✭✭✭✭½

Cant wait to read more of Vidal's Narratives of Empires. I wasn't expecting a presidential biography to be such a page turner.

this is Gore Vidal at his very best. He really brings history to life, and his characters are very good indeed. Intriguingly, his sympathies seem to lie with the moderate Republicans rather than the radicals, who are portrayed as hyppocrites and religious maniacs most of the time

“What does he mean?” “He will take the South back—slaves and all. Anything, to preserve the Union.” “Thank God, they will not come.” “Thank God, they will not come, without a bloody war.”

Excellent historical fiction. Vidal builds the story of Lincoln’s years in Washington through the witness of largely-real people. It’s a wonder the poor man got anything done, let alone kept the nation together when he was surrounded by vain, self-serving, crazy, hypocrites. Better than Burr. Published in 1984, written during early Reagan years.

“Mr. Lincoln, you are willing to arrest and to hold men indefinitely without ever charging them with any offense?” “That’s about it, Mr. Seward.” “But on what authority?” “On my authority, as Commander-in-Chief.” “But you have no authority to allow the military to arrest anyone they like and to hold them without due process of law.” “Plainly, I think that I do have that right because that is what I am about to do.”

Better storytelling than contemporary authors. Like Burr, the story is told by people around the protagonist. Vidal occasionally strays into following their story rather than Lincoln’s. Quibbles on mistakes in local geography and minor facts. Appropriately, all battles are fought off stage, like Shakespearean drama.

“Tell no one that there’s not a copy of the Constitution in the President’s House.” “People have already guessed that.”

By having Lincoln described by those around him, Vidal retains the possibility they are wrong and even misleading. Seems to weave everyone who entered Washington in 1861-1865 into the story, even if they never met Lincoln. Good enough to encourage reading the next book in the series.

“If I were to guarantee that Mr. Chase—” “We can never guarantee anyone else and, sometimes, in politics, we can’t even guarantee ourselves.

Whatever hubris it takes to write a biography of Abraham Lincoln, it surely takes plenty to write a research-intensive 657-page novel that covers the entire presidency. Vidal accomplishes this compression by including a pile of exposition in dialogue without it ever quite seeming like he's doing so; perhaps famous national leaders are the only characters in fiction exempt from the rule.

Portraits of "minor" characters -- John Hay (one of Lincoln's personal secretaries) and Kate Chase (daughter of Treasury secretary Salmon Chase) in particular -- are vivid and convincing, but I loved the book most for its glimpse of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War: the mud, the noise, the smell, the vulnerability to attack, the coziness, the charm, etc. Takes small liberties with the historical timeline and invents a few crucial Confederate spies/sympathizers, all to the good.

Final note: the book sparked a HUGE spitting match between Vidal and several eminent Lincoln scholars (though not all of them) in the New York Review of Books. I take both sides, really, although I lean to Vidal: the cover of the book says "a novel," after all, a form equally available to all, or at least to all of the participants in the spitting match.

What is it about Abraham Lincoln that so attracts authors and readers? Why have there been 15,000 books written about him -- reportedly more than have been written about any other person in world history, with the exception of Jesus Christ? And what was it about Gore Vidal, the famously acerbic author who died on July 31, 2012, that brought out so much intensity in the obituary columns? Gore Vidal's Lincoln is a good place to start looking for answers.

While Vidal wrote mysteries, plays, and television scripts over a career that spanned six decades, he became best known for a series of historical novels about American history. Of these, Lincoln may have been his most successful. The book focuses almost exclusively on the sixteenth American presidency itself, beginning shortly before Lincoln's 1861 inauguration and ending at his assassination four years later.

Though it was clearly well researched, Vidal was not writing a scholarly history. Rather, he was a storyteller, with a focus on gossip and personality quirks that gives the reader immediate access to some of the most dramatic scenes in our country's history. Lincoln himself is not portrayed as a monolithic leader carved out of granite; he is shown as a shrewd political operator who still sometimes bumbles from one crisis to the next, deeply conflicted about slavery and a lightning rod for abuse. Then again, given our current political polarization, Vidal suggested, it is useful to consider what disunity really looks like. Washington, D.C., during wartime was filled with secessionists, Lincoln's brothers-in-law were rebel army officers, assassination plots were common, and even the President's nominal allies were scheming to replace him with a dictator.

Historical novels work best when they go beyond chronicling what happened to show us how people really lived. Vidal gives us what we want: a tour of the local brothels, a drunken general who won't fight, a First Lady who plunges ever deeper into debt to finance her redecoration plans, a drugstore clerk with Walter Mitty-like dreams of fighting for the Confederacy, a Cabinet member obsessed with adding to his collection of famous signatures, and "the smell of rotting animals and excrement and stagnant water from the canal" that periodically wafts through the White House. While there are some fictional characters, most of the characters are based on real people. While we can never know the truth about any historical event, Vidal clearly had a lot of fun speculating about the origins and growth of our American empire.

In real life, Gore Vidal was complex, never shying from controversy or attention. He famously battled with people like William Buckley, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and, for that matter, anyone else who crossed him. He saw himself as a character, which may be why his Lincoln is so full of great characters. However many red-state-blue-state buffoons we now have on our political stage, he seemed to be telling us, it's a safe bet that things were once worse.

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I am, admittedly in awe of Gore Vidal and his talent for making history come alive, and allowing one to walk with those who were formerly simply dusty characters from our past. "Lincoln" brings the horror of the Civil War to the fore and presents the problems generated as they were seen by the President and his less than stellar cabinet. Those who surrounded the President, with few exceptions, are seen to have been less than loyal and often conniving. The Generals are here as are the frustrations of dealing with them until General Grant appears and the tides of the war turns for the better.
More than any other character Abraham Lincoln lives. His hopes and disappointment for the war and its frustration are vividly presented. His tentativeness that sometimes borders on indecision and finally when he becomes decisive he is rewarded with the victory by the North and an end to the fratricidal conflict. Through it all his family is there: his emotionally unstable wife, the doomed son Willie, the spoiled, challenged Tad and the older son Robert, who is there but always somewhat apart.
The villains are also brought into the light and we become witness to the machinations of the arrogant "Youngest Actor In The World'" John Wilkes Booth and his minions.
We become very familiar with the cast and because of this familiarity, when the bullet leaves the gun of the assassin and smashes into the skull, it is searing. We have come to know Lincoln as a human being with strengths and frailties and because of this, he is all the more heroic.
The research that went into this novel was far reaching and impeccable. I have never read a finer study of this man, this President.

i've heard slavery had something to do with this guy. maybe i need to read another book on him or something.

Vidal was remarkably adept at conversational history, in his amazingly well-researched Narratives of Empire series of novels. While not a light or short read, each novel is delightful to read, in its scope and detail.

I really enjoyed this book. It is listed as fiction, because it is written in novel form, with dialogue that isn't quoted from specific historical documents. However, the events and characters were all real. It was intriguing to read of how disrespected Lincoln was, especially by people in his own cabinet. They often thought him a naive, backwoods simpleton who knew nothing about politics and governing. But as Barbara Gannon often says in her Civil War class at University of Central Florida, you have to remember that this guy was a lawyer and knew exactly what he was doing. There was a method in his madness that eventually astounds those who earlier opposed him. When you read of the pressure he was under from the casualties of the war and its seeming no end in sight, you are reminded of his strength of character, the compassion he had for people on both sides of the war, and his determination and stamina to persevere amidst the opposition from both the South and North, bickering within his own party, and the tremendous slaughter on the battlefields. This book also portrayed a more compassionate view of Mary Todd Lincoln. She has often been portrayed as an emotionally unstable woman (though perhaps today she would have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder). Yet here she is described as being very knowledgeable about the politics of the day and seemed to be a good companion for Lincoln. In visiting Japan 25 years ago, I learned that they call Washington the father of the United States and Lincoln the mother. He certainly displayed a great loyalty and sacrificial lifestyle for this country. It is so shocking that he is assassinated at the end of the war; but on a philosophical view, perhaps his role was to get us through this great conflagration and unite us into a country that more accurately reflects the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. In light of recent events over the past year, we certainly need to visit those racial issues again and work toward the things Mr Lincoln strove for so courageously.

What you probably think about Abraham Lincoln is wrong. At least, that's what Vidal sets out to prove in this masterful account. As the predominant American martyr, Lincoln's name has been enshrined in legends and serious histories alike as a man who did much to thrust the forces of progress ahead closer to the age of modern "enlightenment" we now live in. While Vidal certainly doesn't downplay the significance of Lincoln's presidency, he deftly muddies the waters regarding the true motives of his actions. This naturally generated quite a bit of controversy when the book was first released, with many admirers of Lincoln writing pearl-clutching polemics castigating Vidal for straying from the proper depiction of one of America's most celebrated saints. Regardless, enthusiasts of historical fiction continue to cite it as being among the best and most accurate accounts out there.

One needs only to read the first few chapters to see that this is a product of pure writing talent. Lincoln's wit and charm are on full display in every chapter. His enigmatic personality is brilliantly conveyed through his interactions with the primary POV characters(John Hay and William Seward) who are constantly guessing what Lincoln is thinking at the present moment. Their respect for Lincoln grows throughout the narrative as they are continuously impressed with his creative strategies.

My lone critique has to do with the side plot involving David Herold, only because it felt incomplete. For someone known only because he was indicted in the assassination plot, it's puzzling that Vidal didn't include a closing chapter on his arc detailing the last moments before his execution.

Besides that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended for any enthusiast of historical fiction.

Considering I went so far as to take this book into the sauna at my gym, I can safely say that I couldn't put it down! Beautifully written, carefully crafted characters, and a truly believable glimpse into a different era and such a pivotal time in the history of the U.S. It makes me think: what if the confederate states had seceded? How would our separate histories have progressed? Maybe the Union would've been better off!