WASHINGTON, D.C.

by Gore Vidal ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1967

Mr. Vidal is an experienced novelist (although with the exception of Julian never a widely successful one) and politician; it is surprising that he should appear to be so seemingly uninterested in what he is writing here---a fairly well accessorized if rather listless novel about that small capital compound. The view is long rather than large--extending from 1937, the moment when F.D.R. failed with his Supreme Court bill, to some fifteen years later, and it deals primarily with the rise of the publicly opportunistic, privately promiscuous Clay Overbury, from administrative assistant of an entrenched conservative (Senator Burden Day) to Representative, and on. Unless Peter Sanford, younger son of Blaise Sanford, newspaper-owning, politician-controlling millionaire, can break him. In between there has been Enid, Peter's sister who married Overbury, and whose death can be equally attributable to her father and husband (homosexual implications in this relationship); Diana, the Senator's daughter, who drifts with Peter toward more liberal achievements; etc., etc. Vidal's Washington seems to be a world where nothing has much value and everything has a price: all of his characters, except perhaps Clay Overbury, seem some-what denatured, and Peter, his reluctant hero, a non-hero rather than anti-hero, assumes his moral and temporal obligations wearily. Reciprocally we.

Pub Date: May 1, 1967

ISBN: 0375708774

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION