Product Description

In an anthology of more than one hundred essays, representing forty years of commentary, observations, and profiles, the iconoclastic author of Live from Golgotha shares his wit and wisdom on American politics, culture, literature, and personalities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112115 in Books
• Published on: 1993-05-18
• Released on: 1993-05-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1295 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This mammoth omnibus of 114 essays is vintage Vidal, a marvelous compendium of sharp wit and independent judgment that confirms his status as a man of letters. The prolific novelist/critic offers withering putdowns of the French "new novel," billionaire Howard Hughes and bestseller lists. He displays a reporter's hard nose for facts in travel pieces on Nasser's Egypt and Mongolia. He pens definitive portraits of H. L. Mencken, Oscar Wilde, Anthony Burgess, L. Frank Baum. He reminisces on his boyhood friendship with Amelia Earhart, who, we learn, was in love with Vidal's father, Eugene, FDR's director of commercial aviation. Mingling patrician impulses and egalitarian, subversive sentiments, Vidal takes unfashionable stances, as when he urges the legalization of drugs or ending military aid to the Middle East, including Israel. His sense of the United States as hub of an overextended empire informs pieces on "American sissy" Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, CIA spook E. Howard Hunt and the bloated military budget.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This hefty volume will need strong binding: it contains 114 essays and over 1300 pages of Vidal's barbed opinions, articulate insights, intellectual observations, and more "correctionist" opinions. These pieces represent two-thirds of the essays Vidal has published over 40 years and fall into three categories: literary, political, and personal. Why the other one-third was omitted or why these particular ones were gathered at this time is not clear. If the aim is a "complete works," then why not include the other third and divide them into three physical volumes with proper editing? Such a collection would be worthwhile. Because Vidal's essays are always provocative, full of interesting facts, and have the immediacy of a conversation, this collection might be of interest to both public and academic libraries. Libraries on a tight budget can remember that the essays have appeared previously in such publications as the New York Review of Books.
- Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"In 114 essays written over a period of forty years, Gore Vidal has shown himself to be a masterly, learned, and percipient observer of an unparalleled range of subjects. United States: Essays, 1952?1992 assesses such diverse matters as modern French fiction, the Kennedys, underappreciated writers like Thomas Love Peacock, and the American attitude toward sex. He writes tenderly of authors and people he cherishes-Eleanor Roosevelt, Tennessee Williams, William Dean Howells. Whatever his subject, he addresses it with an artist's resonant appreciation, a scholar's conscience, and the persuasive powers of a great essayist."
--Citation for the 1993 National Book Award

"Gore Vidal, essayist; so good that we cannot do without him. He is a treasure of the state."
--R. W. B. Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age, and we should thank the gods that we still have him to kick us around. Long may he flourish."
--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"A marvelous compendium of sharp wit and independent judgment that confirms his status as a man of letters."
--Publishers Weekly



From the Trade Paperback edition. -- Review

Customer Reviews

Vidal - the uncompromising essayist?
Despite (repeatedly) claiming a place as one of America's greatest novelists, perhaps it will be this collection of essays which survives Vidal the longest. Arranged in two roughly equal collections dealing with literary and with political matters, the pieces span forty years and a rapidly-changing American society. Some of the most interesting pieces are commentaries on the development of the USA from a 'backward, agrarian republic' to the modern-day imperial juggernaut, summed up in the phrase 'National Security State' in which Vidal alleges there remains no true democracy, merely a meaningless choice between politicians who act like television personalities and seek only to maintain the status quo in favour of the rich elite. Politically leftist, Vidal takes an uncompromising stance against artistic, sexual and political hypocrisy, satirising politicians, journalists, fellow authors and historical figures with glee. The literary pieces are remarkable not only for the broad span of writers with which Vidal is familiar, but also for his ability to sketch in a few pages the whole development of a writer's work. The overall sense left by these essays, however, is that of something unfulfilled - whether Vidal's failed political ambitions, the sense one gets that he did not receive the recognition he wanted for his writings, and the broader sense of regret at the loss of American 'innocence' under Truman. Be that as it may, they offer one of the most radical, uncompromising, sharp and indeed witty voices available in America today, and I would highly recommend them

Our greatest iconoclast...
...and a brilliant essayist, Vidal shines in this book. The breadth of his scholarship is astonishing, and his matter-of-fact, cynical, mildly humorous take on American life is always interesting. He explodes all manner of literary, political, and religious pretensions in these essays, and makes serious, salient criticisms of our government, particularly what he deems the "National Security State" of the past 50 years. Vidal must be one of the most erudite individuals in American letters, and his grasp of U.S. history is unparalleled. The only downside of reading these essays is that one may feel like an uneducated rube afterwards.

Successful "essays"
This is a remarkable collection of essays. They cover literature, politics and history and show Vidal at his best. My favorites include his examination of the Kennedy Family (entitled The Holy Family) which though dated still shows the importance of showmanship be it the construction of a religion or a political dynasty. Vidal also looks at General Grant and surveys the American scene. Another gem is his examination of the books on the New York Times Best Seller list in the early seventies and what they tell us about American tastes and the declining craft of the writen word (Vidal believes it to be largely cinematic). There really are too many topics to cover properly in only 1,000. All of the essays are stimulating and thought provoking whether one agrees with the ideas expressed or not. I urge anyone who enjoys reading well-written prose to get this fascinating volume and discover the joys within its covers.