Palimpsest: A Memoir
by Gore Vidal
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gore VidalEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 0140260897
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of Palimpsest: A Memoir
Book Review: A Rider on the Storm
Summary: 5 Stars
Gore Vidal has written one of the most honest, revealing and entertaining memoirs I've ever encountered. It's a book that can be dipped into casually or, preferably read from the beginning to the all too soon end when he reaches the age of 39. It's full of insights into the various people he has met during those years such as Tennessee Williams , John and Jackie Kennedy, Truman Capote and other figures in the literary and entertainment world of the forties and fifties. He talks of his family, his mother whose attitudes he had to jettison; and his grandfather, the blind Senator Gore from Oklahoma of the 1910's. (He and Al are cousins) He talks of his relationships with all of these people in an almost stream of consciousness style that jumps back and forth from the distant past to the more recent past to the current writing of the book (1994). All of this comes with comments, observations and anecdotes that illumine his attitudes then and now in a way that makes the reader, who knows little or nothing of these people, a part of the audience of his experience. While that description, might sound unappealing to the regular reader of more straightlaced memoirs; rest assured that it is a formula for a most entertaining read. Of course the name-dropping can't be helped as he is part of that circle (and that's one reason we read books like this). One of the interesting aspects of his book is that he tells us what happens when he gets back in touch with people he used to know (like Allen Ginsburg), or people that knew the same people who were important to him, like the 91 year old mother of his first love. Great stuff. The leitmotif of the book is the first love of his life who was killed at Iwo Jima in 1945. What might seem to some people a maudlin display of nostalgia, is in actuality a very human story of something that was lost and never recovered, if indeed it was ever possesed at all. It is a sort of a Citizen Kane mystery that has continued to haunt and influence Vidal's life, providing a counterpoint to everything that was done and experienced ever after. Through it all the wit and personal wisdom of Vidal shows itself . Not merely a famous author, but another Rider on the Storm of life. Recomended even if you don't know who Gore Vidal is.
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