The Golden Age

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

The Golden Age is the last book in the Narratives of Empire series, both chronologically and in publication order and closes out the series in a somber note.  However, much of the book takes place concurrently with Washington D.C.  following the adventures of some of the characters that he added in books later in the publication order.  However, it then continues past that through the end of the 20th century.

While wrapping up the stories of all the characters with varying degrees of satisfaction, this book also enhances and continues the cynical bent of the latter book and basically flat our accuses FDR of warmongering.  The title is, as you may expect, also a cynical slant on American history.

The Golden Age also has a fair amount of discussion of America's growth as a cultural epicenter, following up on many of the threads in Hollywood.  Gore Vidal himself makes an appearance within the pages of the book, more than once no less.

I think if you don't like FDR that much or if you like unpopular historical takes, these books will be fascinating.  I know I was very interested to see the way that FDR was portrayed continue as the modern world is so effusive in its praise of him.  However, it also makes you wonder how much of it is true and how much of it is dramatized and how much of it the author wishes were true.

Bringing the series to a close, it is somewhat depressing to do it on this note, I wish he had continued further into the cold war rather than dig so deeply into FDR for two books.  I think it leaves the series somewhat unbalanced (two books of focus on FDR, George Washington barely above a cameo in Burr). I think the years between ~1960 and 2000 could have benefited from a more detailed viewing.

However, this book is what it is and while I think the author could have picked better subject matter, it does provide some interesting views (though one has to wonder what the series would have been like if he had his ideas for the whole thing when he was writing Washington D.C. originally).  The fictional characters are all vividly imagined and the historical figures seem like they could have stepped right out of a history book.

Overall, I would give this book an 88%.

Washington DC

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

Washington D.C. is the penultimate novel in the chronological reading of Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire but the first one published.  Unfortunately, the fact that it is the first published is not as well disguised as other series where the chronological order and published order are different.

Caroline Sanford, primary protagonist of the last two books, has vanished.  And I don't mean like Luke at the beginning of The Force Awakens, it becomes clear that Gore Vidal didn't come up with her until he was writing Empire.  The final book in the series, The Golden Age, takes place concurrently with this book but I am not sure that there is a reading that interleaves the chapters in true chronological order.

This book covers the depression, World War II, and the beginning of the Cold War and it is definitely more novelized and dramatic than some of the other books in the series.  It is also pretty cynical, basically stating straight out that FDR got us in to WW II deliberately and takes an overall fairly negative view on some people who are today considered icons.  I'm not sure if there was a large contingent of people with beliefs like that at the time and we are blinded by nostalgia or if Vidal was cynical even for his own time.

However, all of these complaints are not to say the book is unenjoyable.  There is a lot to like here and seeing the 40's through a different lens makes it different than most history books I have read.  Perhaps if I had started here, it might have been more of a turn off but with the investment in the characters and reading the lead up to how they got to this point, it was interesting to see how he is maneuvering everyone towards a conclusion.

Overall, I would give this book an 86%.

Hollywood

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

Hollywood is our fifth stop on our journey through the Narratives of Empire series (it would be the sixth if I was reading in publication order).  It is also, unfortunately, my least favorite volume in the series.  This is not to say it is bad but I think it is a clear outlier considering how much I enjoyed the rest of the series.

Caroline Sanford, who spent the last book assertively establishing a newspaper empire and competing with her brother now throws it all away to move to Hollywood and work in the movie business with William Randolph Hearst from the last book. 

While this book covers the United States' entry into World War I and the aftermath, splitting the action between Hollywood and DC doesn't do the pacing any favors.  I also found the Hollywood parts of the book just less compelling.  Perhaps someone with a greater appreciation for film history would enjoy it more, but I found it lacking.

I can understand that it kind of follows a similar format to Empire in that it takes a more social perspective to formative events in American history but it doesn't feel like it works as well.  Also, Caroline Sanford being a producer and an actor and being willing to give up her newspapers seems like an unrealistic character change.

Overall, I would give this book an 81%.

Empire

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

Empire by Gore Vidal is the fourth volume in his Narratives of Empire series chronologically and the fifth published.  At this point, publication order and chronological order will line up for all but the penultimate volume and you can tell that this sets up a little more world building than previous volumes.

Empire is a strong contender for my favorite volume in the series (Lincoln being its strongest competitor) but it introduces my favorite character, Caroline Sanford. She and her brother are the latest descendants of the Schulyer family and they are pitted against each other in the age of yellow journalism.  Her ambition is most of the driving force in the novel and Vidal manages to make her triumphs feel appropriately hard fought.

This volume interested me more because it focused less on the global events at the beginning of the 20th century (though still a fair amount, "Empire" is the title) and more on the social, with which I was less familiar.  I didn't really know much about the Hearst news empire (owned by the child of the villain of Deadwood) and the social struggles around McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt's presidential runs.

As with all the books in the series, you could probably pick it up and start here. However, this one has more connections to the previous volumes than some of the others.  Like the others though, it is a highly enjoyable read steeped in the characters and politics of the time.

Overall, I would give this book a 90%.

1876

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones, (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

In our continuing journey through Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire brings us to 1876, the third published and the third chronologically.  This is much more of a direct sequel to Burr than Lincoln was and bridges the gap between Burr and the first book published, Washington D.C.  (You could consider Narratives of Empire in publication order as two trilogies, with the misfit Lincoln between them.  Anyway, enough discussion of the series, on to the book!

While Gore Vidal's cynical eye generally portrays an America that is probably more true than I would like, his coverage of the year 1876, what he calls "probably the low point in our republic's history" is particularly painful.  Grant is another historical figure I found interesting, I read his memoirs and enjoyed them, but there is a reason that they end at the end of the civil war and don't continue into his political career.

I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but the character of Grant in this book gets very little wiggle room around his corruption and the problems in his administration.  This book could easily have been entirely about Grant's administration like a dark mirror to Lincoln but instead the author has tried to give us a slightly wider view of what is going on, which has its pluses and minuses.

Our narrator from Burr returns, now an appropriately old man.  As an interesting choice, Vidal makes him quite the unreliable narrator.  He ignores signs that are right in front of him and has difficulty remembering things.  In an interesting case of parallelism, the corruption of the United States is matched by the corruption in the narrator's brain.  His self-delusion and absent-mindedness perhaps match the country's delusion that, at that point in history,  America was still a great nation.

Overall, I would give this book an 89%.

Lincoln

Warning: While I try to keep these posts as spoiler free as possible, when discussing the later books in a series, it is difficult to avoid spoiling details of the earlier ones, (though with Narratives of Empire you will probably get more spoilers from a passable knowledge of American history).

Lincoln is the second book of Narratives of Empire chronologically but the  4th published.  It is far and away the least related to the rest of the series, only a couple reoccurring characters from Burr and the introduction of a few characters that play significantly larger roles in later volumes even merit it admission into the series.  If you were solely interested in the plot of the saga, this would be the volume to skip.  But why would you?

Even if you aren't a completionist like me, anyone who would enjoy the rest of the series would definitely enjoy this book.  Its loving look at Lincoln from those around him is a total contrast to the frustrated look at Jefferson in Burr and is a delight to read.  Of course, it doesn't go easy on him, I'm not sure Gore Vidal is capable is going easy on anyone, but you can tell had great respect and regard for Lincoln.

The book has only one viewpoint from Lincoln and all the rest are from the people around him, with his secretary John Hay as one of the most frequent (due in large part to the fact that Hay's autobiography was one of the major sources for the book).  I am not sure I have ever read a book quite like it with all the viewpoints focused on a single person without hearing from them directly, it has the interesting effect of making you feel like you are orbiting some celestial object and observing it from all sides.

The book is also an interesting take on the Civil War as it goes through Lincoln's presidency and a little beyond, however it rarely shows any of the battles.  The reader learns about them as Lincoln does, from messengers and telegrams.  "Atlanta is ours and fairly won" has a stronger resonance when you don't see Sherman take the city and are waiting nervously at the White House with the president.

This book is historical fiction and thus has some inaccuracies though what and how much were hotly debated by Gore Vidal.  While it isn't perfect, it definitely is an entertaining read and a welcome addition to any history nerd's bookshelf.

Overall, I would give this book a 92%. 

Burr

Aaron Burr has always been a sort of favorite of mine.  Not in the sense that he was a role model or anything like that; a man who is, by many accounts, a traitor and a sore loser doesn't seem suited to that sort of favoritism.  Instead, I liked him because he was a quirk of history, he managed to interact and work with many of the founding fathers of America, without ever being considered one.  It seems he was a skilled lawyer and politician but he burned the wrong bridges (and shot the wrong people) and ended up on the wrong side of history.

These were the things I was thinking when I saw Burr by Gore Vidal among my grandmother's books.  After a quick google which told me that it was the first of a 7 book series (as always if I can help it, I read the series in historical order rather than publication order (Burr is second in publication order)), I shelved it for some years until I was in the mood to read something longer.  When I finally hit that point, I was delighted at how good it was.  Gore Vidal was just a familiar name to me before I started this series but now he is an author I respect.

The book is historical fiction and follows Burr in the twilight of his life recounting adventures from his younger years.  As you might expect from the title, it generally puts him in a sympathetic light.  After reading the rest of the series, I've determined that Vidal is somewhat of a historical contrarian.  If history says someone is good, Vidal probably portrays them less kindly in his books and, to Burr's benefit, someone history frowns upon gets a more positive spin.  This makes for a particularly interesting read for someone like me who generally goes after the breadth of history rather than the depth of particular parts.

The book is highly enjoyable: the characters are engaging, and while the plot is mostly a frame story, it makes history interesting.  It is not the best book in the series (that honor probably goes to Lincoln or Empire) but it is in the top half of a set of seven good books.  Plus, it makes for the perfect gift for anyone who is annoying you by singing Hamilton lyrics too much.

Overall, I would give this book a 90%.