Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia
Gore Vidal
Forest Row (UK): Clairview, 2004, p/back, £9.95
A new collection from Vidal? Not quite. Nearly half the essays here have been published before in book form; some date from the 1980s, his column in The Nation and previous Republican administrations. On the principle that we can’t have too much Vidal, this collection is welcome; those who missed the earlier essays the first time round have them now. And if there are any Lobster readers who haven’t read Vidal’s political writing (as opposed to his literary criticism and general journalism), this is as good a place to start as any. Nobody has poured more contempt on American politicians with such elegant writing and depth of historical knowledge.
However the new essays about Bush Jnr. don’t seem to have quite the sparkle of the earlier ones. Has the world overtaken Vidal? Has the Bush regime’s venality and stupidity gone beyond even his powers of description? Or is it just me feeling jaded by the current endless analysis of our American problem?
Still: we can’t have too much Vidal and this a nicely produced collection, with an index.