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At Home: Essays 1982-1988
Presents twenty-three essays that examine the leadership of present-day America, from presidents to born-again Christians, as well as Vidal's thoughts on writers of today and yesteryear
303 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Gore Vidal
417 books1,880 followersWorks of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play
The Best Man
(1960) and the novel
Myra Breckinridge
(1968) .
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 26, 2013
I had been looking for another Gore Vidal book to read ever since we saw him at the 2006 L.A. Festival of Books. A friend of mine read Lincoln and thought I would like it. But when I saw the size of it, I said no way. I can read ten books in the time it would take me to read Lincoln; it would take me five months to read Lincoln. I will never read that book. I’ll go watch the documentary instead. At Home is short, sweet and he writes affectionately about Tennessee Williams who I absolutely love.
December 17, 2020
Some say Vidal was at his best as a reviewer and essayist. I agree. Reading these is rather like sitting down to comfortable dinner with a very interesting person, who knows everybody, and read everything, and listening to them dish the dirt. It's great fun, and dare I say educational.
June 12, 2013
The only thing I've read by Vidal, and I'm anxious to get some more of his essays -- which I hear are superior to his novels. In any case, he is a great stylist and an exuberant satirist: "[Calvino] knew perfectly well what a mephitic kindergarten our English departments have become..." --'Mephitic kindergarten'!
I skipped three or four of the essays that didn't interest me, and this book lends itself well to selective reading. There is no "numinous theme", as Vidal puts it.
I especially liked the literary criticism and political essays, the latter enumerating and proposing sensible solutions (i.e. an eight-week limit on presidential campaigns) to national problems that, incredibly, prevail today almost exactly as he described them thirty years ago.
I skipped three or four of the essays that didn't interest me, and this book lends itself well to selective reading. There is no "numinous theme", as Vidal puts it.
I especially liked the literary criticism and political essays, the latter enumerating and proposing sensible solutions (i.e. an eight-week limit on presidential campaigns) to national problems that, incredibly, prevail today almost exactly as he described them thirty years ago.
September 5, 2011
If Alan Hollinghurst's queasy, biographer character (The Stranger's Child) was given a body of work, it might be this. Vidal is more anxious than sure -- I wish he didn't invoke Edmund Wilson so often. I'm grateful for the EW quotes but it makes Vidal unreadable in comparison. But, fine, read Vidal for his rants. I love him most on Henry James, education ("when we were all Greek and Latined") and the teacherly peril modern American novelists teeter on in terms of subject.
October 21, 2012
A book to pick up and sample rather than read in one sitting. He certainly comes out with memorable lines. About Reagan, 'He's not stupid at all.He's ignorant, which is another thing.' Vidal delights with pithy phrases on many subjects, but his mannered style is beginning to feel dated. Could it be about to belong to that vast body of literature which is often prescribed but seldom read? But he is highly opinionated, which is fun, and I will enjoy dipping into these essays for years to come
June 24, 2014
Gore Vidal's essays provoke and inform. This book is worth its price for the essay on Nixon's foreign policy alone. The two essays on Henry James are also jewels, especially the one on "The Golden Bowl." Like Voltaire, Vidal taught with wit, rather than a sledgehammer.
September 2, 2008
I can't say I liked all of his essays, but he writes so beautifully that it's almost beside the point.
August 30, 2011
Insightful, hilarious, occasionally bordering on condescension.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews