Gore Vidal's reputation as America's finest essayist is an enduring one. This collection, chosen by the author from 40 years of work, contains about two-thirds of what he published in various magazines and journals. He has divided the essays into three categories, or states. State of the art covers literature, including novelists and critics, bestsellers, pieces on Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Suetonius, Nabakov and Montaigne (a previosly uncollected essay from 1992). State of the union deals with politics and public life: sex, drugs, money, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, The Holy Family (his essay on the Kennedys), Nixon, and finally Monotheism and its Discontents , a scathing critique of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In state of being, we are given personal responses to people and events: recollections of his childhood, E. Nesbit, Tarzan, Tennessee Williams and Anais Nin.
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Magnificent...irresistable from beginning to end. (THE TIMES )
All the Vidals are on display in this glittering showcase... Long may he continue to nip and bite at the flanks of the corrupt, the powerful, the moronic and the self-serving. (GUARDIAN )
The arc and span of Vidal's erudition and intelligence are prodigious... for forty years it has been Vidal's vocation to restore a witty and classically literate sense of memory and historical continuity to a country he calls "Amnesia" (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
Vidal is the outstanding literary radical of America. (Melvyn Bragg )
All the Vidals are on display in this glittering showcase... Long may he continue to nip and bite at the flanks of the corrupt, the powerful, the moronic and the self-serving. (GUARDIAN )
The arc and span of Vidal's erudition and intelligence are prodigious... for forty years it has been Vidal's vocation to restore a witty and classically literate sense of memory and historical continuity to a country he calls "Amnesia" (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
Vidal is the outstanding literary radical of America. (Melvyn Bragg )
Book Description
A collection of essays taken from 40 years of the author's work. It is divided into three sections: State of the Art , which covers literature; State of the Union , which deals with politics and public life; and State of Being , which gives his personal responses to people and events.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Dean Andrews
Format:Paperback
For all the searing wit, sharp observations and sometimes just plain bitchiness and good old-fashioned gossip in Gore Vidal’s incredible body of non-fiction, one also gets an unmistakable sense of melancholia. Here, evidently, is a man who is horrified by the direction his country has taken politically, particularly since the end of World War II, and one who is in mourning for the strange death of American literature.
I have just read this startling collection for the second time in ten years, this time around in only seven weeks whereas, the first time, I read it intermittently over twelve months or so. While I still found it invigorating stuff, I would recommend not reading United States in chronological order, nor all at once, as the repetitiveness of Vidal’s key arguments might sometimes become tiresome, even to one who agrees with much of what he has to say and enjoys the way he says it.
Vidal brings a wonderful, often satirical, candour to his subjects, particularly in his personal recollections. (It seems that he has, at some point, meet every significant president, novelist, playwright, politician and social figure of 20th century America - and a fair few prominent Europeans as well.)
One of the best aspects of Vidal’s work is that he always avoids hagiography. Even when he has great respect or admiration for those he writes about, it is guaranteed that you’ll get the whole story. This is particularly refreshing in the case of presidential ‘gods’ such as Lincoln, Kennedy and Washington. It reminds us that these people were only human, with all the frailties and faults that it entails. It is also interesting to think that much of what Vidal was warning about even as far back as the ’50s and ’60s has come to pass, particularly in relation to the National Security State and the erosion of rights, never more so than in the past few years.
Vidal’s sense of the historical and his knowledge of literature and politics are second to none. For more than a half a century he has been one the sharper thorns in the side of the American Right. If, from time to time, you’re in the mood for some intelligent, biting - and often humorous - insight into the cultural and political world of the American empire, you really can’t beat United States.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm not going to review the book in depth - let's just say that this chunky little doorstop contains so much thoughtful and informed analysis, such effortless, patrician style and such perfectly-phrased candour that even when you diagree with him (and you surely will) the reading is always a pleasure. One of the best books of essays I've come across.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By S Wood
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
United States is a collection of Gore Vidals essays that were written up to 1992. The book is a hefty tome, 114 essays over 1271 pages (806 grams if your hard of holding), divided into 3 sections: (1) State of the Art - on American writing, (2) State of the Nation - on American politics (3) State of Being - of which I am not quite certain what the theme is.
The essays are exemplars of their kind, abounding with his caustic humour, intelligence and world weary despair at the direction that the U.S. has taken both home and abroad. The first and second sections contain the best essays, his knowledge and intelligence regarding American letters is immense and his political writing is as always sharp and entirely lacking in any delusions of American grandeur. Spades are always called spades but in a wonderfully funny and erudite manner.
I thought there were a couple of weak essays in the third section (I dont think travel writing is Vidals forte) but otherwise the quality is consistently high. I was also left thinking that it would have been to the collections advantage if the sections were dispensed with and the essays simply put into chronological order. It would have been of interest to see how his essay writing had developed over time, and there being some overlap in a few of the essays subjects and themes the element of repetition that on occasion appears would be dispersed somewhat.
Apart from those minor quibbles, it is an amazingly readable book - perhaps best read an essay or two at a time though the "one more before lights out" factor means that I was all to often merrily reading away into the small hours. A book that is very good company.
The essays are exemplars of their kind, abounding with his caustic humour, intelligence and world weary despair at the direction that the U.S. has taken both home and abroad. The first and second sections contain the best essays, his knowledge and intelligence regarding American letters is immense and his political writing is as always sharp and entirely lacking in any delusions of American grandeur. Spades are always called spades but in a wonderfully funny and erudite manner.
I thought there were a couple of weak essays in the third section (I dont think travel writing is Vidals forte) but otherwise the quality is consistently high. I was also left thinking that it would have been to the collections advantage if the sections were dispensed with and the essays simply put into chronological order. It would have been of interest to see how his essay writing had developed over time, and there being some overlap in a few of the essays subjects and themes the element of repetition that on occasion appears would be dispersed somewhat.
Apart from those minor quibbles, it is an amazingly readable book - perhaps best read an essay or two at a time though the "one more before lights out" factor means that I was all to often merrily reading away into the small hours. A book that is very good company.
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