LRC links to this worthy review of The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal. Like reviewer Louis Bayard, I too prefer Vidal’s essays to his novels, as good as the latter are (in fact, I’ve been meaning for a few days now to hit Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy of Washington DC). I have most or all of the pieces in The Selected Essays in other collections — thanks in large part to the magisterial doorstop United States: Essays 1952-1992 — but I might have to get it anyway. Maybe I can review it someplace.

Update: Also via LRC, Chris Floyd dissents from Bayard on the worthiness of Vidal’s novels, and a few other points as well.

Filed under: Books