LINCOLN

by Gore Vidal ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 22, 1984

As if to balance the flighty vileness of the lamentable Duluth (1983), Vidal follows it up with his most sober, unfanciful historical novel yet: a thick, competent, modestly imaginative portrait of Lincoln as President. A few fictional people from other Vidal novels (Burr, 1876) appear here--but only very briefly. The principals are all history-book figures (and their families); no bold irreverences or revisionisms occur. The Civil War-fare and the crucial issues (war finance, habeas corpus, etc.) are conscientiously documented; the dialogue relating to major events sometimes has the flat, corny quality of old Hollywood film-bios. (""Now that we've got the victory we've been waiting for, I can issue my proclamation of emancipation."") Still, if much of this workup is on only an intelligent-journeyman level, Vidal does create a nice triangular tension in the novel's major focus: a Lincoln poised between two ambitious, shrewd politicos--abolitionist Salmon Chase, expansionist Wm. Seward--who want to be Prez (or PM), who consistently underestimate Lincoln's abilities. Treasury Secretary Chase sees Abe as wishy-washy, ""often weakly firm--or firmly weak,"" especially on the slave question (Lincoln favors relocation of blacks outside the US); egged on by beloved daughter Kate, Chase lusts for the White House, with backing from rich ""boy governor"" William Sprague IV (whom Kate will lovelessly marry). Secretary of State Seward sees Abe as a figurehead, laments his rough-edged rhetoric. (At the Inauguration, ""Lincoln made a perfect hash of Seward's most splendid peroration."") But, as Vidal concentrates on President/Cabinet interplay, Lincoln savvily counters Chase's finaglings, dazzles Seward with his ""political genius. He had been able to make himself absolute dictator without ever letting anyone suspect that he was anything more than a joking, timid backwoods lawyer."" Meanwhile, less distinctively: the Booth conspiracy is followed, mostly through little-known (neatly fictionalized) David Herold; the First Lady, at first refreshingly brisk, is seen in spendthrift/crazed modes; the President deals with the generals (Grant is at least ""not like any of the others""); Presidential secretary John Hay visits D.C.'s brothels; Abe tells those cute stories (because ""there is so much you cannot say""); and, after Lincoln is assassinated, Hay believes that he ""had willed his own murder as a form of atonement"" for the bloody Civil War. Without depth or freshness in the central sketch: a solid, educational piece of fact/fiction craftsmanship, occasionally flickering into novelistic life.

Pub Date: June 22, 1984

ISBN: 0375708766

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION