Details Regarding Books Palimpsest
| Title | : | Palimpsest |
| Author | : | Gore Vidal |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 448 pages |
| Published | : | September 1st 1996 by Penguin Books (first published October 3rd 1995) |
| Categories | : | Autobiography. Memoir. Biography. Nonfiction. Biography Memoir |
Gore Vidal
Paperback | Pages: 448 pages Rating: 3.99 | 1648 Users | 114 Reviews
Explanation Concering Books Palimpsest
"I am not my own subject," Gore Vidal used to say. But now, surprisingly, he has turned his wit and elegant storytelling gifts to a candid memoir of the first forty years of his life. Palimpsest is written from the vantage point of Vidal's library in his villa on the Italian coast. As visitors come and go, his memory ranges back and forth across a rich history. Vidal's childhood was spent in Washington, D.C., in the household of his grandfather, the blind senator from Oklahoma, T. P. Gore, and in the various domestic situations of his complicated and exasperating mother, Nina. Then come schooldays at St. Albans and Exeter; the army; life as a literary wunderkind in New York, London, Rome, and Paris in the forties and fifties; sex in an age of promiscuity; and a campaign for Congress in 1960. Vidal's famous skills as a raconteur, his forthrightness, and his wicked wit are brilliantly at work in these recollections of a difficult family, talented friends, and interesting enemies. The cast includes Tennessee Williams, the Kennedys, Eleanor Roosevelt, Truman Capote, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Christopher Isherwood, Jack Kerouac, Jane and Paul Bowles, Santayana, Anais Nin, Norman Mailer, Leonard Bernstein, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, among others. Beautifully rendered anecdotes are intermixed with meditations on writing, history, acting, and politics. Perhaps most surprising is the leitmotif of a great, lost love. "A memoir is how one remembers one's own life," Vidal says, "while an autobiography is history." Palimpsest is a true story, but also an extraordinary work of literary imagination.
Be Specific About Books In Pursuance Of Palimpsest
| Original Title: | Palimpsest |
| ISBN: | 0140260897 (ISBN13: 9780140260892) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Lambda Literary Award Nominee for Gay Men's Biography/Autobiography (1996) |
Rating Regarding Books Palimpsest
Ratings: 3.99 From 1648 Users | 114 ReviewsColumn Regarding Books Palimpsest
Simply a delight, as only he can deliver.I'm not quite sure why I took this book out of the library. I sometimes find that I like literary biographies of authors more than the books they wrote, and I've never read any books by Gore Vidal. After reading this one, I'm still not sure if I'll read any others, but I found this one quite interesting, and in many places, especially the earlier part, witty and humorous. As the title suggests, he jumps backwards and forwards in time, sometimes writing over what he has already written, and
Gore Vidal was a massive dickhead. I cannot fathom why all these amazing people would spend time with him. The list of friends and contemporaries reads like some kind of insane post second World War Who's Who. Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, JFK, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Norman Mailer, Jack Keruoac, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Capra, Italo Calvino, Princess Margaret... the list goes on and on and on.I suppose if you can easily switch between novels, TV and film, if
On hearing of Vidals death some weeks ago I felt quite sad and decided that it was time for me to pick up some more of his books. I opted for the first of his memoirs and was very glad to have done so. It is typically well written, entertaining and, even when it seems merely to resort to idle gossip about movie stars, writers, his bizarre family or life among the American ruling class with which he was associated, it seems perfectly justified as the stories within it are some of the juiciest one
Just finished reading Gore Vidal's Palimpsest (New York: Random House, 1995). According to Vidal, "I have just now looked up the earliest meaning of palimpsest. It is even more apt than I thought: "Paper, parchment, etc., prepared for writing on and wiping out again, like a slate" and "a parchment, etc., which has been written upon twice; the original writing having been rubbed out!' This is pretty much what my kind of writer does anyway. Starts with life; makes a text; then a
Gore Vidal had connections to a lot of famous people (Truman Capote, the Beats, Kennedys) and he liked expounding on the impressions they made in his life. He was a marvelous writer with a marvelous vocabulary but his memoir sounded like gossip. However, due to his fairly arrogant tell-it-like-he-saw-it attitude these famous people got cut down and became more real. A chapter that will stick with me described his last visit with Allen Ginsberg, who I find quite visionary, and casually detailed
This has a surface of glitter and wit, written by a man who is as acerbic, clever and a great hater. I can't stay in his literary company for too long at a time and I'm glad I was never really in his company. I would never have survived. So I took my time with these memoirs and enjoyed myself. Gore Vidal can be laugh out loud funny. He is a great name dropper but it is done in a way that makes you feel that the big names are impressing other people by dropping his name into conversations. His
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.