FROM OUR EDITORS

Bookseller's Report
The seventh and last of Gore Vidal's Novels of Empire, one of the oddest and most original series in the history of American Literature. The Golden Age brings us into the Age of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman-and Gore Vidal, all of whom make appearances in this abundantly peopled novel. History buffs will enjoy the author's frequently idiosyncratic interpretations and his backroom dish; indeed, few novelists have ever passed inside the beltway gossip as assiduously as the adroit.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Golden Age is a tapestry of American political and cultural life from 1939 to 1954, when the epochal events of World War Two 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, Washington, D.C., newspaper publisher turned Hollywood pioneer producer-star, and Peter Sanford, her nephew and publisher of the independent intellectual journal The American Idea. They experience at first hand the masterful maneuvers of Franklin Roosevelt to bring a reluctant nation into World War Two, and later, the actions of Harry Truman that commit the nation to a decades-long twilight struggle against Communism - developments they regard with a marked skepticism, even though they end 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 of The Golden Age include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie, William Randolph Hearst, Dean Acheson, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Alsop, Dawn Powell - and Gore Vidal himself."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Vidal's latest historical novel, which focuses on the FDR, McCarthy and Korean War periods, is like a gathering of Washington, Hollywood and New York gossip columnists--all of whom are Vidal personae arguing American politics and culture among themselves. Vidal even turns up as a character from time to time to remind us of his own role in 20th-century art and artifice. Raised in the house of his grandfather, Oklahoma senator Thomas P. Gore, Vidal did in fact know many of the top players in the midcentury American game; thus the novel's details of unromantic affairs, political shenanigans and history-shaping manipulations are rendered believable. Narrator Walker is wonderful. She has a deep, sexy, expressive voice reminiscent of Lauren Bacall, at turns amused, ironic, sardonic, sometimes even serious. At the end, Vidal himself narrates, waxing philosophical on the end of the century and his life during that time. Because this four-tape abridgement of a 720-page book often leaps across chronology, it sometimes takes a minute for listeners to orient themselves, but it's worth the effort. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Forecasts, July 24). (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This concluding volume to Vidal's history of the American "empire" covers the period from 1939 to the end of the Korean War, with a brief coda set in the present and Vidal himself serving as the narrator. At the cusp of World War II, Roosevelt is plotting his own reelection to an unprecedented third term and looking for a way to insure popular support for American involvement in the fight against Hilter. Once again, a descendant of Aaron Burr finds himself at the center of the political, social, and, to a lesser extent, cultural whirl. With the right family connections to gain him entry into the portals of power and the literary abilities that allow him to found a successful magazine of commentary, Peter Sanford cynically observes as F.D.R. maneuvers us into war and as Truman the haberdasher digs in against the "Communist menace." The novel is replete with a lively cast of both real and imagined characters and exhibits the typical Vidal wit and erudition. As were the earlier volumes in this series (e.g., Lincoln, 1876), this is likely to be very popular with a library audience. Essential for all public and academic libraries collecting Vidal's work. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/00.]--David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

AudioFile

Real-life figures such as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt—and Gore Vidal himself—mingle with fictional Hollywood and Washington notables in Vidal's novel of the nation's entry into WWII and the start of the Cold War. The novel is abridged well, preserving the flavor of Vidal's prose and the sweep of his story. As a narrator, Kathryn Walker provides the right notes of attitude or emotion with her voice as she ably interprets Vidal's writing. For example, she turns the opening description of a Washington party into a gem. However, her character voices are not unique enough, making the novel monotonous and difficult to follow in some spots. J.A.S. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Regina Marler - New York Observer

Rich in dialogue and mirthless humor, The Golden Age is the hard slap sentimentalists of the war have ahd coming, and a worthy conclusion to one of the finest sustained historical visions in American literature.

Emily Drabinski - Out Magazine