Customer Reviews

Gore Vidal: A Biography

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kaplan has written a wonderfully involving biography of my favorite author. His portrait is well balanced and doesn't skirt any issues concerning this talented, complex and sometimes infuriating man. I have had my reservations about Vidal as a person and Kaplan gives enough background to understand, though not fully absolve, Gore Vidal. I enjoyed every page of it. Especially priceless is the shrewd, winking, nudging account of the famous William F. Buckley/Gore Vidal feuds in which Buckley comes across as quite bad. It becomes pretty obvious to any intelligent reader of 1999 why Buckley behaved so erratically and could barely stand to be in the same room with Gore Vidal. The whole book is a great read. One finishes it with a sense of both admiration and pity for Vidal who suffered (at the hands of his shrewish mother, from the loss of an early love, from early devastating literary disappointments, from being gay when it was verboten) more than he ever let on. Vidal isn't what one would call a nice, warm human being, but he did his best to make something of himself with the considerable talent he had.

I read this 800 page bio in the blink of an eye; it's as inexhaustibly thorough as it is engaging. Skillfully researched and written, no detail (too many?) is left unmentioned. Especially deep is the coverage of Gore's early years in Hollywood, in New York television, on Broadway-this is not for people with short show business memories. Great on Gore's literary associations, the Trumans and the Tennessees, and not bad on analasys of Gore's varied and many works. Should tide us over pretty well till he's dead and the next biographer puts the final (here missing) period to an era and a myth.

As a long-time fan of Gore Vidal (both the man and his work) I was disappointed with Kaplan's treatment. He is overly fawning of Vidal and looks at all events soley through his subject's eyes. The result is a fawing biography with little, if any, critical analysis or realism about Vidal. Kaplan also has a propensity for constantly droning on about Gore's good looks. Every few pages we are reminded that Vidal was "handsome," striking" or given details about his mesmerizing pulchritude. Enough, already.

There was ample gossip and name dropping, so if you're into dirt on the Kennedy's, Capote or Gore himself, you won't be disappointed. But if you're seeking a serious or even semi-critical examination of Gore, flaws and all, you won't find it here.

It's a shame, because few men of any generation have had the brains, wit and talent of Gore Vidal, but he has proven elusive to the picklocks of biographers.

A biographer's task begins with difficulty. Add more difficulty when his subject is still alive, and square that when the subject is as lively, controlling and litigious as Gore Vidal. When I learned that this project was about to be undertaken, I simply rolled my eyes and whipered "Good Luck, Mr. Kaplan."

Needless to say, I was not surprised when I read the results, for they were exactly what I expected. However, my expectation was tempered by my joy at discovering heretofore unknown facts about the life of the subject.

Given the handicap of working with Vidal, Kaplan produces a surprisingly strong biography. When judging it we must keep two things in mind: (1) Before this book, little was known of Vidal's life other than what appeared in the society pages and gossip sheets. For someone who has lived the last forty years of his life squarely in the public eye, Vidal has remained virtually unkown to that public. (2) Vidal is still very much with us and he is an extremely controlling person. Kaplan had a hell of a battle in refusing Vidal's request to see the manuscript before publication. As it was, the omissions from the book are minor and the book itself is surprisingly factual in spite of the hurdles Kaplan had to face. (For instance, Vidal didn't become political until the late Fifties, a fact which Kaplan deftly works in at the right moment.)

Now that the tome is in paperback, one can safely buy it without the feeling of having wasted one's money. For those purists out there who feel the book was not worth the time, remember this: The book is well-written and contains many items and facts about the life of Gore Vidal that were not public knowledge. And that he wrote such a tome under the controlling gaze of Vidal was a triumph in itself. For those who want an unexpurgated life of Vidal, sorry . . . you'll just have to wait until after his death.

What particularly fascinated me was the re-viewing of almost the entire 20th Century of the US through this book: politics, literature, culture (or otherwise), sex, and its major events. I remember the shock of WWII, the horror of the McCarthy days, the terrible battle in Chicago's streets during the mid-Sixties Democratic convention, the hilarious/appalling spectacle of big-ego authors beating up on each other and running for inconceivable offices ... and yet reading this book, I always found so much more than had ever been told before. It's the framework of Vidal's life and work that's far and away the most interesting aspect of him, and it's vividly here.

I have heard Vidal speaking about this book, and it is not authorized- the author refused to show it to him before publication, and he considered trying to block its publication. Since it came out, he has refused to read it, but has made numerous comments about the author's shoddy research, citing several examples of inaccuracies. The author also continually lied to the press about Vidal, saying that Vidal had asked him to write this biography, which he did not do, etc.

This is perhaps the longest book I've ever read that isn't long enough. It's not merely thorough but thoroughly exciting. Fred Kaplan is a very intelligent writer (certainly up to the task of keeping up with his polymorphous, somewhat polyglot-- certainly when it came to forms of writing, if not of languages--subject). Of particular interest to students of cultural history will be the relationships between Vidal and his publishers/editors (and editor friends, like Judith Jones, who knew!). Vidal's cavalier sexual attitudes are peculiarly relaxing (there's a moment late in the book when Gore, as he's almost always called in the book, is feeling a bit down and it's because he "had forgotten to arrange for some sex today"--tell me about it!). Even Vidal's struggles (ultimately futile) to keep the weight off are interesting--it's like watching Adonis on a Diet.

One could go on. But the book itself goes on, thank goodness. Read it. It will provide you with several weeks of vicarious just about everything.

Too many dropped names dropped too often. Too many references to Vidal's good looks: twice in the same paragraph in addition to every dozen or so pages. Too much repetition--of the good looks, of the dropped names, of the same old childish feuds reopened and redissected too often.

And yet there seemed to be some serious omissions. No mention of whether Gore's grandfather, T. P. Gore, was related to the Tennessee Gores. No mention in almost 800 pages of the House Un-American Activities Committee or Joseph McCarthy and his infamous hearings, although Vidal was a person intimately involved in both Hollywood and politics.

I rarely think a book is too long, but for this one, I'll make an exception. The book was too long.

Professor Kaplan has given us a comprehensive and compelling biography of a gifted and very complex man. Richly detailed and fast-paced, it surely ranks as one of the best biographies of the year!

Kaplan is far to thorough in his autobiography of a man who isn't yet dead. The book goes on and on, and while factual, tries to be too clever, as if Kaplan were trying to imitate Vidal's wit in his own presentation of Vidal. This will probably only appeal to the most feverish followers of Vidal (like me). Everyone else would be better served by Vidal's semi-autobiographical novel, Palimpsest. Alternatively, wait until the poor guy passes when writers will get the chance to give Vidal the same treatment he gave Lincoln and Burr.