Gore Vidal Books

In this treasure, Gore Vidal puts Tricky Dick on trial for his political career... but it was written a year before Watergate became known, so it has even more piquant quality to think that the past was just so much prologue to his real crimes.

Using his own words, and those of JFK, Ike, Helen Gehagan Douglas ("The Pink Lady"), Vidal proves Richard Nixon's career is one of the main reasons politics has gone to heck in a handbasket.

This is one of the finest works of historical fiction that I have ever read. I find myself wondering why I waited so long to finally get to it. If Gore Vidal had written nothing else in his life, this volume would have been enough.

It was the religious aspect of the novel that most interested me. This book addresses issues that are still quite controversial about the early days of the Christian Church in the Roman world. Its "triumph" over Hellenism was far more complicated and messier than most people realize. Indeed, Julian, as the last great champion of the old Gods (or rather the one ultimate God of Plato with His many aspects) comes across as the most spiritually sincere character in the book. It is refreshing to follow the thoughts of a sincerely good man whose only motivation for most of his life was to lead a good life in pursuit of Truth. Even when the titles of "Caesar" and then "Augustus", are forced upon him by men who realize his goodness, his first thought is always the welfare of those he now rules and never his own glory and power. Here, is one of the very few times the ideal of the Philosopher-King was ever realized in the flesh.

One comes to realize, through the words of the Emperor and his biographers, the true nature and value of both classical philosophy (love of wisdom) in it's many aspects, as well as the equal importance of mysticism, magic, and the Mysteries in the Roman world.

You also see how the myth of the good Emperor who once saved the West, and who will one day return, far predates the time of Charlemagne, or even Arthur.

Vidal has captured the transitional, turbulent world of the 4th century C.E. better than any other writer. You feel the corruption, greed, and decay that would ultimately spell the end of the empire in the next century. You find yourself mourning for the lost power and virtue that was once Rome's. It is obvious that Vidal has actually read Plato, Homer, Aurelius, and Plotinus- unlike so many other writers that try to exploit this time period. Vidal understands the twilight of the empire; he understands what was lost- and why.

It can be somewhat eerie reading the accounts of Julian's legions advancing through Mesopotamia. The accounts of his troops entering the opulent deserted palaces of the Great King, the relatively easy initial victories and defeat of the enemy army, the resulting constant hit-and-run warfare, the atrocities and cruelty of the enemy, the treacherous civilians, the miserable intense heat, the burning naphtha springs, the lack of support from home, the grumbling of the troops themselves- you realize that all of this has happened before. Even Julian sees that it had happened over and over before his own time. It is proof of Aurelius' eternal cycles.

The narration is below par but the book is so great that you'll want to save this one for that long drive.

For a fictitious account of the Sarratt conspiracy of spies during the Civil War, Vidal had a lot to say. To call those poor, unworthy followers "Confederate spies" is going a bit "out in space." But as a whole that's what Vidal's over-long novels generall are.

Though Abraham Lincoln's high-pitched voice did not sound rhetorical, he was aware of the power of his meanderings as he tried to define the war aims. His well-thought-through address at Gettysburg spoke for the turmoil of that day and for future political rhetoric of our time.

Vidal names all of the major Confederate generals but has them as incidental characters. Talking to Sherman about the length of this crazy war, Lincoln is quoted by Vidal (putting words in his mouth and mind): "I am only a politician and we tend to say (and do) foolish things." A total of 170 Confederates were killed, more than 680 wounded and 770 missing. The Union losses were about 60 dead, 150 wounded and 40 missing.

The New Yankee Doodle song:

Yankee Doodle had a mind
To whip the Southern traitors,
Because they didn't choose to live
On Codfish and potatoes.

Yankee Doodle, doodle doo,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
And so to keep his courage up,
He took a drink of brandy.

This parody express the Confederate contempt for Northerners. Other verses describe the rebels whipping the yankees at Manassas and Bull Run, mocking his taste for brandy. It became a caricature of all that was weak and unmanly about the Confederate foes and became a religious patriotism to the Southern cause.

On the surface, Gore Vidal's Live From Gologotha is a novel about St. Timothy, his relationship with St. Paul (the Apostle) and early Christianity combined with a satire on the modern media and its insatiable desire for the next story. But what this book is really about is how the modern mass media changes one's own perception of events which have happenned. Do I, for example, remember how I felt when the Berlin Wall came down or do I remember what CNNBCBS wants me to remember?
St. Timothy is an old man busy writing his memoirs when he is visited by a telvision executive from the 20th century. The executive wants to go back and broadcast the crucifixion of Jesus live for a 20th century audience, hence the title.
As Timothy continues to write his memoirs, he is constantly bothered by the feeling that what he is writing is not what really happenned, but what he has seen on the television provided to him and his wife by his 20th century visitors.
Who was Jesus? Who was Judas? Who was Paul?
As with all of Gore Vidal's historical novels, his history is bang on. What he does then is reinterpret known events from a different perspective, giving his readers an alternate history of sorts.
But the history is not what is important here, what is is Vidal's view of the media. The 20th century media has intruded into Timothy's relatively quiet first century life, preventing him from remembering things that he experienced and making him believe that he has experienced events which he has not.
For any person interested in early Christianity or media manipulation of events, or, even better, both, Live from Golgotha is a thought provoking read which has made this reviewer question his own memory with regard to history.

This is another outstanding book from an insightful and wise author. It should be required reading for all Americans. Recommend also: 'Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia' and 'Decline and Fall of the American Empire (The Real Story Series)' ...both by Gore Vidal. Also, see the documentary film 'Why We Fight'.

Gore Vidal's recent non-fiction writings have been disappointing, but this book is a gem. It is an early attempt at autobiography, years before "Palimpsest" and in some ways deeper. Vidal's early years in the thirties coincided with Hollywood's golden age, and in "Screening History" he reflects on the movies which most influenced him, particularly those versions of British and American history, such as "The Prince and the Pauper", "Fire over England" and "Young Mr. Lincoln". Vidal shares his reminiscences not only on the movies themselves but also on their historical context in the pre-WWII US of the thirties, but in far more serene and thoughtful way than in later writings, where he sounds increasingly bitter. His musings on the possible influence of 1939 movies on then President Bush are apparently not to be taken too seriously and are far more agreeable than his later simplistic comments on presidents in "The American Presidency". Altogether this is not the best, but arguably the most pleasant of Vidal's books.

I am really not much of a Gore Vidal fan. I have tried to read a few of his works of fiction but I don't believe that inside every heterosexual there is a homosexual trying to get out. It seems to me that Gore Vidal sees a homosexual tendency behind ever bush. But when it comes to politics, that is a horse of a different color. He obviously has done a lot of research and knows a lot of the ins and outs and the very personal stuff. He has a family background it seems in the "business". I always find something in his non-fiction that I didn't see someplace else. I usually don't believe it but often it turns out to be true. I find his non-fiction straight forward and usually fairly accurate. I liked this book. I have it on my "research" shelf.

Ultimately, the "war on terror" is not about democrat vs. republican dichotomies. No such dichotomy exists in that both generally favor the current policy and only differ in degree. What is reall at stake is freedom and how it suffers in time of war. Mr. Vidal's cutting wit and biting sarcasm will help you to laugh nervously thinking about what our country has lost and the direction it may be headed. It is a sobering yet entertaining forum of like-minded thinkers on the topic of where this war may be leading us. It is important that all Americans educate themselves in these matters or risk losing what we fought so hard to win. In this concise selection of thoughts on the topic, you will find a good start. At times it may make you angry, but it will also make you think.

I wrote VIEWS with Gore Vidal almost twenty years ago. It is a delight to see that it has been a source of information for various scholars throughout these many years. I arranged the book in a new way for doing interviews, putting Vidal into a dramatic setting where he had to answer questions from more than twenty of us engaged in interviewing him. I myself interviewed him off and on for more than three years. Reviewers at the time called my format a new kind of Mega-interview form. I recently included material from VIEWS in a huge 750-page study that will be published by Edwin Mellen Press in 2001, a work to be known as GORE VIDAL: A MENIPPEAN SATIRIST. Vidal is America's greatest satirist--ever! And those people who read VIEWS will see that Vidal spares very few his quick thrusts of ridicule to bring them down to earth for a good laugh--at their expense, of course.