In memoriam: Gore Vidal, 1925-2012

Gore Vidal died last night. Vidal was an amazing author, essayist and overall sane representative of everything that is good about the United States of America: freedom, anti-imperialism, rational criticism, democratic localism, rejection of big government whether it's left or right, hostility to militarism and military interventionism--pretty much everything that is outside the mainstream political system and media.

Source: wikipedia

Among his many works, Vidal wrote a series of novels based on the history of the USA as part of a project in outlining the emergence of the American Empire. I only ever read the one. Burr. It is one of my favourite books. The Burr in Burr is Aaron Burr, the third Vice-President of the USA in the early part of the nineteenth century. A typical idiosyncratic choice of topic and protagonist for Vidal, Burr is one of the arch-villains in American history. He killed one of the great official 'heroes', the centralizing authoritarian Alexander Hamilton in a duel. He might have been scheming to lead a coup d'etat. Failing that he might have been planning to take over the mid-western part of the continent. In any case, Burr was a great rascal and a monumental failure: a man of great promise that tragically went unrealized; a sad life, a fantastic story.

But that is all ancient history...the novel is the thing. And it is a stunning near perfect achievement in historical fiction: it has realistic characterization combined with the tactile restoration of the past, that is, punctuated with fully recreated events, scenes and dialogue written in an elegant style. It's most memorable scene is a bone chilling account of the infamous duel. The whole time I read it--and every time I re-read it--my spine was literally tingling and the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck. Just wonderful!

Vidal was a master novelist. A genuine individual. A great man. He will be missed.