Rating: 
Summary: Frontrow seats and bittersweet
Review: Anyone who retains an interest in the era that spawned the Kennedys, the Jet Set and the 'Beats' will enjoy Palimpset. Gore Vidal had one of the world's worst mothers; drunk, vicious and hilarious- the less related you got. She was the gorgeous daughter of a prominent Senator named Gore. After divorcing Gore's father, Gene, she married the Hughdie Auchincloss who later would wed the equally frozen and gold digging mother of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Indeed Gore and Jackie shared the same bedroom (at different times) as Hughdie's prominent but and penniless stepchildren. It was from Hughdie, according to Vidal, that he developed his lifelong passion (against?) bores. The memoir is filled with Jackie and Jack stories, that are less worn for their genuine, eye witness
accounts. Gore recalls something of the private life of those two; at Palm Beach, having cocktails after the beach, and speaks a bit of how Jackie's value had become enhanced with her husband and her raucus in-laws as she more and more captured the attention and heart of the and some would argue, the world. Previous to her rising star, we are told, Jack virtually ignored her. So much for the glamour of the mythic couple. Jackie and Gore, one-time stepsibs, would later part ways. This enmity arose from the consuming hatred between Gore and Bobby Kennedy- so combustible that a violent episode was just barely avoided at a White House official dinner. Vidal's ill-fated runs for political office are the most boring parts of the memoir; however they're well compensated by his reminiscences over Tennessee Williams called affectionately, Bird. With his aristocratic disdain, Vidal's eye as well as his pen cut satisfyingly throughout his well-attended and celebrated life.
Frequent references to an alcoholic and promiscuous life are not, tastefully followed by countless depraved incidents- the few liasons and debauches detailed belonged more to the story than a tabloid. He waxes funny on Anais Nin, who bore a remarkable likeness to his mother histrionic, self-obsessed and a great fraud. Allen Ginsberg is well drawn here, less of the Buddhist, suicidal, Beat poet than as a promoter. Kerouac, himself a mother-obsessive, and one night stand of Vidal, is seen as more tortured. His last days, were not spent on the road, but in an alcoholic psychosis in his mother's home where he spent the final days of his life running at her and ranting anti-Semetic epithets. Shut away with his mother, impotent and symbiotic- powerful- eh? As to Vidal's personal sexuality, he does not appear to wish to fit into a compact mold. He ascribes his long, successful relationship with another male as platonic, and therefore longstanding. Vidal has a political prescience that I regret I have only learned of recently. He is no friend of the National Security Agency and claims that even Truman was aware that the CIA was its own government and that Kennedy's assasination was validation of that. However, one need not share his liberal viewpoints to enjoy this biography.
It is first and foremost a love story. A teenage introduction to romantic sex and a marine dead at Iwo Jima, the love that has been his life. It is through this refrain that he winds and returns, this was the central organizing factor of his life, and one that he never advanced far from. It is an evocative and bittersweet saga.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, but I hoped for more...
Review: Every society needs a gadfly, and Gore Vidal is ours. The grandson of a U.S. senator, related by marriage to Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Vidal has lived all his life near this country's seats of power, and what he has to say about those seats--and the people who occupy them--has curdled the cocktails of the Capitol Hill party crowd for half a century. His animadversions against the military-industrial complex are salutary reading, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum; and as for his denunciations of the "sky-godders"--well, let's just say I always admire his wit and erudition, even when I want to strangle him. I was hoping for more meat in "Palimpsest," his memoir of his early life, but too much of it is just a catty settling of scores, although it's always fun to read. Here are the people he loved (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles, the Sitwells) and those, more vividly, whom he hated (Truman Capote, E.M. Forster, Anais Nin, and--most of all--his alcoholic, passive-aggressive mother, Nina Gore Vidal). There are fascinating anecdotes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the last living gasps of the ancien regime, and of the Kennedys, about whom he has a bracing ambivalence. The most poignant parts of the book deal with Jimmie Trimble, his prep-school classmate and the great love of Vidal's life, who was killed at Iwo Jima. But even this story line peters out in the constant flow of gossip, I only wonder when--or if--Vidal will publish a second volume of memoirs, dealing with the latter part of his life. Perhaps that will give us more depth.
Rating: 
Summary: A Rider on the Storm
Review: Gore Vidal has written one of the most honest, revealing and entertaining memoirs I've ever encountered. It's a book that can be dipped into casually or, preferably read from the beginning to the all too soon end when he reaches the age of 39. It's full of insights into the various people he has met during those years such as Tennessee Williams , John and Jackie Kennedy, Truman Capote and other figures in the literary and entertainment world of the forties and fifties. He talks of his family, his mother whose attitudes he had to jettison; and his grandfather, the blind Senator Gore from Oklahoma of the 1910's. (He and Al are cousins) He talks of his relationships with all of these people in an almost stream of consciousness style that jumps back and forth from the distant past to the more recent past to the current writing of the book (1994). All of this comes with comments, observations and anecdotes that illumine his attitudes then and now in a way that makes the reader, who knows little or nothing of these people, a part of the audience of his experience. While that description, might sound unappealing to the regular reader of more straightlaced memoirs; rest assured that it is a formula for a most entertaining read. Of course the name-dropping can't be helped as he is part of that circle (and that's one reason we read books like this). One of the interesting aspects of his book is that he tells us what happens when he gets back in touch with people he used to know (like Allen Ginsburg), or people that knew the same people who were important to him, like the 91 year old mother of his first love. Great stuff. The leitmotif of the book is the first love of his life who was killed at Iwo Jima in 1945. What might seem to some people a maudlin display of nostalgia, is in actuality a very human story of something that was lost and never recovered, if indeed it was ever possesed at all. It is a sort of a Citizen Kane mystery that has continued to haunt and influence Vidal's life, providing a counterpoint to everything that was done and experienced ever after. Through it all the wit and personal wisdom of Vidal shows itself . Not merely a famous author, but another Rider on the Storm of life. Recomended even if you don't know who Gore Vidal is.
Rating:
Summary: A Rider on the Storm
Review: Gore Vidal has written one of the most honest, revealing and entertaining memoirs I've ever encountered. It's a book that can be dipped into casually or, preferably read from the beginning to the all too soon end when he reaches the age of 39. It's full of insights into the various people he has met during those years such as Tennessee Williams , John and Jackie Kennedy, Truman Capote and other figures in the literary and entertainment world of the forties and fifties. He talks of his family, his mother whose attitudes he had to jettison; and his grandfather, the blind Senator Gore from Oklahoma of the 1910's. (He and Al are cousins) He talks of his relationships with all of these people in an almost stream of consciousness style that jumps back and forth from the distant past to the more recent past to the current writing of the book (1994). All of this comes with comments, observations and anecdotes that illumine his attitudes then and now in a way that makes the reader, who knows little or nothing of these people, a part of the audience of his experience. While that description, might sound unappealing to the regular reader of more straightlaced memoirs; rest assured that it is a formula for a most entertaining read. Of course the name-dropping can't be helped as he is part of that circle (and that's one reason we read books like this). One of the interesting aspects of his book is that he tells us what happens when he gets back in touch with people he used to know (like Allen Ginsburg), or people that knew the same people who were important to him, like the 91 year old mother of his first love. Great stuff. The leitmotif of the book is the first love of his life who was killed at Iwo Jima in 1945. What might seem to some people a maudlin display of nostalgia, is in actuality a very human story of something that was lost and never recovered, if indeed it was ever possesed at all. It is a sort of a Citizen Kane mystery that has continued to haunt and influence Vidal's life, providing a counterpoint to everything that was done and experienced ever after. Through it all the wit and personal wisdom of Vidal shows itself . Not merely a famous author, but another Rider on the Storm of life. Recomended even if you don't know who Gore Vidal is.
Rating: 
Summary: Sermon On Mount Ravello.
Review: Gore Vidal is a pretentious blowhard. (Like that's big news.)While I have always been fascinated by the whole Tennessee Williams-Truman Capote- Vidal connection, and, individually, respected and appreciated their talents, I just couldn't get into the erudite "man of letters" blase' musings about the burden of his genius, poor thing. He has always reminded me of that brief character in "Catcher In The Rye" (Vidal would probably dismiss Salinger as an unprolific flash in the pan, better to write lots of crap), the one to whom, when asked his opinion of something rather trivial, has to STAND BACK, to give himself and his all-important answer lots of room. This is a one note memoir, a B flat, B for "Bitchy". Even his recollections of certain personalities I'd otherwise be curious about were overshadowed by his obnoxious arrogance. His memory (fantasy ?) of a sexual liasion with Jack Kerouac is especially repugnant, his take on this and most of his sexual experiences supposed to impress upon us that, because he is literally and figuratively always "the man on top", that he is still "all man". While I did respect and enjoy somewhat the then innovative "City And The Pillar", and thought "Myra Breckinridge" a hoot, I don't like to have to keep a dictionary next to me to get through a book. And, while my favorite reads have always been bios, auto- bios, etc..I always find that, even when they're about some of the most revered, there has to be some element ( a TITCH would do) of humility. I don't imagine Mr. Vidal would be too heartbroken to know that this un-employed restauranteur did not enjoy his lofty parchment from on high, but, hey....it WAS twenty-seven bucks !!
Rating:
Summary: His Essays are the better read
Review: Gore Vidal is brilliant, witty, clever, irreverent and a marvelous writer but I was a little disappointed with this first installment of his autobiography. His life has been more multi-faceted and exciting than almost anyone elses, but in some inexplicable way the telling of his story falls short. There was adequate amounts of "juicy gossip" and the obligatory details of many sexual exploits, but true revelation and introspection is lacking. That is curious, considering Vidal has never been shy about speaking his mind and airing his (and everyone else) dirty laundry in public. He remains one of the most gifted American writers, but his true brilliance is in writing essays, not autobiography.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I had expected, but still great
Review: Gore Vidal's life is interesting enough in itself to assure a good read: grandson of blind senator Thomas Gore; stepbrother, or almost, of Jackie Kennedy; acquainted with Tennessee Williams, the Kennedys, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, etc; famous novelist, playwright, screenwriter. However, one does get the impression that he's slipping into name-dropping at times. He clearly stretches his relationship with the Kennedys - which Vidal himself seems to regard as the most important aspect of that period in his life - almost to the breaking point. This is partially redeemed, however, by his critical (jealous?) view of JFK. His troubled relationship with his mother is given a proportioante weight. The most annoying thing in this book, though - maybe noticed only by Vidal fans like myself - is how he shamelessly reproduces whole paragraphs, verbatim, from other writings of his, like his comments on Richard Nixon and his apartment in Rome. He also re-tells for the nth time his role in re-writing the script of "Ben-Hur", still not revealing if he wrote anything for that film besides the famous Ben-Hur/Messala relationship. Those who are not as familiar with Vidal's work, though, and who read those stories for the first time, will certainly enjoy them. But I did find disappointing that the book is more like a "Who's who" of famous people whom Vidal met than a critical self-portrait.
Rating:
Summary: A bitchy queer ride through 20th century America
Review: Gore Vidal, the old bitch, grows up, alters his name, has many intimate relations, gives advice on relationships and sex (never mix the two), ponders old age and the passing of friends and other he's met (most of whom we know of, and after Vidal's analysis are glad that is all we know). Like him or loathe him, Vidal is wonderful with words. This memoir, while bitchy and often graphic in tone, is irresistable because it is such a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: A famous author meanders through a lost world
Review: He lived a life. Perhaps still lives it. Only, however, in memory. At times he is bitter. At others,bitingly restrained. He meanders, with little discipline and less structure. But for that he can be forgiven. He is, after all, allowed to turn always to the setting sun. It is his own. He is Gore Vidal, and nobody looks back better
Rating:
Summary: The only hardcover book I have ever thrown away . . .
Review: I gave this a "1" because I cannot give it a "0". A stylized account of who sodomised whom with detail I frankly didn't want to know, this is an unpleasant exercise in self-agrandisement by a writer suffering from, on the basis the talent displayed here, delusions of adequacy.
|
