The novelist who more than any other writer of his generation laid claim to being the republic’s biographer — he would have said obituarist — has died. TAC will have more to say about Gore Vidal, but in the meantime I direct readers to Bill Kauffman’s reviews of The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal and his memoir Point to Point Navigation, as well as Justin Raimondo’s review of Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson.
Gore Vidal, Rest in Peace
8 Responses to Gore Vidal, Rest in Peace
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Philip Giraldi says:
Loved his novel about Julian the Apostate – the Julian character was a Vidal alter ego, iconoclastic, deeply flawed and cynical. Vidal’s family had some Venetian roots and he did a fascinating tour of the city for Britain’s Channel Four Television.
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Ross Vachon says:
Gore Vidal and Pat Buchanan were the two leading lights of The Republic who warned us all of the wicked, odious, and treasonous neocons.
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Vidal: The only sort of crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself.
Buckley: Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.
Classic. Buckley ready to engage in a bit of pugilism and Vidal sitting there with that shit-eating grin.
Buckley’s politics became so predictable over time, but Vidal always remained complex and unboring. The conspiracy stuff was over the top
Like Thomas Jefferson I believe reading novels is generally an unproductive waste of time. But not Vidal’s; a person can obtain quite a bit of historical information reading his historical novels.
My reading this year has mostly concentrated on presidential biographies. Just the other day I was looking for my copy of Vidal’s ‘Lincoln: A Novel.’ I think it’s packed away in either mine or my mother’s attic. This being August in Texas I ain’t about to go up there looking for it. I guess I’ll get the Kindle edition today.
RIP Gore Vidal.