In preparing to write “Julian,’’ Parini notes, Vidal consulted works of historical fiction he admired, studying them “carefully, noting their use of historical sources, their narrative strategies. Books like “Julian’’ and Vidal’s six American political novels, beginning with “Washington’’ (1976), mixed the fictive with the real. He locates the beginning of Vidal’s career as a historical and biographical novelist in “Julian’’ (1964), a prefiguring of a new “radically subjective’’ genre. Parini works hard to say something of relevance about most of the novels and many of the essays, singling out Vidal’s fine essay on William Dean Howells for special notice. Such variety makes anything like “coverage” of his activities virtually impossible. Novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, political analyst, and twice candidate (unsuccessfully) for public office, Vidal in the variety and ambition of his roles is comparable only to Norman Mailer (who headbutted him on “The Dick Cavett Show’’). But if he’s straight or even bisexual, I’m Genghis Khan.” He described himself as “bisexual,” although his lifelong partner, Howard Austen, said in a conversation with Parini, “It was an idea he held on to dearly. Vidal would insist frequently that there was no such thing as a homosexual or heterosexual person, that those adjectives could only be applied to acts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |