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The Golden Age (2000)

von Gore VIDAL

Weitere Autoren: Siehe Abschnitt Weitere Autoren.

Reihen: Narratives of Empire (7)

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7551029,435 (3.29)9
The Golden Ageis Vidal's crowning achievement, a vibrant tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War II and the Cold War transformed America, once and for all, for good or ill, from a republic into an empire. The sharp-eyed and sympathetic witnesses to these events are Caroline Sanford, Hollywood actress turned Washington D.C., newspaper publisher, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journalThe American Idea.They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into the Second World War, and, later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decade-long twilight struggle against Communism—developments they regard with a decided skepticism even though it ends in an American global empire. The locus of these events is Washington D.C., yet the Hollywood film industry and the cultural centers of New York also play significant parts. In addition to presidents, the actual characters who appear so vividly in the pages ofThe Golden Ageinclude Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell—and Gore Vidal himself. The Golden Ageoffers up U.S. history as only Gore Vidal can, with unrivaled penetration, wit, and high drama, allied to a classical view of human fate. It is a supreme entertainment that is not only sure to be a major bestseller but that will also change listeners' understanding of American history and power. From the Trade Paperback edition.… (mehr)
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Gore Vidal seems to have written himself into a corner. That's the only sense I can make of his final novel, The Golden Age, which reprises the central characters and a good part of the time covered in an earlier novel, Washington, D. C. As such, they form ill-matching bookends around his Narratives of Empire heptology.
I doubt whether Vidal planned the earlier book to be the curtain-raiser for an epic spanning two centuries when it appeared in 1967. It's not even clear that when he published Burr in 1973, he would make the main characters of the earlier book the descendants of Aaron Burr. This may be one reason why Vidal revisited the later era to conclude the series.
The do-over allows Vidal to revisit Clay Overbury, the Kennedy-esque ambitious young man in the earlier book. Certainly, the Kennedy clan recognized the resemblance, and that book deepened Vidal's estrangement from the clan (fun trivia fact: Vidal and Jackie Bouvier shared the same step-father, although Vidal only first met her years later through Jack). Vidal always denied he'd written a roman à clef. Now, in The Golden Age, Vidal muddies the water by introducing JFK into the narrative alongside Overbury.
Vidal introduces many more historical figures as well, which is, to me, one of the weaknesses of the book. Bringing the series into events of Vidal's own time has allowed him to name-check many people he knew personally. It may have been meant generously, but the result feels cluttered; many individuals appear without being useful, much less essential, to the plot. In addition, serving as it does to wrap up a series, there is a lot of "previously in Narratives of Empire . . ." detail, especially in the opening chapter.
For a book from an author as prodigiously learned as Vidal — he's been called the great autodidact of the twentieth century — this book is also curiously careless about details. Many of these are due to the intricately intertwined family trees Gore has created to lead from Aaron Burr to the latter-day Sanfords and Days, the main fictional characters in this book. It seems even Vidal has trouble keeping then straight. At one point, a character is designated as another character's father, when grandfather is meant. Another character refers to her half-sister, who was actually her half-cousin. Yet the errors of detail extend beyond family relationships. At one point, he mentions Iceland, when I believe he meant Greenland. At another, he mixes up All Saints and All Souls. I don't fault the author alone; clearly, his editor at Doubleday lacked vigilance.
Especially in the last third of the book, both dialogues and narrative sections often read like Vidal's caustic political essays. America, he repeatedly claimed in many essays and interviews, has been on a permanent war-footing since 1950. Parallel to this has been an erosion of personal freedom in the name of security. Vidal may be right, but that's no reason to allow the prose of a novel to be so didactic.
An aspect of the book that fascinated me is the closing chapter. Vidal resolutely produced historical novels at a time (pre-Hilary Mantel) when they weren't considered "literary." The Golden Age, and with it, the entire septet it culminates, closes with a final chapter in which the narrator switches from an anonymous third person to an "I," who turns out to be named Gore Vidal. Vidal engages with the other characters, who seem to know they are the fictional creations of the author. The shift is signalized by the fact that this chapter isn't numbered, as are the others, but bears a title ("On Air" — a nice double meaning). It's an interesting conceit and coming at the close of his fiction-writing career, it's as if Vidal is saying that he could have written fashionable modern literature, but chose not to. At the same time, the shift seems to subvert the genre of historical novel. Delicious.
I realized that I've mainly described aspects of this book that I consider faults. Yet there was much to savor in this book. Although it is far from Vidal's best, I enjoyed reading it. ( )
1 abstimmen HenrySt123 | Jul 19, 2021 |
Because I listen to audio books while driving, my standards for such works are fairly low. As long as a work of fiction is mildly entertaining, that's enough to occupy me for the 45 minutes per day I spend in the car. However, this work was a failure in that regard.

I've enjoyed some of Gore Vidal's fiction in print form, including choices from the Narratives of History series of which this work is a part. However, I found The Golden Age boring and annoying. First, the profusion of fictional characters took this work far beyond the historical events it purports to recount and keeping track of who was supposed to be who seemed too much effort. Second, much of the work was taken up by gossip and innuendo about supposed sexual liaisons between characters that who'd failed to capture my interest. Third, hardly anything "happens" in this work. Characters seldom do things or experience things or even feel things. Instead, they talk, incessantly talk -- about who said or did what to whom and who might be sleeping with or is sleeping with whom. Thus, the text consists far too much of annoying gossipy conversations.

Vidal's own politics are never far below the surface in the books, as he labors to rewrite history to justify his own cynical and sardonic interpretation of his nation's history. The main theme of this work was that Franklin Roosevelt manipulated the US into World War II, against its isolationist populace and in violation of the country's public neutrality. This claim has been around since Roosevelt's time, and accumulated historical evidence has provided the claim with much credibility. But Vidal's novel doesn't deal in evidence; rather a story is made up to promote the claim, through secret (and non-existent) conversations. Meanwhile, one wonders: did Vidal not see any merit in FDR's alleged actions? Would allowing the Axis Powers to conquer the world and slaughter even more Jews have been preferable? Would he have preferred that FDR reveal his growing conviction that the US should enter WW2, so as to turn the presidency over the an isolationist Republican? Or could it be that FDR was a true "leader" -- not following the whims of public opinion but carefully leading it to do what both morality and enlightened self-interest demanded?

Unfortunately, I was unable to finish listening to the book, having stopped caring about the plot and the characters, so I cannot be sure that Vidal never addressed the above political points. ( )
2 abstimmen danielx | Apr 22, 2017 |
The Golden Age is the seventh and last in The American Chronicle series by Gore Vidal. I previously read Burr and Lincoln, both of which I enjoyed more than this novel.

Gore writes of the era between 1939 and 1960. To propel the story, he creates a fictional family – the Sanford’s – and weaves their story into actual political figures and events of the era – the Roosevelt’s, Harry Hopkins, Truman, Acheson, McCarthy and others. The Sanford’s own one of Washington’s leading newspapers. Blaise Sanford is the publisher; his half-sister Caroline was a founder of the paper. She had been away from the paper for decades when she went to Hollywood to star in silent pictures, but returns to Washington right before the war. Caroline has become close to Hopkins and her interactions with Franklin and Eleanor serve to bring the historical events into the story line. Blaise’s son Peter decides not to follow his father into the newspaper business; instead, he starts his own magazine – “The American Idea” – a left-leaning commentary periodical on the politics of the time.

There are portrayals through the eyes of the Sanford’s of the political conventions of 1940 and 1944 when Roosevelt sought unprecedented third and fourth terms. The atmosphere of the conventions of those days is vividly depicted, certainly in contrast to later day political processes. A minor character in post-war political ambitions is Clay Overbury, son-in-law to Blaise, who exploits his war hero image (likely fabricated) to advance his political career ruthlessly until his untimely death. Overbury is aiming for the presidency in 1960 as a competitor to Jack Kennedy.

Vidal delves deeply into the build up to the war and the radically shifted American role on the world stage in the post war era. He examines the theory that Roosevelt manipulated America (at the time overwhelmingly isolationist) into war. Despite our neutrality, Roosevelt used complicated quasi-legal means to support Britain, like the lend-lease scheme that sent ships and war material to England. He also (according to the theory) pursued a series of blatantly provocative moves against Japan designed to compel them to attack America first. These theories have been expounded throughout the years and there is a ring of credibility to them. Truman’s decisions are examined from the perspective how they brought on the cold war with the Soviet Union. By exploiting the hyperbolic fixation present in the media and right-wing political circles on the Soviet’s putative intentions to dominate the world, Truman and his diplomats engendered a hostile, belligerent attitude toward the Soviets that foreclosed any possible less antagonistic relations. The rise of the extremism of McCarthyism was, in light of the overblown conceptions of the dangers posed by the Soviet Unions, a manifestation of the paranoia extant throughout the nation.

The novel is the forum for Vidal to expound his conceptions of the motivations of the political figures of the time. From the jaded viewpoint of one who considers himself an insider, there is a cynical tone in his writing and the sense of the American people are utterly manipulated leaders whose self-interest plays a large part in their scheming. I found this a bit too tendentious at times and the personal intrigues of the characters a bit too much to care about. Nonetheless, understanding the figures of the times and reading a point-of-view about their motivations and decisions would make this an interesting read for anyone. ( )
1 abstimmen stevesmits | Aug 12, 2014 |
I can see that, at some time in the past, books like these seemed pretty good, fun to read, interesting. But that day is gone. Life is too short for a marginal read like this. Its somewhat interesting, has somewhat defined characters and may give food for thought to some degree.
I am left unimpressed.
Life is short. There are amazing books to read in every genre. Unfortunately, this book is not a priority at all.
I ditched it 1/3 the way through. ( )
  pife43 | Jul 23, 2014 |
חשבתי שאני אוהב את וידאל. אבל לא , מסתבר שכשאני קורא אותו היום הוא כותב כל כך גרוע ועצי שאפילו שאני תקוע אתו באוטו על כביש שש אני לא יכולתי לשמוע יותר משליש מהספר. כמו ילד בכתה ג' שהחליט לכתוב ספר. ( )
  amoskovacs | Sep 11, 2013 |
keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen

» Andere Autoren hinzufügen (11 möglich)

AutorennameRolleArt des AutorsWerk?Status
VIDAL, GoreHauptautoralle Ausgabenbestätigt
MORAWETZ, SilviaÜbersetzerCo-Autoreinige Ausgabenbestätigt

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The Golden Ageis Vidal's crowning achievement, a vibrant tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War II and the Cold War transformed America, once and for all, for good or ill, from a republic into an empire. The sharp-eyed and sympathetic witnesses to these events are Caroline Sanford, Hollywood actress turned Washington D.C., newspaper publisher, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journalThe American Idea.They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into the Second World War, and, later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decade-long twilight struggle against Communism—developments they regard with a decided skepticism even though it ends in an American global empire. The locus of these events is Washington D.C., yet the Hollywood film industry and the cultural centers of New York also play significant parts. In addition to presidents, the actual characters who appear so vividly in the pages ofThe Golden Ageinclude Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell—and Gore Vidal himself. The Golden Ageoffers up U.S. history as only Gore Vidal can, with unrivaled penetration, wit, and high drama, allied to a classical view of human fate. It is a supreme entertainment that is not only sure to be a major bestseller but that will also change listeners' understanding of American history and power. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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