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A View from the Diners Club
Vidal brings his attention to bear on a variety of subjects, from H.L. Mencken to Oscar Wilde, Ford Madox Ford and Somerset Maugham. He has fun with the letters exchanged by Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell, deals unsparingly with Colonel Oliver North, and remembers his old friend Orson Welles.
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 1991
About the author
Gore Vidal
240 books1,936 followersGore Vidal was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, playwright and political commentator known for his sharp wit, provocative opinions and criticism of American society. Raised in Washington, D.C., he attended several preparatory schools before graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, a Democratic senator from Oklahoma, profoundly influenced his early interest in politics. During World War II, Vidal served in the United States Army and worked aboard a supply ship in the Aleutian Islands. His experiences inspired his first novel, Williwaw (1946), published shortly after his military service.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
December 19, 2025
I am not sure if I read this collection of essays previously or just remember reading some of them when they were first published - probably both - but reading them now, thirteen or so years after their author's death, I couldn't help wondering why I was bothering to do so. Vidal in many ways was a quintessential American creation a writer but more importantly a public intellectual known for his cynical epigrammatic wit, though those us old enough to have lived through a lifetime of his ponderous apercus might question just how witty he was. Certainly Vidal had no problems claiming to be a great many things but the question remains how many of them was he really any good at?
He could certainly write well but is he still worth reading? Before I was anywhere near halfway through the 240 pages of this volume I was drowning in ennui I Vidal hammered his clever clogs musing on the fall of the 'American empire' the power of the 'national security state' and other such bete noires or bees in his bonet because it was increasingly obvious that Vidal was not so much speaking to the ages as talking down to his own.
Talking down best summarises, for me, Vidal's annoying style. Quite how he managed to combine patrician arrogance with a folksy down home, telling it like it is, honesty I have no idea. But now these essays read not so much as penetrating or in depth but as souffles fluffed up into great masses of airy nothing as he rearranges his few ideas and attacks his critics with a relentless one sidedness that is truly astounding.
Vidal is good on other writers - I recall reading his essay on Maugham years ago and it has intelligent things to say about what was good and bad in his writing. Unfortunately there are few real literary essays - even with Maugham the piece is more a discussion of biography and academia then literary quality.
Perhaps anyone who writes and comments on current events as Vidal will always have a sell by date. If you obsessed with Vidal you might read these essays but otherwise? That is why I give them three stars because he writes to well to be dismissed but it doesn't worth reading.
He could certainly write well but is he still worth reading? Before I was anywhere near halfway through the 240 pages of this volume I was drowning in ennui I Vidal hammered his clever clogs musing on the fall of the 'American empire' the power of the 'national security state' and other such bete noires or bees in his bonet because it was increasingly obvious that Vidal was not so much speaking to the ages as talking down to his own.
Talking down best summarises, for me, Vidal's annoying style. Quite how he managed to combine patrician arrogance with a folksy down home, telling it like it is, honesty I have no idea. But now these essays read not so much as penetrating or in depth but as souffles fluffed up into great masses of airy nothing as he rearranges his few ideas and attacks his critics with a relentless one sidedness that is truly astounding.
Vidal is good on other writers - I recall reading his essay on Maugham years ago and it has intelligent things to say about what was good and bad in his writing. Unfortunately there are few real literary essays - even with Maugham the piece is more a discussion of biography and academia then literary quality.
Perhaps anyone who writes and comments on current events as Vidal will always have a sell by date. If you obsessed with Vidal you might read these essays but otherwise? That is why I give them three stars because he writes to well to be dismissed but it doesn't worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review