertaken for domestic and foreign masters" (95).

How intriguing is this contrast: Jefferson as a "child of the Enlightenment," and Adams as "of Manichean disposition" (102-03). But, this is almost the exact opposite claim made by Joseph Ellis in his Pulitzer Prize winning Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Ellis writes that Jefferson is more likely the Manichean, "Jefferson's mind consistently saw the world in terms of clashing dichotomies" (231). If I had to pick a side, Vidal of Ellis, concerning the Founding Fathers, I'd side with Ellis.

Vidal's comments on the presidential electoral proceedings of 2000 build slowly into an attack after a discussion of the history of democracy (134-137). This provocation is worth reading.

Vidal attacks the beginnings of corporate-America by noting Marshall's "most ingenious chimera" (Dartmouth College v. Woodward) (184-85).

Instead of the title "Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, and Jefferson" Vidal could have used "....: Washington, Jefferson, and Marshall." His point is made clear in light of Vidal's own admittance, "Jefferson versus Marshall was to be the great drama that, to this day, divides us" (180). I must however remember that for Vidal this is "my hardly definitive answer."

Vidal quotes John Kennedy as saying that he is "struck" by the fact that so many people he meets are "second-rate" compared to what "you read in those debates over the Constitution...nothing like that now" (188). But Vidal's book skips the Founding period and goes straight to the Founders working within their own system, and these politics are just as messy, duplicitous, and mischievous as our contemporary world. I think Vidal is trying to refine the American perspective on a distinction between the Paine's "Common Sense," Madison's notes on the debate on the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers - sell of the Constitution, with the almost disturbing way our Founders managed the Nation after it was set up. Notice Vidal's almost innocuous statement, "Inevitably, in those affairs where human vanity is most on view and at most taut, there is comedy" (134). Vidal sees those vanities surface as most taut after the almost philosophical debate of First Principles (e.g. the Constitution). Vidal is saying we all have in common our human feature of vanity and this becomes enacted once we come back down to earth and struggle with real politick.
But not everything the Founders did after the Founding was comical and common politics. One of the last remarks Vidal makes about the Founders that distinguishes them from us: "Time, they had more of it...They read. Wrote letters. Apparently, thought, something no longer done - in public life" (187). Vidal is a prolific writer. He may want us to remember him as continuing in the Founder's spirit.

He's Probably Right, But Man is He Arrogant About It.......2006-10-08

Listen, I like Gore Vidal's work, I do. And he is probably right about a lot of things (though I seriously doubt his frequent inuendo that Hamilton might have been Washington's illegitimate son.) However, I cant help feeling like his attitude came through so much that it was distracting me from what he was saying. I listened to this book, unabridged, on audio book. Perhaps it was that Gore was reading it himself, and I got a real sense of how he "felt" about things rather than the history he was trying to convey? I don't know. But to Vidal, everyone was and is of sinister or selfish intent...except his friends, the Kennedy's (and Ben Franklin.) That's just the feeling I got.

The audio book is worth the price of admission if for no other reason than to hear Vidals recount of a conversation with JFK at the end of the recording. Seriously, that part I'll give five stars.

the passionate iconoclast.......2006-07-26

More like 4.5 stars.

Gore Vidal has had a long and distinguished career as an erudite iconoclast, and this short book represents one of the more recent contributions in his incredibly productive and prolific literary life. _Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson_ appeared two years after 9/11, in the same year that the United States invaded Iraq. Vidal's meditation on the origins of the nation, and how early political controversies impacted the practical applications of constitutional provisions and ideals, is clearly influenced by the political context in which he wrote this book. George W. Bush's relentless expansion of executive powers -- and the other two branches' (and the American people's) acquiescence to that development -- are never far from Vidal's mind and pen.

Vidal demonstrates how political considerations from the beginning affected how the nation's Founding Fathers viewed the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Men like Washington and Hamilton viewed the new nation as validating the Constitution's emphasis on a strong, central government, the better to protect property rights and stimulate commerce. Throw in a strong military (for the time) when needed to squash unruly, riotous debtors on the frontier, ala Shays Rebellion and Whiskey Rebellion. Meantime, Madison and - especially - Jefferson could never reconcile their strongly stated beliefs in human equality and individual freedoms with minor inconsistencies like, oh, slavery. The one Founding Father who comes off relatively unscathed is the one who dies relatively early in the time-frame: Franklin. He warned that the Constitution, and the ideas behind the Declaration, would only be as effective as the political intelligence and moral discipline of the people who enjoyed their capacious dispensations. Only they, Franklin (and Vidal) argue, could keep alive a properly democratic public ethos.

None of this is necessarily original, but Vidal contributes his wonderful style, his deep learning, and his passion for political justice to this work. He remains one of the best practitioners of political and cultural commentary in our country. Vidal never reconciles his implied beliefs in political democracy with his deep skepticism toward cultural egalatarianism -- in matters of culture he is an unreconstructed and profound snob -- but this comes out as only a minor irritant given the greater overall strengths of this work.

Vidal makes clear that even though the Founding Fathers occassionally played fast and loose with the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution and the Declaration, they still displayed, by and large, an overall excellence of thought and intellgence. Not so today's leaders. They are reinventing a nation that Vidal abjures and, he argues, the Founding Fathers would too (except maybe Hamilton) were they alive today.

Thank you, Gore Vidal, for a thoughtful and passionate exegesis on where we stand today, and how far we've traveled (downhill, steeply) since the Founding Fathers invented an American republic in the late 1700s.

Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays (1897,1901,1905) (Oxford Mark Twain)

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Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays (1897,1901,1905) (Oxford Mark Twain)
Mark Twain , and Fred Kaplan
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Dover Thrift Editions)

ASIN: 0195101510

Book Description

In 1895, bankrupted by his investments in the doomed Paige typesetter and by the collapse of his publishing house, sixty-year-old Mark Twain was forced to embark on a world lecture tour to raise money to pay his growing debts. Following the Equator, Twain's final travel book, was the result.
His readers circumnavigate the globe with one of the world's most entertaining travel companions--to Honolulu and the Fiji Islands, Sydney and Melbourne, Tasmania, Ceylon, Bombay, Calcutta, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Twain blends whimsical anecdote, sharp-eyed commentary, and serious social
critique, assailing the contempt of whites for native traditions, and noting the striking similarity between slavery and the colonial experience. In "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" and "King Leopold's Soliloquy," also included in this volume, Twain strips the imperialist powers naked and bears
eloquent witness to the unspeakable crimes they perpetrate in the name of what he calls the "Blessings-of-Civilization Trust."

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Lincoln
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Acento Editorial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Buried under too much admiration and useless information
This is not an authorized biography!
Juicy, yet slow, which is what i want and don't want
Excessively Long
Thorough if nothing else.

Gore Vidal: A Biography
Fred Kaplan
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 038547704X
Release Date: 2000-10-03

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Veteran biographer Fred Kaplan, praised for his evocative portraits of 19th-century masters like Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle, turns with aplomb to a contemporary writer in this lengthy yet cogent work. Indeed, the multifaceted Gore Vidal, born in 1925 but positively Victorian in the breadth of his interests and achievements, is fortunate to have a biographer as wide-ranging as Kaplan. He traces the familial roots of Vidal's lifelong political engagement (his maternal grandfather was a U.S. senator) and lucidly assesses his nonfiction as well as his bestselling novels such as Washington, D.C. and Burr, reminding readers that Vidal has for decades been an astute, sardonic observer of the American scene. Vidal's personal relations are depicted frankly but briskly, as befits a staunch defender of homosexual rights who is open about his own orientation but refuses to be pigeonholed as a gay writer. The famous feuds with William Buckley, Norman Mailer, and Truman Capote get enjoyably full treatment, properly situated in the context of larger issues. If the inner workings of Vidal's psyche remain ultimately elusive despite Kaplan's access as authorized biographer to thousands of unpublished letters, that too seems right for someone of whom a friend once remarked, "I've always thought that Gore is a man without an unconscious." --Wendy Smith

Book Description

This first major, authorized biography of a towering literary and cultural figure, published to coincide with The Golden Age (Doubleday, Fall 200), the seventh title in Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.

No writer since Hemingway has lived his life on as ambitious or international a scale as Gore Vidal, whose work, like Hemingway's, has become a prominent landmark in twentieth century American literature. Thanks to Vidal's complete cooperation and Kaplan's complete autonomy, this meticulously researched biography has all the glamour, sex, gossip, and family scandal one would expect. But more than that, Kaplan ties together the diversity and variety of his subject's work and life in a highly satisfying, utterly thorough study that will be the starting point for any critical and cultural analysis of Gore Vidal for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

Buried under too much admiration and useless information.......2007-09-30

Like an adoring adolescent fan who's been given too much access to (certain aspects of) his idol, Kaplan doesn't seem to know what to do with that other than look star-struck. Kaplan gushing biography buries Gore Vidal under too much admiration and too many useless (and occasionally, repetitive) facts. We learn little or nothing of Vidal as a person or as a writer. Kaplan writes well so even if bored and ultimately without a better understanding of the author in any meaningful way I was able to finish reading the 800 page book.

This is not an authorized biography!.......2003-12-07

I have heard Vidal speaking about this book, and it is not authorized- the author refused to show it to him before publication, and he considered trying to block its publication. Since it came out, he has refused to read it, but has made numerous comments about the author's shoddy research, citing several examples of inaccuracies. The author also continually lied to the press about Vidal, saying that Vidal had asked him to write this biography, which he did not do, etc.

Juicy, yet slow, which is what i want and don't want.......2002-11-20

Sure, i might like the book cause GV and I share the same personality.

Putting that aside, i'm only on page 369....and I plan to continue to the last 799th page. It is salacious. Very detailed. I love the quick drop-ins of names I felt were more MASS-FAMOUS than GV. Before reading this, I was totally ignorant of who GV was. I'd just see a quote, like, "When attending an orgy, make sure you're look good" by GV. And no one ever told me WHO HE WAS outside of just being an "author."

Expect cover-to-cover pages of incidents with fame for GV. I'm still reeling over the quick blip of the KEROUAC/GV "intense sex" scene.

good for all newbies of GV. And if you already knew OF him, this will give you DETAILS for you to incise and pick at mysterious contradictions.

Excessively Long.......2001-03-28

A book of near 900 pages, and especially a biography can be particularly daunting. Questions come to mind like: what happens if I die and never reach the end!

Kaplan has a great appreciation for Vidal, evidence from the quality of research in this book, and his editing of the best of vidal book.

However, the great flaw with the book, is that kaplan at times is to close to his subject. Its inter-subjectivity leaves the reading thinking at times - what would a critic say at this point. The analysis often lacks critical value.

Overall, a complete a thorough study.

Thorough if nothing else........2001-02-04

Kaplan is far to thorough in his autobiography of a man who isn't yet dead. The book goes on and on, and while factual, tries to be too clever, as if Kaplan were trying to imitate Vidal's wit in his own presentation of Vidal. This will probably only appeal to the most feverish followers of Vidal (like me). Everyone else would be better served by Vidal's semi-autobiographical novel, Palimpsest. Alternatively, wait until the poor guy passes when writers will get the chance to give Vidal the same treatment he gave Lincoln and Burr.

The American Presidency (Real Story Series)

Average customer rating:

Total waste
Unforgiving, to the point, and funny
Entertaining, but ultimately disappointing
It's that time again
Excellence condensed

The American Presidency (Real Story Series)
Gore Vidal
Manufacturer: Odonian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1878825151

Book Description

An entertaining, insightful history of the men who've held the office, from the division between Jefferson and Hamilton through Bill Clinton's campaign for national health care.

Customer Reviews:

Total waste.......2003-01-30

This book is comprised of meaningless antecdotes and other useless information. I usually am incredibly impressed by Vidals wit and his ability to expose the "truth," but unfortunately, this time I was very disappointed.

Unforgiving, to the point, and funny.......2002-09-09

The book/pamphlet is unusual. It is quick reading and very amusing and funny. It does not try to be completely historically detailed and is not written in the scholarly style but rather goes through the key American presidents in order and gives a brief description of their character, accomplishments, and the problems they faced/solved/created.

In my opinion, Gore Vidal can be considered an elite insider of the US system. He pretty much writes as one blatantly and I believe he is making a point: here is someone on the inside who knows many of the presidents, politicians, the rich, and the media editors and is presenting history through such a perspective and in such a mode. He is a traditional republican and conservative (in the original sense of these words, hence the lower case use): foreign adventures/interventions, domestic political repression, economic polarization, and increasing corporate control are things he speaks against vehemently. For these reasons, this is a very refreshing book to read.

In addition, the book raises and deals with important questions about the presidency as an institution: what are its limitations and powers? How did this historically lead to its use and abuse for particular ends by various characters? What types of people were the various presidents and how did they change this institution?

Finally, Gore Vidal sees the US in the process of a slow but steady downfall, particularly since the Cold War years (1950s): politically, culturally, and economically (since the 1980s). The costs of being imperial master, with attendant crushing stifling of dissent at home, the huge military spendings and deficits, and foreign interventions and the loss of foreign and US life in the process, etc. are reviewed quite negatively in this book. Whether you believe this or not is something else, and the facts he produces are suggestive only (but then again,
the book is quite short).

In short, I recommend the book. As long as read properly, it provides quite some insight into American history. If you're looking for detailed history, facts and figures, and precise arguments, go elsewhere. If you're looking for a quick overall and consistent viewpoint and history viewed in broad burshstrokes, this book really hits the spot.

Entertaining, but ultimately disappointing.......2000-10-24

I have been a fan of Gore Vidal's for a very long time, so very few of his views on American presidents listed in this book are really new. But it is interesting to see them collected in one single volume and without the subtlety of earlier writings. Thus Vidal says plainly that presidents are either military dictators (Lincoln and FDR) or servants of Big Business. Truman and Eisenhower never considered the Soviet Union any real threat but invented the Cold War to please the military-industrial complex - a game that JFK, a cynical in everything else, believed in and wanted to win, almost causing World War III. And the Clintons are, of course, naïve idealists who never had any idea of how the US works until they tried to defy Corporate America with their health care plan which would have brought happiness to all. And so on and so forth.

Of course one should not accept at face value the conventional version of any country's history - not only the United States'. Vidal's historical novels, especially "Burr", are excellent in pointing that out. But although "The American Presidency" is useful as a readable and entertaining summary of American history which does sometimes make you think, it is also extremely simplistic - almost a caricature of Vidal's early writings on that subject. It made me sad, in a way.

It's that time again.......2000-08-23

What better book to get us ready for the onslaught of lies, distortions, and manufactured history, that is sure to flow as this year's presidential election draws near. In this brief introduction (thats why I only gave it 4 stars, it would have been better if it were a little more detailed) to America's number one sacred cow, the presidency, Gore Vidal ( A distant relative to Al Gore)gives us a much needed dose of reality, as unsavory as that may be. This book is based upon a British television documentary that Vidal created, which was sold to The History Channel. What happened next is a sad commentary on the American Media, and its willingness to censor dissenting views. Instaed of cancelling this documentary, they instead decided to have the "hosts" dispute practically every point in an obvious attempt to discredit it. Of course, the corporations that own the History channel, and have benefited most from the corruption that Vidal's book exposes are the real culprits in this case, exposing a problem that goes much deeper than just media bias. As Vidal says, this book is not only about the Presidency, it is about control; not only of what we as citizens are allowed to see and form our own opions of, but also what we can express. Presidents are not gods, even though they tend to act like they are. The important thing that this book tells us is that all people should be held accountible to the same laws, and this does not just start with Clinton. It has dated back to our earliest leaders, men who proudly owned slaves, declared unjust wars, supported terrorism, and ordered bombings of innocent civilians. We must see these men for who they are, not as the god-like figures on Mt. Rushmore, or the granite and marble of Washington, but as the criminals that many of them were.

Excellence condensed.......2000-07-18

Gore Vidal, a boy genius, once again proves himself to be not only a brilliant historian but also an exquisite story teller. Short and to the point, Vidal's AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, sums up the most sought after office in the land (to be head of the White House T.V. studio.) Sharply sardonic and completely unforgiving, Vidal shines in this easy to read/comprehend novel filling the pages with knowledge many refuse to believe. The work should be a must read for any sort of American history student.

Gore Vidal's America (Polity Celebrities)

Average customer rating:

les faiblesses de M. Vidal
great intro to contemporary US!!!

Gore Vidal's America (Polity Celebrities)
Dennis Altman
Manufacturer: Polity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0745633633

Book Description

Gore Vidal is one of the most significant American writers of the second half of the twentieth century, having produced a large number of best selling novels, essays, plays and pamphlets which have impacted on major political and social debates for fifty years. He is both a serious writer and a television and movie celebrity, whose increasingly acerbic picture of the United States guarantees he is both revered and reviled.Gore Vidal's America examines the ways in which Vidal's writings on history, politics, sex and religion throw into focus our understandings of the United States, but also recognizes his versatility and inventiveness as a creative writer, some of whose novels - Julian; Myra Breckinridge; Lincoln; Duluth - are among the important literary works of their time.Ranging from Vidal's early defence of homosexuality in The City and the Pillar (1948) to his most recent writings on the war in Iraq, this book provides a unique perspective on the evolution of post-World War II American society, politics and literature. As Altman writes: "Difficult not to see in the results of the 2004 elections, where the Republican right gained in both the White House and the Senate, proof of Vidal's worse fears, namely that the impact of imperial adventure, big money and religious moralism would increasingly imperil the American Republic."

Customer Reviews:

les faiblesses de M. Vidal.......2006-05-21

this book in revealing the weaknesses of Vudal also points to the strengths, and Altman becomes himself an important author, like Edmund White writing on Genet. To be read

great intro to contemporary US!!!.......2006-05-13

I don't much like Gore Vidal, but when I ppicked up this book Altman converted me: he makes Vidal seem far more interesting, important and lively than the old cumudgeon we see on television. A wonderful introduction to the US of the twentieth cnetury!!!--and quite witty to read

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Just Like You're in the French Quarter

Brando, Tennessee & Me: A Play
Robert F. Smallwood
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419632566
Release Date: 2006-06-28

Book Description

An original play about Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and others in the 1940s and 1950s as they come of age on Broadway and in the literary world. Told by Henry, an alcoholic "B" actor/director from New Orleans who rubbed shoulders with the famous but never quite made it.

Customer Reviews:

Just Like You're in the French Quarter.......2007-04-12

Smallwood's play is a fun, and informative read, especially for someone familiar with the characters and New Orleans. The play begins in front of the Abbey, a very seedy and appropriate bar on Decatur Street. The plot of the play involves and older man ( self proclaimed as descended from the Barrymores no less ) telling stories about Brando, Tennessee, Capote ,and others to a younger person.

The action goes back and forth between the conversation between the two of them and the actual acting out of the various encounters being related. I found the play an easy and enjoyable read. I especialy enjoyed Smallwood's clever stage directions. I'd definitely recommend it.

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