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Title: The Last Empire : Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal ISBN: 0-375-72639-X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Vidal sharpens his knives once more
Comment: A collection of Gore Vidal's essays covering the years 1992-2000, "The Last Empire" is a fine addendum of sorts to the epic "United States."
Vidal is once more concerned primarily with the subjects of art and politics, and he's at his best when his two preoccupations meet, as they do several times in this volume. Vidal, perhaps out of rivalry, perhaps out of genuine contempt resulting from objective analysis, makes a meal out of author John Updike in "Rabbit's Own Burrow," the lengthy essay that may be the highlight of this collection. When Vidal brings out his carving knives, you may sometimes pity whomever he deigns to dine on, but you're likely to be satisfied with the feast he serves.
Vidal can be nice, too, and his thoughts on Frank Sinatra shortly after the crooner's death, are enlightening for anyone who squirmed at the sight of the Voice's seemingly illogical embrace of conservative politics after a lifetime of populism. Elsewhere, in his reaction to the death of Richard Nixon, you're not entirely sure where he stands. Vidal seems to have a grudging respect for the man he did so much to villify.
Vidal's massive ego takes to the stage in "A Note on The City and the Pillar and Thomas Mann" in which he shares with us entries from Mann's diary praising...Vidal! It could almost be too much to take if Vidal weren't so amusing even at his most insufferable.
Vidal is the last of the great curmudgeons, but unlike most of that breed, he resists being fully lovable. His sense of superiority keeps even some of his most avid admirers at arm's length, but whether one agrees with his views or not, he never fails to make you think and to laugh.
Rating: 5
Summary: PRESCIENT, PROFOUND, AND ENTERTAINING: CLASSIC GORE VIDAL
Comment: Gore Vidal is one of those writers who always challenges, excites, and stirs up my thinking. While I do not fully endorse all of the views in "THE LAST EMPIRE: ESSAYS 1992-2000", I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. He is one of the best.
In terms of clarity of thought and analysis, Gore writes on subjects as varied as Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, JFK, FDR, Truman, Charles Lindbergh, John Updike (one of the funniest, most thoughtful and scathing essays in the book), "bad history", race relations, and the U.S. political system.
Here are two examples of the passion and conviction Vidal brings to this book:
1) "...I invite the Senate to contemplate Vice President Aaron Burr's farewell to the body over which he himself had so ably presided: 'This house is a sanctuary, a citadel of law, of order, and of liberty; and it is here in this exalted refuge; here, if anywhere, will resistance be made to the storm of political frenzy and the silent arts of corruption; and if the Constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor.' Do no harm to this state, Conscript Fathers." (essay on 'Birds and Bees and Clinton')
2) "What will the next four years bring? With luck, total gridlock. ... With bad luck (and adventures), Chancellor Cheney will rule. A former Secretary of Defense, he has said that too little money now goes to the Pentagon even though last year it received 51 percent of the discretionary budget. Expect a small war or two in order to keep military appropriations flowing. There will also be tax relief for the very rich. But bad scenario or good scenario, we shall see very little of the charmingly simian George W. Bush. The military - Cheney, Powell, et al. - will be calling the tune, and the whole nation will be on constant alert, for, James Baker has already warned us, Terrorism is everywhere on the march. We cannot be too vigilant. Welcome to Asuncion. Yes! We have no bananas."
The Nation 8/15 January 2001 (Essay on 'Democratic Vistas')
No matter what one may think of Gore Vidal, his writings will always engage and challenge the reader to think, and think, and think. And learn.
Rating: 5
Summary: Gore Vidal has always been clear about what is real and true
Comment: This collection of essays is written in Vidal's always concise, straight-to-the-point manner. As great as he is in the historical fiction genre (his works from "Burr" through "Empire" are true American classics), still, I think his essay work is his best venue. Split into four parts, the latter three are often brilliant. His essay "Wiretapping the Oval Office" is hilarious, while his "Time for a Peoples Convention" is timely, even before it became imperative. Vidal seems to have the knack for seeing the most viable probabilities before they become crystal clear. The man simply talks (and writes) sensible, if sometimes altruistic, ideas and ideals. "Race Against Time" is one of those altruistic, yet emminently sensible essays. If anyone doubts Vidal's knack for seeing political reality in advance, let me quote his 1992 essay "With Extreme Prejudice", "...there is no longer a rational for so many secret services unless the Feds really come out of the closet and declare war on the American people, the ultimate solution..." Patriot Act anyone? Part Four of this book of essays must be read. "Shredding The Bill Of Rights", written in 1998, is an eery, uncanny prediction (come true) of what is happening now - ostensibly as a result of the 9/11 attacks - but Vidal saw this coming well before that. Recently, an aquaintance of mine whose opinions I respect stated that "desperate times call for desperate measures" when I expressed my deep concern with the unusually (and, in my opinion, illegal and unconstitutional) wide scope and potential for serious abuse of power contained in the PATRIOT Act (an acronym for Providing Adequate Tools Required in order to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). I reminded him that this was precisely the defense used at Nuremburg by Nazi defense council. Count on Vidal to always be on the cutting edge of what is coming to a Country near you.
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Title: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta by Gore Vidal ISBN: 1560255021 Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal ISBN: 156025405X Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: 10 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: United States by Gore Vidal ISBN: 0767908066 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 15 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The American Presidency by Gore Vidal ISBN: 1878825151 Publisher: Common Courage Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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Title: Decline and Fall of the American Empire by Gore Vidal ISBN: 1878825003 Publisher: Odonian Press Pub. Date: October, 1992 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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