Doubleday, 288 pages, $32
By PETER KADZIS | December 5, 2006
In the house of Gore there are many Vidals: novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, politician, controversialist, and — most recently — memoirist. It’s an unusual role for this most versatile of players. In conformity with his long tenure in this age of multiple media, and in service to his ego, Vidal has lived — or given the appearance of living — very much in public. But there is, I think, much artifice in this pose. In his first volume of memoirs, Palimpsest, Vidal suggested far more than he told, but his voice (mandarin), his style (languid) was sufficiently hypnotic to keep the reader’s attention where the writer wanted it. Now comes Gore Remembers: Volume Two or, as Vidal has titled it: Point to Point Navigation. It does not disappoint. It is not as finely chiseled as his first effort. But as a result, it has a deceptive sense on intimacy. The master is still in charge of his story; it is, after all, his life. It is less a narrative and more a series of themes and episodes with, for the star struck, cameos by the likes of Paul Newman. His asides on Louis Auchincloss, Paul Bowles, and Tennessee Williams suggest that when — after his death — Vidal’s letters are published, that he will enjoy a second coming of sorts. This is a very Roman touch: to strive for immortality before succumbing to the void. It is the nature of things — at least according to Gore Vidal.
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