Thoughtful, subtle short stories with relationship themes. "Illicit" sexual encounters are common underlying plots but addressed in a manner that is stylistic and intriguing. A pleasure to read.

"Gore Vidal is less known for his exquisitely crafted short fiction," says the back book cover blurb. And there is a very good reason why: "exquisitely crafted" is an overstatement. A massive one. A humdinger, shall we say. A bigly monstrosity of untruthiness. I've read several of Vidal's novels, and I'm searching as to why he was thought of as a great writer, even winning the National Book Award at one point. But there is one good story here: "Erlinda and Mr. Coffin" which is prime Southern Gothic and it does touch the hem of Capotes trousers, just barely. And just so you know, most of these stories have gay themes and were probably considered edgy when 7 of the 8 appeared in 1956. Vidal had improved by this point over his 1940's gay novel, "The City and the Pillar" in which he unforgivably trashes Capote, no doubt jealous of a true genius of literature. Vidal/Capote/Williams: read all about that catfight in "The Pink Triangle" which has more bitch-slapping than about anything I've ever read.

"The fools were in possession of the beach today. They sat watchfully beneath umbrellas, admiring the cold and radiant angels who could, they believed, exorcise the graceless shadow of the years and with firm flesh recreate youth and the sense of permanency, or its illusion. I suppose by now I know the hearts of the fools almost as well as I know my own and sometimes I am frightened when I watch their sad courtship of the treacherous angels for I see in them my own eventual fall from beloved angel to deluded monster. I too shall be old. I shuddered as I stepped over the ruined towers of a sand castle: yes, the beach was changed; I wonder, will it change again one day?"

It is impossible to write with a more elegant and concise way, and describe with a precision that it's cruel the anguish of aging and this pathetic need to find the bodies of young people as an antidote to the poison of our own death. This is an excerpt from a story, Three stratagems, which integrates this collection of short stories all written by Gore Vidal, written in the literary youth of the writer, who, in addition to his famous non-fiction, was primarily a novel writer, and not a short stories one.

Seven of these stories had been published before, but Vidal has decided to republish them when a researcher from a U.S. university, working in the archives of the writer, discovered an unknown story, precisely that which gives title to this volume. This is a story written at the same phase of the others, during a time when Vidal lived and travelled with Tennessee Williams, and is based on a childhood story of the author of A Streetcar Named Desire, spent with his grandfather. Williams has asked Vidal not to publish the story because it could be recognized by his mother, and Vidal responded to the request and ended up losing track of the tale.

There are eight notable short-stories, written in a language so beautiful that can make you cry (as in the above excerpt), capable of in half a dozen sentences to create characters and storylines and environments. The topics are diverse, some have a homosexual context, explicit or merely suggested, and it seemed to me that there may be one or other with biographical traits of the writer himself. At least in one of the stories, composed of pages from an abandoned journal, there is a very brief reference to the love of a teenager, Jimmy, whose name and the circumstances of his death in a battle of the Pacific during World War II, are coincident with memories that Gore Vidal told about his first love, in Palimpsest, the first part of his memoirs.

My favourite story is The Zenner Trophy, which tells the story of a student, about to win an award for being an extraordinary athlete, and that is expelled from a private college, for going on homosexual acts with another student. What is admirable in the tale is not so much the story itself, but rather it's very structure and how the language will reveal another truth implied. It is divided into two parts, each corresponding to a conversation. In the first one the dean discusses the case with the tutor of the student, and in the second the tutor communicates to the student his expulsion and accompanies him while he tidies up his things and prepares to leave school and go to meet with the colleague with whom he has an affair. The most extraordinary thing is that the story makes a total reversion of feelings: the student is a little indifferent to his own situation and eager to meet his classmate, while the teacher who is secretly in love with his student, is truly torn with the situation.

Vidal's stories start in the middle, end in the middle and have no resolution. I can't make up my mind if I like them or not.
However I'm spending a lot of time thinking about them after I finish reading the short stories!

This is my first time to read anything by Gore Vidal. I absolutely loved a collection of short stories. Written in a simple direct style, but nevertheless prose that is both absorbing and elegant, this is to my mind, a little masterpiece. The plot of each story has a twist, which while never explicit, gradually reveals itself. I found the collection hard to put down.

Enjoyable collection by Gore Vidal. Some stories are more like musings, or remembrances...more "moments" than actual stories. In these, the story has no clear end, it's more like he uses a moment in time (such as, a walk down an old street after a party) as the backdrop to express his personal feelings and thoughts on a given subject. Some of the stories in this book read like the thoughts of somebody who's people-watching, which I liked, as I myself am an observer of people in general. Others were more traditional. All were pretty interesting, but I can't say that any particular one really stands out to me...which is why I'm only giving this book three stars. It was good enough, however, for me to try Gore Vidal again, a different book.

This was a great collection of short stories, my first Vidal book in fact, and it definitely exceeded expectations. The stories had very interesting characters, twists in the tale, humour, wit and great use of the language, moral issues were discussed, hypocrisies revealed. I'm looking forward to reading more Vidal.

Great short stories by Gore Vidal. Makes me want to go back re-read some of his novels.

I'm likin' it....

Did I catch Gore Vidal at a bad time or are short stories just not his strong suit?

A compilaton of short fiction from one of america's great writers. A must-read.

Due to the rediscovery of the previously unpublished title work, all eight of the short stories by one of America's most highly regarded contemporary writers are now gathered together for the first time.
Recommended by Jack, Powells.com