Lincoln

Rating:
Summary: Quite close to brilliance
Review: I have mixed emotions regarding Gore Vidal's Lincoln. Though it is, in fact, a great book, I simply don't feel it is quite as good as Burr. Does that mean I should knock it down a star to compensate? I felt I must, otherwise how could I differentiate the fact that I felt Burr to be the better book?

Lincoln is a near-perfect historical account of the heretofore little-known goings-on in the Lincoln White House. It illuminates quite brilliantly both the parties that occupied the White House during this period and those who would usurp it. On the other hand, it does little to shed light on the parties that actually fought the Civil War. Having only a very general knowledge of that war, I found it difficult to keep track of the importance of a certain battle or situation being mentioned, and I frequently foung myself realizing that I was on the losing end of an inside joke.

For all that, however, I came away from the book enlightened regarding Lincoln the man and those that were closest to him, which was the primary intention of the book. Historical fiction holds the possibility of both entertaining and enlightening perhaps more than any other form of literature, and no one does it better than Gore Vidal.

Rating:
Summary: Lincoln a worthwhile read
Review: I heard Gore Vidal give a talk / interview on NPR one Saturday afternoon when I was driving around Berkeley... I stopped and parked to listen. Thoughtful, witty, knowledgeable man. He said his historical fiction is based closely on truth and that it's an attempt to bring the real history of the nation to the reader... at a level which isn't at all touched upon in history class. I think that he came through with his promise. _Lincoln_ shows the complex politics at play. Overall, this book is definitely recommended.

What it misses, I think, is a fair sense of the abolitionist movement. Yes, Lincoln was cagey, and probably did care more about keeping the Union together than he did about freeing the slaves. But there are characters who are staunch abolitionists, but instead of letting the reader get a feel for the passion in the movement, the movement is given no eloquent voice. Indeed, Sect. of Treasury Chase is supposedly a staunch abolitionist, but we never see any side of this... we are only told. The side we see is a power-grubbing fool. Surely there was more than that, surely Vidal could do a little bit better to bring us the flavor of the times, to learn who was doing the acting. I feel like he did this for events within the whitehouse, but why couldn't there be just a little more depth about the war and about abolition?

Rating:
Summary: A penetrating look into an extraordinary man.
Review: I loved this book and devoured it. Talk about page turners! Vidal show us the psyche and vast intelligence of Lincoln at work. Lincoln was an absolute political genius who totally out wits his many Machiavellian rivals. Readers will love the way Lincoln gives his opponents slack and then reels them into the net of his will. Vidal also underscores Lincoln's total commitment to the 'Union' which, for Lincoln, is the most sacred of concepts. There is a host of supporting characters, particularly Salmon Chase, who are aptly drawn and who engage the reader's interests. This is amazing fiction, yet you will learn more about Lincoln in these pages than in a half-dozen good biographies. This is a book that is both profound and entertaining and I unequivocally recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Lincoln the Enigma
Review: I was enthralled by this book, yet can't help but feel it brought me no closer to the figure at its centre. Vidal captures accurately the 'feel' of Washington as a city at war - the intrigue, the booming brothels, the personalities, the sweep of great events happening. We see Lincoln as the still centre of a hurricane - because the focus of the novel shifts to the people around him - his secretaries Nicolay and Hay, the assassin David Herold, even Mrs Lincoln. I feel Vidal's Lincoln is basically that of Edmund Wilson, with Lincoln as the American Lenin, a revolutionary forging a new nationalist creation (the 'United States' in the singular, not the plural) without its full consent. However, this view has been exploded by Lincoln biographers, notably David Donald's latest effort. True, a revolution did happen, but not by Lincoln's foreknowledge and volition. He was more like a ship's captain steering a course with uncertain maps and compasses and his own sense of what was right. That been said, I loved the way the book captured the air of the Civil War as it actually happened. A must for all Lincoln-philes, and others who enjoy historical novels.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading! Don't miss it...
Review: I've always been fascinated by the American Civil War and by the 16th President of the United States, Abe Lincoln. That were the main reasons that pushed me into buying this book. I must confess that at first I almost gave up. The beginning is quite slow and might discourage some readers. I can assure you that it's worth keeping on reading. The more I read, the more I was able to picture myself this good old Abe. A simple and honest man who found himself confronted with the greated crisis the american people have ever known. This novel portrays a very moving and objective image of Lincoln: it sweeps aside some of the aura of the President, but still shows us in an intelligent way the beauty and greatness of Lincoln. Trust me...It's a very good novel!

Rating:
Summary: A first-rate historical . . .
Review: I've never been a big fan of Abraham Lincoln, a result of reading too much real history, probably. Vidal makes Old Abe interesting -- fascinating, in fact -- but I can't say I like him any the better. He was never any kind of abolitionist, of course, which was why the Radical Republicans didn't like him. He "freed the slaves" only by "military necessity," and then only in the areas the North didn't even control. And he insisted, right up until the day before his assassination, that all negroes in the United States should be loaded onto ships and resettled in Central America, whether they wanted to go or not. Lincoln went into the war only to keep the Union together by force (which was certainly unconstitutional), but he had little or no regard for the Constitution anyway, suspending the right of habeus corpus, shutting down newspapers and arresting editors who didn't agree with his administration, and censoring publications of all kinds before the fact.

However, compared to the conniving of Salmon Chase (who wanted to be president but settled for Chief Justice), the arrogance of Edwin Stanton (who threw Mrs. Lincoln out of the room where the president was dying), the jingoism of William Seward (who wanted to start a war with England, France and Spain so the U.S. could take over the entire Western Hemisphere -- which, he was sure, would also bring the South back into the fold), and the long string of absoltuely disasterous generals with which the North was saddled, Lincoln was almost an innocent. The most likeable character in the book is the young John Hay, Lincoln's second secretary (and destined to become McKinley's Secretary of State), who has a refreshingly unbuttoned attitude toward almost everyone and everything. And Mary Todd Lincoln, the only real abolitionist in the family, is a fascinating person, as Vidal portrays her descent from extreme migraine into paranoia and schizophrenia.

So Vidal has done it again, and I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with the slightest interest in history. He invents almost nothing, but with this gang of political cut-throats, he doesn't need to!

Rating:
Summary: A great read, albeit not a little messy...
Review: If you enjoy historical fiction of the pageturner variety this is great fun. Oddly, for all of Vidal's attention to Seward and Booth and Lincoln himself it is Mary Todd Lincoln whom most people most vividly remember after reading this novel, and who comes most startlingly to life (in part because she is the most strikingly strange of these charcters--and that is saying something). It would be hard to call this "literature," properly, in that Vidal rambles a good deal and does not tie up or "rhyme" all the loose ends of the narrative together neatly; still, it's a great read for a long vacation.

Rating:
Summary: couldn't put this one down
Review: If you read just one book about this great president make it this one. Brings Lincoln to life in great detail without getting bogged down. Delicious read.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect portrait of an imperfect Lincoln.
Review: Lincoln arrives in Washington incognito in the middle of the night to avoid assassins. He is protected by Pinkerton. A little nobody, sympathetic at first because he is a boy growing up, becomes progressively less so as he enters the world of amateur conspiracies. Political foes Chase and Seward work in Lincoln's shadows. U.S. Grant appears briefly with his son. Much of the story accompanies John Hay, Lincoln's young personal secretary.

Hay's is possibly Vidal's most interesting portrait. In real life, John Hay started his political career as private secretary to Lincoln and ended it as Secretary of State to Theodore Roosevelt. He served three presidents assassinated in office: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. (I have not yet read Vidal's later American novels, but I presume John Hay reappears.) We see Hay move through Washington society balls, handle Mrs. Lincoln's scandalous purchases and indiscretions, or be heartbroken by Salmon Chase's daughter Kay.

The image of Lincoln Vidal presents is that of the knowing father, but not that of a saint. Vidal's Lincoln is never at a loss as to what needs to be done, but he can be unsure of how to do it. Vidal's Lincoln does have his faults. He is a racist. He is dead set against making slaves into American citizens and wants to ship them back to Africa. His priorities are crystal clear: if he could save the union by preserving slavery, he would. The myth of Lincoln the emancipator is shattered, and yet Lincoln emerges as a greater man for it. By presenting his true objective, saving the Union, Vidal shows us Lincoln's political skills and his compassion. He values the union more than he does the immediate abolition of slavery, but he recognizes that slavery is a blot on American history. He prefers Africation repatriation because he believes America would be a bad home for former slaves.

Vidal shows us Lincoln's civil war. Lincoln doesn't get to Gettysburg until November 1863. During the momentous battle of July, he was at the telegraph office waiting for the news. The novel starts with Lincoln arriving in Washington and ends at his assassination. Vidal's novel redefines Lincoln the man and dramatizes a historical reevaluation of Lincoln's role in American history.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Eye Opener
Review: Mr. Vidal's book, I found, was a perfect mallet with which to destroy the myth that surrounds the person of Abraham Lincoln. Not being an American, I have always been subjected to a surreal view of American history, that seemed more legend than fact. 'Lincoln' drew a humanistic picture of that president. A picture that showed a man dedictated to the country that was and would be again after a turbulent civil war. I liked the way that Mr. Vidal portrayed President Lincoln, not as the 'great emancipast' that he was to later be dubbed, but as a politician who freed the slaves solely to hurt the enemies of the Union and who wanted to push those freed slaves out of the United States, instead of letting them remain as free people. Definitely a good read.