THE ESSENTIAL GORE VIDAL
Ed. by Robert Kaplan

Truth be told, few intellectuals are very good writers. Our culture has inherited a bias against the presentation of ideas in literary form. In our scale of values Romantic feeling is more highly valued than rationalism, and irony has easily vanquished argument. In drama and fiction, the genre of wisdom literature died with the Age of Reason.

And yet, as Fred Kaplan points out, Gore Vidal has been a writer of ideas, his artistry driven by his intellect, for more than 50 years.

What is the "essential" Gore Vidal? After all, the man has been nothing if not prolific. Within this new volume we have the political play The Best Man, as well as the complete text of the experimental "entertainment" Myra Breckinridge. There are also 25 essays on history, politics, and the arts, as well as substantial excerpts from all of Vidal's major novels (including each volume of his monumental biography of America). Each work has a brief foreword, and the book also has an introduction that helps place Vidal's career in context.

The selection is good, but one piece I missed was the long essay Vidal did on the Adams family. It was there that he wrote: "I cannot remember a time when I was not fascinated by Henry Adams." That fascination has always seemed to me to be a touchstone.

Both Vidal and Adams were brought up in Washington, sons of political families. Both were critical observers of the political scene. Both wrote political and historical novels, and both attempted to find in the study of America's history the keys for understanding its future.

Looking into that future, both were pessimistic about the American experiment, and too hasty (or eager?) in predicting decline. Adams saw himself as living during America's last days, with civilization dissolving as the dynamic forces of history picked up speed. For Vidal, the "Day the American Empire Ran Out of Gas" was September 16, 1985 - when the United States, more the world's banker than its policeman, officially became a debtor nation. The sun had set on the West, Vidal declared, with the balance of global economic power shifting to the "Asiatic colossus."

All wrong, of course, but Vidal could smile at his reputation as the American Nostradamus.

One good thing about an omnibus edition such as this is that it shows the range of Vidal's talents. Essayist, playwright, novelist, short-story writer - whatever form his writing took, he handled it with success.

Unfortunately, as was demonstrated with last year's Norman Mailer retrospective, the survey concept does not have a lot of market appeal. The price, as it is here, is often too high, and reading fragments of longer works can lead to frustration.

In addition, while Vidal is probably America's finest living essayist, his Collected Essays (United States) were just published in 1993. While this book has much in it to be enjoyed, few readers will be likely to find it essential.

Notes:
Review first published March 20, 1999.

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