It is a risky (and risque) business becoming 'Woman Triumphant' - exercising total power over men like Rusty Godowski. Rusty just wants to be a Hollywood star like everyone else at Buck Loner's academy, but now that Buck's niece, Myra Breckinridge, has arrived, the curriculum is taking a wildly strange turn. Willing to risk all to be superb and unique, Myra means to prove to her old friend Dr Montag that it is possible to work out in life all one's fantasies - and survive. 'From Myra's fist appearnce on the page she was a megastar', explains her creator, Gore Vidal. Myra caused a second furore when she returned in Myron to battle it out with her eponymous alter ego, a drab little man fallen into marriage and a job in Chinese catering. Theirs is a contest of hormonal roulette, with glorious Myra off on time-travelling missions of mercy back to 1948 to try to change cinema history and to introduce her own radical theories of popuation control. Meanwhile Myron tries desperately to stay in the present as inconspicuously as Mrya will allow.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Falling somewhere between the realms of Henry Adams and all of Monty Python, Gore Vidal has for many years served as America's own Tiesias - a seer and scourge, as well as an entertainer of the highest order. Jay McInerney
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Gore Vidal wrote his first novel, Williwaw at the age of nineteen while overseas in World War II. Since then he has written plays, short stories, essays, films and television scripts and has been a Democratic activist.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Gore Vidal has received the National Book Award, written numerous novels, short stories, plays and essays. He has been a political activist and as Democratic candidate for Congress from upstate New York, he received the most votes of any Democrat in a half-century.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Vidal's Myra Breckinridge is one of the most insightful books I have come across in all of my extensive reading. Through outrageous humor and wit, Gore Vidal communicates powerful messages about sexuality, psychology, and the human condition. The reader follows Myra Breckinridge from her arrogant and obnoxious narcissism to a complete transformation which has such an impact, I don't dare try to describe it. This book is wonderfully one-dimensional on the surface, but a bit of thought reveals it's depth and perceptiveness; so cleverly hidden it seems to jump out and bite in a few incredible sentences! I am recommending this book for anyone who is questioning traditional and orthodox views of the world, or their own sexuality.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Itamar Ronen
Format:Paperback
It's wonderful to go through the various reviews and realize that this book, written in part in 1968 and then, the "sequel", in 1973, stirrs the same controversy it did when it was published. And I'm sure Gore Vidal, one of the most remarkable American writers and thinkers of the previous century, is having a great deal of fun out of it. In a way (and not in every way), Gore Vidal is a great writer/thinker resembling the way Voltaire was one: it's not necessarily any specific work that makes him *the* thinker/writer of his age (well, in the case of Voltaire, "Candide" does weaken my argument...), but it is his combined output that makes him the unabashed, non-PC voice of his generation. And Gore Vidal does it with great panache in Myra Breckinridge/Myron. There are few issues that remained untouched - anything from linguistic deterioration (the Californian drowning in the ocean yelling : "like, Help!"), film theory, sexuality, politics (Nixon is an important protagonist), what not. And mud is slung in all dierctions, and the goal justifies any means... It is hilarious from beginning to end, and even if one is not familiar with the dozens of B-movies and their actors mentioned in the book, and allowing for some repetitiveness here and there - reading this book is a wicked joy. A previous review rightly mentions that this book is not for everyone: the sexual and surgical activity (sometimes combined) are very explicit, and Myra has on her agenda young and healthy all-American dudes to be anally penetrated (for some very good reasons, as we learn...), but if you wish to make sure that there's still someone looking at this world with X-ray glasses - read Gore Vidal, and read Myra/Myron.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By gac1003
Format:Paperback
MYRA BRECKINRIDGE moves to Hollywood in order to collect the inheritance left by her husband Myron. The one problem is Uncle Buck Loner who stands between her and the property - a profitable school for would be actors run by Buck. Myra is certain that everything will turn out her way, as she is the New American Woman. Every man wants her, but none may have her. However, there is a twist to Myra that will throw her plans into turmoil if anyone finds out.
This is a darkly comic book with one of the most intriguing of characters in Myra Breckinridge. She is self-confidant (perhaps overly so), knows how to control and manipulate both men and women to fulfill her wishes, and determined not to let anything stop her. She is ready to change the world to suit her. In other words, a force to be reckoned with. I also liked that she patterned herself after movie heroines and relates to people as though they were characters in a movie, shown for her benefit.
The novel itself is written as a series of diary entries, written by Myra as events happen. This gives an immediacy to the story and makes the reader feel as though he/she is a part of the action. The twist in the story is definitely a shocking one; I admit that it threw me for a loop. I can only imagine its impact when the book was published in 1968 with the sexual revolution just underway. An incredible book.
MYRON: This sequel to "Myra Breckinridge" follows poor Myron as he battles against Myra, only this time they've somehow become stuck in the 1948 movie "Siren of Babylon." It's a strange world, the Hollywood of 1948, and Myron tries frantically to return to 1973 and his beloved Richard M. Nixon while Myra has plans of her own to both bring back the glory of MG Studios by fixing "Siren" and to curb the human population growth by re-forming man in her image - strong, sterile Amazonian woman. Her one problem: Myron and how to keep him from escaping the film.
It's a totally bizarre and wonderfully campy look at Hollywood of the 1940s but seen through the eyes of the 1970s. And, like its predecessor, is written in journal entries so you're in the action as it happens from the characters' perspectives. A great piece of fantasy fiction.
This is a darkly comic book with one of the most intriguing of characters in Myra Breckinridge. She is self-confidant (perhaps overly so), knows how to control and manipulate both men and women to fulfill her wishes, and determined not to let anything stop her. She is ready to change the world to suit her. In other words, a force to be reckoned with. I also liked that she patterned herself after movie heroines and relates to people as though they were characters in a movie, shown for her benefit.
The novel itself is written as a series of diary entries, written by Myra as events happen. This gives an immediacy to the story and makes the reader feel as though he/she is a part of the action. The twist in the story is definitely a shocking one; I admit that it threw me for a loop. I can only imagine its impact when the book was published in 1968 with the sexual revolution just underway. An incredible book.
MYRON: This sequel to "Myra Breckinridge" follows poor Myron as he battles against Myra, only this time they've somehow become stuck in the 1948 movie "Siren of Babylon." It's a strange world, the Hollywood of 1948, and Myron tries frantically to return to 1973 and his beloved Richard M. Nixon while Myra has plans of her own to both bring back the glory of MG Studios by fixing "Siren" and to curb the human population growth by re-forming man in her image - strong, sterile Amazonian woman. Her one problem: Myron and how to keep him from escaping the film.
It's a totally bizarre and wonderfully campy look at Hollywood of the 1940s but seen through the eyes of the 1970s. And, like its predecessor, is written in journal entries so you're in the action as it happens from the characters' perspectives. A great piece of fantasy fiction.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Confusing, but for the Right Reason?
I have to admit I consulted the internet after finishing this novel because I was not sure what to think, not knowing anything of Vidal or the reception of Myra. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nathan White
5.0 out of 5 stars
Myra, Queen of the World
Myra Breckenridge is one of the greatest erotic comedies ever written. It's one of the greatest satires of Hollywood ever written. It's one of the greatest novels ever written. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Robert Szeles
4.0 out of 5 stars
Myra vs. Myron: the ultimate battle of the sexes
Once again out of print, "Myra Breckinridge" is a novel of its time, a post-Lolita send-up of Sixties sexual mores and American hang-ups, with a Swiftian prose meant to shatter the... Read more
Published on July 19, 2009 by D. Cloyce Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beast, What Is Thy Sex?
The fact that Gore Vidal's highly original 'Myra Breckinridge' (1968) and its sequel, 'Myron' (1974), have been published together in one edition by Penguin Books strongly suggests... Read more
Published on December 15, 2005 by J. E. Barnes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Myra, psychotic superhero
I don't like to know too much about a story before i start reading it. This was the case with this book. Read more
Published on November 20, 2005 by Manola Sommerfeld
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most provocative, insightful & hilarious book I ever read
The incomparable Gore Vidal wrote this book in the middle of the sexual revolution of the late sixties. Read more
Published on April 30, 2004 by The Awakening
3.0 out of 5 stars
shocking for grandma but not for teen
After reading Myra Breckinridge I couldn't look at my passions with the same sort of satisfaction after being infused by Vidal's challenge to established normalcy. Read more
Published on May 18, 2003 by Laura Marie
3.0 out of 5 stars
EASY DOES IT ON THIS ONE
Some of the past reviewers went to take an aspirin and swallowed the whole bottle. Myra was but an amusing story that posed the deep question of what part one's sexuality plays in... Read more
Published on February 27, 2003 by Worldreels
4.0 out of 5 stars
The incomparable Myra
As part of her plans to conquer Hollywood, Myra Breckinridge arrives at her late husband Myron's uncle Buck's drama academy to stake her claim. Read more
Published on September 9, 2002 by "blissengine"
4.0 out of 5 stars
Too late to be shocked, but still enjoyable...
I supposed had I actually read the book when it was first published, then I would have been able to appreciate the shock value of the story. Read more
Published on May 24, 2002 by "taiyindotnet"
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