At Home
Essays 1982 - 1988
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Written by “America’s finest essayist” (New Statesman), At Home brings together twenty-four essays on subjects ranging from Henry James to Nancy Reagan, Oscar Wilde to Oliver North, Hollywood to Mongolia. From the leaders and lunacies of contemporary America to reminiscences of his own childhood, whether answering his own critics or excoriating the current state of literature, Gore Vidal is, as always, elegant, incisive, and brilliant.
“As provocative and perceptive a social and literary critic as America has today.” –Newsweek
“[Vidal’s] pieces grab one’s attention and refuse to let go. At once forthright and mendacious, smart and demented, they’re written…with panache, vigor and a caustic, often perverse wit…As a stylist he’s almost a national treasure.” –Wall Street Journal
“I can’t think of any writer more certain to have exactly the right opinion on absolutely everything.” –Washington Post Book World
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Here is Vidal the essayist at the height of his powersiconoclastic, witty, sarcastic, engaging, as he tilts at shibboleths of radicals and conservatives alike. Included in this gathering of 24 essays from the past six years are controversial pieces that have created a ruckus, such as his plea that the U.S. should make common cause with the Soviet Union against ``the Sino-Japanese axis,'' and his critique of the American pro-Israel lobby. Vidal portrays Ronald Reagan as ``a very sincere sort of liar,'' and is equally withering on Nixon and Oliver North. In literary essays, he strikes gold in discussing Henry James as book reviewer, William Dean Howells' avant-garde realism, Anthony Burgess's embrace of God and sex, Paul Bowles's underrated short stories and expatriate Quaker writer Logan Pearsall Smith, among others. In more personal pieces, he reminisces on the early history of aviation and gets culture shock in Mongolia. Reading Vidal is always an invigorating experience.
