History, with a capital H or simply as gossip, is a perfectly legitimate basis for a novel, despite Mary McCarthy's contention that "serious" (i.e., solemn) writers don't do history. It's typical Vidal: very witty, very smart, never boring - what a swell party this is! And yet I wonder whether Vidal hasn't invested too much in these tomes, which, for my greenbacks, don't bear up as well as his "entertainments" like "Myra Breckenridge" or "Duluth." For, as the Roman poet said, "What forbids us to tell the truth, laughing?" Still, his peerless prose alone is enough to recommend "The Golden Age" the concluding volume in his American Chronicle series. He's also our most gifted essayist but, loath as I am to say this, such is my esteem for him, he is not quite our most gifted novelist. He is a moral libertine, a radical traditionalist and a cynical idealist.
He is a born patrician, yet he is also a democrat to the marrow - which keeps him just outside the patriciate, as a class traitor.
Gore Vidal is the Paradoxical Man: He is a prophet without honor in his own country, yet he is also a national treasure.
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