Rating: 
Summary: Skip it -- Vidal is out of steam
Review: Some of the entries in Vidal's history series are genuine novels -- LINCOLN, BURR. The others are nimble confections, with 1876 and EMPIRE perhaps the most engaging. But this one is just a dull thud.In all of these books Vidal has inserted a fictional character as a stand-in for himself, with a detached, eternally ironic perspective on surrounding events. The problem in this one is that he has no fewer than three such figures colliding in the same book -- Caroline Sanford, best fleshed out in HOLLYWOOD, and now her nephew Peter and filmmaker Tim Farrell. And then on top of this Vidal has HIMSELF walk on here and there in the same mode. The result becomes less a novel than Vidal in assorted guises just walking us through the 40s and 50s spouting his usual observations to the tune of America being run by an elitist conspiracy with no regard for its inhabitants. But first of all, Vidal's position here is, while having a grain of truth and then some, overblown and facile. Whether FDR goaded the Japanese into attack is a thorny and subtle issue, hardly the closed case Vidal makes it out to be. And too often in this book, Vidal has real-life figures coming right out and admitting to the conspiratorial notions he suspects, in ways that one cannot help questioning the veracity of. In LINCOLN, one sensed that the significant things figures were saying had historical backing. But did FDR's Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins really sit in bed openly crowing that he and FDR were seeking to render America the king of the world despite what the public wanted? This is not historical fiction -- it's Vidal recruiting historical figures as paper dolls parroting his political beliefs. And that is not exactly large work. Nor is it a novel. Scene after scene consists of parties or gatherings where people stand around having witty but guarded thrust-parry conversations about the issues of the day, no one ever quite giving away their hand. This was cute in EMPIRE and HOLLYWOOD, because it passed as a depiction of a manner of socializing in vogue at the time, or at least that we THINK was in vogue because authors like Henry James wrote that way. But in THE GOLDEN AGE, this device is overused and becomes tiresome -- nothing is HAPPENING at these soirees, and since no one ever actually says much of anything, by the seventh or eighth such episode one starts to lose interest, especially since Vidal has almost all actual happenings recounted briefly and after the fact. This includes bombings, romantic affairs, marriages, deaths, etc. This is a narrative? And of course there is also the problem that this book overlaps in time with the period covered by WASHINGTON, DC, so if you have followed the series then we have been here before -- again and again we are reminded of events regarding Clay Overbury and wife Enid, etc. which we already experienced in the other novel on this very era. Which only reinforces the sense that Vidal just wanted to sound off on his favorite issues, this time inserting himself into the narrative. At the end, he goes as far as to switch to first-person narration and have himself interviewed in tandem with the closest thing to a precise Vidal stand-in in the book, the interviewer being an Aaron Burr descendant and stand-in, and the theme being the mythic quality of historiography. Nice, but why not base a book on this, something fresh and original? It would make the loving descriptions of Vidal's Italian residence make more sense, dovetail with his recent PALIMPSEST, and be much more worth reading. But instead we get a formulaic trudge where characters have elliptical conversations about issues of the day, their utterances constantly interrupted with brief observations of how they eat or, as they age, creeping indications of bodily breakdown (this is a Vidal tic, vastly overused here). Overall this is an unengaging lecture disguised as a novel. It's fitting that the book's physical design departs from the one used for all the previous entries in the series, as I will consider the run to have ended with HOLLYWOOD. This one is, rather like Lucille Ball's brief final sitcom in the 1980s, a separate and unfortunate footnote.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: Terrible - the thing that amazes me is that it is so badly written. I quote: "Caroline smiled at her half brother, whom she had come to like once the fierce war over their father's estate had ended not long after she had become, all on her own, a successful newspaper proprietor, fulfilling what had been his dream." Who does that final "his" refer to, for goodness' sake? The book is entirely composed of this kind of slack prose - an authentic disaster!
Rating:
Summary: Ramblings of a Paranoid Old Man
Review: The beauty of writing historical fiction is that you don't have to be burdened down by the facts. Vidal is, for the most part, a gifted writer ... he can craft a phrase as well as any political speech writer working today. When it comes to hewing true to history, however, he comes up woefully short. Vidal is little more than a paranoid, cynical old man who has, quite simply, gone over the edge in his doddy old age. His reading of American history is intriguing, if one keeps at his side a good history textbook for grounding in the facts. His interpretation of the major periods in American history -- the Revolution and late 1700s, the early Republic, the Civil War and Industrial Age, and America's entrance onto the world stage in the 20th century -- is interesting ... provoking ... and totally warped by his own paranoia and cynicism. Just keep in mind that Vidal seriously adheres to the belief that FDR knew of the pending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and allowed it to happen; that Truman was a war criminal for Hiroshima and Nagasaki; that the Cold War was just a creation of the military industrial complex. And that's just a sampling of the rantings in the entire seven-book series. All that and more is perpetuated by the industrial elites in order to gain total, though silent and unseen, control over the American political system. Remember, this is the same man whom Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind mass murderer of the Oklahoma City bombing, befriended via the U.S. Postal Service and with whom shared many of the same views of the American government. How amusing and how sad that American intellectual and literary elites fawn over this old man and his ramblings. Buy this book for a good laugh, if you will, but also search on Amazon for a good history textbook ... you'll need it to sift through the paranoid ramblings.
Rating: 
Summary: HURRAH FOR VIDAL'S LAST HURRAH
Review: There is an old saying that when it's time to go out, go out with a bang. This is exactly what Gore Vidal does in this, the last novel in his "American Chronicles" series. An updating and rewriting of his earlier novel, "Washington, D.C.," "The Golden Age" shifts its focus to the nation as a whole and the chain of events that involved us in World War 2 and the Cold War. Gossipy and inclusive rather than pedantic and exclusive (as many historical novels tend to be), Vidal gives the reader the view of an insider, partially because he had grown up on the fringes of that inside. Among the many historical character the reader meets in the pages of the novel is none other than Gore Vidal himself. This should be no surprise as Vidal is one of the most autobiographical of American authors, his memoir "Palimpsest" reading almost like a novel. Non-Vidal fans may not like the Calvino-esque ending, but those among us who love Vidal's writings will feel more than a touch of sadness at the end. More entertaining than "Empire" or "Hollywood," "The Golden Age" belongs on the shelf of all serious readers.
Rating:
Summary: HURRAH FOR VIDAL'S LAST HURRAH
Review: There is an old saying that when it's time to go out, go out with a bang. This is exactly what Gore Vidal does in this, the last novel in his "American Chronicles" series. An updating and rewriting of his earlier novel, "Washington, D.C.," "The Golden Age" shifts its focus to the nation as a whole and the chain of events that involved us in World War 2 and the Cold War. Gossipy and inclusive rather than pedantic and exclusive (as many historical novels tend to be), Vidal gives the reader the view of an insider, partially because he had grown up on the fringes of that inside. Among the many historical character the reader meets in the pages of the novel is none other than Gore Vidal himself. This should be no surprise as Vidal is one of the most autobiographical of American authors, his memoir "Palimpsest" reading almost like a novel. Non-Vidal fans may not like the Calvino-esque ending, but those among us who love Vidal's writings will feel more than a touch of sadness at the end. More entertaining than "Empire" or "Hollywood," "The Golden Age" belongs on the shelf of all serious readers.
Rating: 
Summary: FANTASY OVERDONE
Review: This could have been a great book but sadly it's just fair. The history is there in all its stark reality. The spin is necessary and overdue. But the problem is- too much inane dialogue, at times humorous but often tedious. Page 84- "Dewey's no Jimmy Stewart. For one thing he's only three feet tall, with snaggle teeth." "Cap them," ordered LB as if Dewey were under contract, "I've promised New York an October 1st opening. You'll be ready." True, this is a novel but there needs to be some restraint. Page after page of banal banter. Still, it's an important literary endeaver.
Rating:
Summary: quite an introduction to Gore Vidal!
Review: This is my first exposure to Gore Vidal's writing - despite many years of being vaguely familiar with him. I was so very impressed with this work, that I've gone ahead and ordered all the books of his American Chronicle series (via amazon.com, of course!) As someone who rarely reads novels, I indulge myself more often via Books on Tape (i.e., "audio books"). I didn't actually read this book, but instead listened to the unabridged audio version. What was so compelling about this book (besides its superb writing) was the subject matter and scope. As someone who has closely followed politics and American history for many years, I was nonetheless amazed at how much I learned in the course of listening to this tale. I found the historical storylines to be rendered accurately and fairly. Franklin Roosevelt's possible secret mission to get the United States into World War II, including the details thereof, is most intriguing - even if perhaps not fully substantiated. The individual characterizations - of both fictional characters and real historical personages - were skillfully, compellingly, and deftly wrought. I kept wondering whom Day and his protege were supposed to be modeling in real life (historically). (If anyone knows, please let me know!) I wonder, too, which state they were supposedly from (New Mexico or Arizona, presumably). The one small disappointment was hearing Gore Vidal read the final portion of the book on tape. His reading was fine, but it was jarring after hearing the rest of the book so well read and convincingly rendered by the woman narrator. I also found the end itself to be somewhat out of place, and poorly joined to, the rest of the book - which holds together as a tight, coherent whole.
Rating:
Summary: quite an introduction to Gore Vidal!
Review: This is my first exposure to Gore Vidal's writing - despite many years of being vaguely familiar with him. I was so very impressed with this work, that I've gone ahead and ordered all the books of his American Chronicle series (via amazon.com, of course!) As someone who rarely reads novels, I indulge myself more often via Books on Tape (i.e., "audio books"). I didn't actually read this book, but instead listened to the unabridged audio version. What was so compelling about this book (besides its superb writing) was the subject matter and scope. As someone who has closely followed politics and American history for many years, I was nonetheless amazed at how much I learned in the course of listening to this tale. I found the historical storylines to be rendered accurately and fairly. Franklin Roosevelt's possible secret mission to get the United States into World War II, including the details thereof, is most intriguing - even if perhaps not fully substantiated. The individual characterizations - of both fictional characters and real historical personages - were skillfully, compellingly, and deftly wrought. I kept wondering whom Day and his protege were supposed to be modeling in real life (historically). (If anyone knows, please let me know!) I wonder, too, which state they were supposedly from (New Mexico or Arizona, presumably). The one small disappointment was hearing Gore Vidal read the final portion of the book on tape. His reading was fine, but it was jarring after hearing the rest of the book so well read and convincingly rendered by the woman narrator. I also found the end itself to be somewhat out of place, and poorly joined to, the rest of the book - which holds together as a tight, coherent whole.
Rating: 
Summary: Monday Morning Quarterback...
Review: What a struggle it was for me to finish this book. While I'm not an avid fiction reader, I do enjoy historical fiction and I remain an admirer of sorts of Gore Vidal; but this book was tiring and generally dull. The "invented" characters were all "Vidal Clones," with few distinguishing characteristics that either made them unique or interesting. Vidal's cleverishness is always apparent and quite overdone. The heart and soul of the tale is the alleged Roosevelt manipulation of the Japanese into attacking some American installation, thereby "firing-up" Americans and giving the president an excuse to enter World War II. To what extent the Roosevelt administration manipulated history, or "history" manipulated the Roosevelt administration remains a question worthy of study and examination -- a subject better dealt with in non-fiction formats, as opposed to Vidal's parlor discussions involving snobbish imaginary journalists, publishers, confidants, etc. Another bothersome feature of the book is the plot's lack of continuity. I kept imagining the story as a stage play with the house lights fading in and out and the characters hurriedly changing costumes and racing across the stage to be seen in yet another dull conversation, sprinkled with facts and fantasies. Certainly if you're a Vidal fan be sure to read this final installment in his lengthy essay on aspects of the American experience. Otherwise it should be skipped for much better treatments of the same "golden age" by "historians."
Rating:
Summary: Mock On, Vidal, For It Is NOT All In Vain!
Review: Whether or not one agrees with every last thing Vidal says, I have to say I found myself doing once again what I always do when I read one of his historical novels - rushing to read the history books on the era - I did the same thing with Lincoln, Burr and Empire (not to mention Julian and Creation). And I agree with the reviewer who says, Hurrah for Vidal's last hurrah. The Golden Age is a highly entertaining literary read. Do not be too shocked by some of the claims here that Vidal is skewering the memory of Pearl Harbor (for example)- the detached reader can more than see what Vidal is up to and come to his own conclusion. Just enjoy it, and see if you aren't very interested in making your own exploration of the era with a armful of history books.
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