( 9 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 10 2009
Gore Vidal's Empire series is pretty much the best thing ever to happen to American historical fiction, and his style alone makes anything of his catalog readable. Readers will no doubt notice that this is the sort of prelude to a critique of someone you admire, and this is indeed what it is. Hollywood, Vidal's fifth book in the Empire series, qualifies as one of the lower points in a series that has seen nearly unimaginable highs, but this entry often feels more erudite than inspired, and more harping than insightful. This being said, there's much to like in this book. It roughly covers the second Wilson Administration, as well as the Harding years, and ends shortly after Harding's death. I thought that the political elements of the book are strong--Vidal has always had an uncanny knack for getting in the heads of powerful men, and rendering to life forgotten figures like Harding and Harry Daugherty is admirable and invaluable. Even more appreciated is Vidal's focus on important women--the second Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Harding both provide vivid presences, just as poor old Mrs. McKinley in Empire. Vidal's characterization in this book is a little spotty at times, but there's lots of good stuff to be had here: Harding's arc, in particular, is a fascinating look at how power can change a fundamentally good man, and there's a thoroughly-covered convention scene that has Vidal running on all cylinders. There's also the rise and fall (mostly fall) of Woodrow Wilson, who is blessedly complicated here as a man of genuine idealism as well as incredible pigheadedness and ambition. Other political notables, like Theodore Roosevelt, make appearances. I've always been amused by Vidal's dark--and evidently accurate--take on Teddy, whose enduring popularity mostly proves that not only are elections popularity contests, but so are historical appraisals. How else could Andrew Jackson find himself anywhere near the top of any lists of presidential historical rankings? So, that's all well and good. But much of this book is given over to a main plot about Caroline Sanford moving to Southern California and becoming something of a minor screen star in silent pictures, having random encounters with contemporaneous film industry notables, engaging in some affairs, etc. This story isn't followed through quite as nicely as one would have hoped. The story fundamentally lacks dramatic tension, the observations aren't quite fresh enough to count as insightful (really, if stars using drugs and "political" films being whitewashed of any controversy to avoid angering the powers that be are revelations to you, you should pay a little more attention) and while he makes some good narrative argumentation about the importance of movies, there's not much tension in this storyline. Even a murder subplot at the end of the novel can't quite make the material sing (though I echo the official Amazon review--the bathhouse scene is pretty amazing). In any event, Vidal still has a pretty high batting average when it comes to American historical fiction, despite some of the less compelling material here. Vidal fans will find much to like, but when one thinks of what Vidal could have made of the movie business and what kind of stories could have been told about it, it just seems like we should expect more from such a legend. And if you're new to Vidal's work, it's probably best to start with Burr or Lincoln.
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Posted: Nov 15 2007
With an absolute grip on detail, Gore Vidal describes an era: the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson and Warren Harding. Vidal's storytelling skills are venerable, however, the text often reads like a stream of consciousness rather than one marked by satisfying conclusions on his characters' actions. Rather than being swept up in the narrative, I kept getting lost in the vast number of characters introduced. Vidal's incisive wit seems to have been tempered by age to the point of blandness at times.. Hearst, Hollywood, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt drift through the pages without bringing impact to the story. I still love anything Vidal writes, but this book disappointed me. Judith Clancy Kyoto, Japan
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( 1 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 19 2007
I stopped reading this after giving Mr. Vidal the benefit of the doubt for 150 pages. With nothing interesting happening, I finally gave up on this tedious cocktail party passing for a novel that more than overstayed its welcome. It's not that I wanted this to be "Die Hard" in novel form; it's not that I read mysteries and thrillers and action yarns--far from it. As a reader I expect some kind of conflict and emotion in the characters and Vidal failed to provide any from his cast of thousands. In the end, I decided to just move on. Despite the title "Hollywood" the first 150 pages are 99% about Washington DC politics at the start of World War I and about as engaging as watching CSPAN. One scene after another involves the characters--far too many to keep track off--sitting around at dinner or in an office or at a restaurant dishing gossip. As I said earlier, it's like a cocktail party with lots of rich people dressed up and gabbing about the latest gossip and scandals. None of it makes for interesting reading. I did find the parts where Caroline goes to Hollywood and gets roped into becoming an actress to be slightly more intriguing, if only to marvel at Tinseltown's humble beginnings when movies were called "photo-plays" and there were no CGI effects to make spaceships and superheroes fly. Other than that, this is good for a reminder that Americans did not go into The Great War with overwhelming glee--at the time it was about as popular as Gulf War II. But as dull and tedious this book is with its myriad wooden characters, I'd suggest just reading a history book and let this one gather dust on the shelves. That is all.
