The Last Empire : Essays 1992-2000

Rating:
Summary: Vidal sharpens his knives once more
Review: 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:
Summary: Vidal Redux!
Review: And we rejoice. Raconteur, critic, historian, polemicist, name-dropper - Gore Vidal either knew everybody who was anybody or is related to them. In this successor to "United States," we meet FDR, JFK and Jackie, Dawn Powell, Edmund Wilson, Nixon, Lindbergh and Sinclair Lewis, to name a few, and gain perspectives that nobody else could provide. We watch as Mr. Vidal hilariously demolishes a critic and marvel as he tears into John Updike. We learn that Thomas Mann was inspired by a Vidal novel to return to "Felix Krull." But for most of the book, we are treated to Mr. Vidal's vehemently expressed political views (the military-industrial complex runs the country, the American polity is a single party state with two right wings - Democratic and Republican, the Federal government is a form of tyranny, the majority of Americans are worse of than their counterparts in other rich countries). Whether you agree or not, reading Vidal always has the salutary effect of making you revisit your assumptions. This reader certainly awaits more from Gore.

Rating:
Summary: PRESCIENT, PROFOUND, AND ENTERTAINING: CLASSIC GORE VIDAL
Review: 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.