Rating: 
Summary: Disparate Works of an American Master Artfully Bound
Review: It is axiomatic that Gore Vidal has long been one of the more underrated American literary masters of the 20th century. It is brilliant compilations like SEXUALLY SPEAKING that do battle with this oversight. Not often do books emerge that contain such wit, history and a chilling timeliness, that can be both enlightening and serve as a puckish summer read. The supplemental commentary is piercing, poignant and vulgar. This is the book that archeologists will dig up in two hundred years, to see how sexual identity in the 20th century was both confused and triumphant
Rating:
Summary: A Timely and Welcome Collection
Review: This collection of Vidal's essays (and a few interviews) on sex and sexuality is both timely and welcome, since, as he states, sex is never far from public consciousness in the ever-repressed U.S.A. Essays like "Sex is Politics" are as fresh today as they were when first published, and is there another writer alive with a more authentic knowledge of American history and a more genuine understanding of American culture and political thought? I think not. Combine these assets with, as always, exqusite writing, and you have one utterly irresistible book.Contrary to what certain "gender absolutists" would have us all think, Vidal's opinions on sexuality are more trenchant than ever before at a time when more men and women are transgressing the false boundaries of gender to explore sex with whoever we please. This collection is a happy defiance of those who would try to neatly categorize all of us based on our sexual acts or even our preferences (a difficult feat indeed when one considers women like me, who perform with men acts that might be considered, ahem, decidedly queer...)
Rating:
Summary: one of the greatest
Review: This is one of the most insightful books I have ever read. Once I got started reading I couldn't stop. Gore Vidal has proven himself to be one of the greatest essayist/satirist in the business, if not of all time. The way he writes and the subjects he writes about all prove to be relevant today. My favoite articles were the Larry Kramer interview and the Sex is Politics. These show Vidal at his smartest and funniest. This is a must read for any Gore Vidal fan or just about anyone interested in reading at all.
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