Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326164 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

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.

From Publishers Weekly
Vidal's account of his first 39 years includes his reminiscences of a host of prominent political and cultural figures.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Prolific essayist, novelist (Burr et al.), screenwriter (Suddenly, Last Summer), playwright (The Best Man), and sometime political candidate Vidal quotes the definition of palimpsest as " 'a parchment which has been written upon twice; the original having been rubbed out.' " This particular memoir of his first 39 years (1926-65), says Vidal, has "many rubbings-out and puttings-in," which may explain its many-layered nature and the bare nod to chronology, with flashbacks and flashforwards and curious juxtapositions of friend and foe. In it he blithely skewers both family and friends (or ex-friends)-particularly his alcoholic mother, the Auchinclosses, John and Jackie Kennedy, Anais Nin and other literati, and too many more to recount-with nasty revelations. But Vidal is still a stylish writer, and those not put off by the mean-spiritedness of these self-serving memoirs and fascinated by the literary, political, and entertainment worlds of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s may want to read this.
--Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining memoir - but a little long...
I enjoyed "Palimpsest," Gore Vidal's memoir of his young life. It is an entertaining look at a time in this country's history when it was possible to have the type of life that Gore lived. He easily traversed several worlds, sometimes simultaneously: Local and national politics, Broadway, Hollywood, novelist and essayist, and WWII veteran.

The most moving portions of this memoir are Vidal's recollections of a young man he had loved who was killed in WWII. Vidal is able to provide a glimpse into raw intimacy between two men who loved each other without necessarily defining themselves as homosexual. The most historically interesting sections are devoted to John and Jackie Kennedy; Vidal was related by marriage to Jackie Kennedy and their mutual interests and intelligence allowed their lives to intersect both before and during John Kennedy's presidency. Out of all of the reading I have done on the Kennedys, I think that Vidal's description of John Kennedy riding in a limosine with Jackie and Vidal provides the most vivid description of what he was like as a human being.

I think that the book could have been made even more effective had it been treated to aggressive editing. At least 60 - 75 pages could have been excised without diminishing it. Still, for a glimpse at a period of history and the musings of a singular individual who witnessed the movers and shakers up close and intimately, "Palimpsest" is an admirable and worthwhile effort.

A love story. Rest in peace, JT.
I doubt anyone could be farther from my political leanings than Gore Vidal but I find his writing to be a joy. I have only begun reading Gore, and have not yet read his novels. After being ostracized by East Coast media after his first novel, he survived by writing for theater, television, and film: it is amazing how much he has written and most of us are probably unaware of it. Example: he was an uncredited writer for one of my favorite movies as an adolescent: Ben-Hur.

His collection of essays ("United States") led me to his memoirs, perhaps one of the best in this genre.

It has been said, and Gore himself seems to suggest it, that he knew everyone in the 1960's and although he was related through marriage to the Kennedys and often lived within their circle -- especially Jackie's -- he appears not to have exploited that relationship. I could be wrong. Regardless, he did break with the Kennedys in the end.

But what impressed me most was the story within the story: a memoir, yes, but as he himself said, a love story. He was never able to get over the love of his life. Gore's memoir is sentimental without being sentimental.

[The photographs of Anais Nin are precious. They alone are worth the price of the book.]

The Scandalous, Opinionated, & Touching Recollections of an American Man of Letters.
Gore Vidal is careful to call "Palimpsest" a "memoir", not an "autobiography". These are the first 39 years of his life as he remembers them -in more ways than one. His memories are not in chronological order, but start with his half-sister's wedding in 1957 and bounce around, through his childhood, youth, his family, politics, acquaintances, sex life, and writing career, sometimes doubling back on itself or jumping to the present in Ravello, Italy 1993-1994. "Palimpsest" is a perfect title, as it describes what memoirists do, consciously or unconsciously, literally and figuratively: They overwrite the past. Vidal alerts us to his palimpsests whenever he discards what he previously wrote.

Though the gist of Vidal's political progression leftward from reactionary youth to socialist to vehement anti-interventionist comes across, "Palimpsest" is not about politics. It's about people: the author and those who most shaped his experiences. Among them were: Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Anais Nin, Tennessee Williams, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Allen Ginsberg, Truman Capote, and Paul Bowles. The grandson of Senator T.P. Gore, Vidal moved in aristocratic, artistic, and political circles. He was well-connected, to say the least, and he offers interesting tidbits about the people he met and the conclusions he drew. He says next to nothing about his companion of 44 years, Howard Auster.

The "unfinished business" of a youthful love affair with a man who died at Iwo Jima and The Kennedys are overriding themes -though it is difficult to know if Vidal speaks so much of the Kennedys because they are the public's preoccupation or his own. The persistent memory of Jimmie is both surprising and moving, a reminder of how our youth, especially things left undone, haunts us. Some readers will be turned off either by Vidal's social mores or by his heretical politics. I would simply say about his lifestyle that he is not middle class. I don't always agree with his politics, but I have to give him credit for judging his friends even more harshly than his enemies. Gore Vidal is astute about people, if not politics, and he's a superb wordsmith. I thoroughly enjoyed "Palimpsest".