Talking About Gore Vidal

 I have written about Gore Vidal here and I will probably do so again. He is a best-selling writer I think worth reading as much for his essays as his novels. I found the Literary Theory and Criticism posted Analysis of Gore Vidal’s Novels:

In an age and country that have little room for the traditional man of letters, Gore Vidal has established that role for himself by the force of his writing and intelligence and by his public prominence. He is a classicist in writing style, emphasizing plot, clarity, and order. Iconoclastic wit and cool, detached intelligence characterize his elegant style.

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If one can with certainty learn little from Vidal’s fiction about such famous people as the Kennedys, readers can learn much about his major concern, the nature of Western civilization and the individual’s role within it. He is interested in politics— how people make society work—and religion, the proper perspective on life as one faces death. In his early novels, one can see Vidal’s interest in ideas. Vidal’s young male protagonists find themselves entering a relativistic world in which all gods are dead. A “heterosexual dictatorship” and a life-numbing Christian establishment try to impose false moral absolutes. Society tempts the unwary by offering comfort and security and then removes the life-sustaining freedom of those who succumb to the temptation.

I hope  reading the whole article gets you to read Vidal.