Screening History

Rating:
Summary: One of Vidal's most pleasant books - a joy to read
Review: Gore Vidal's recent non-fiction writings have been disappointing, but this book is a gem. It is an early attempt at autobiography, years before "Palimpsest" and in some ways deeper. Vidal's early years in the thirties coincided with Hollywood's golden age, and in "Screening History" he reflects on the movies which most influenced him, particularly those versions of British and American history, such as "The Prince and the Pauper", "Fire over England" and "Young Mr. Lincoln". Vidal shares his reminiscences not only on the movies themselves but also on their historical context in the pre-WWII US of the thirties, but in far more serene and thoughtful way than in later writings, where he sounds increasingly bitter. His musings on the possible influence of 1939 movies on then President Bush are apparently not to be taken too seriously and are far more agreeable than his later simplistic comments on presidents in "The American Presidency". Altogether this is not the best, but arguably the most pleasant of Vidal's books.