Richard Peabody

This is a selection of interviews from 1960 through 2003, chosen and edited by Richard Peabody and Lucinda Eversole.
Vidal is, as always, witty and sometimes outrageous. But there’s an underlying thoughtfulness and the working of a keen brain on display here, too. His knowledge of American history is formidable, although his conclusions, based on somewhat tenuous evidence, can be far-fetched.
There’s a distinct falling-off in the quality of Gore’s responses as he ages; this is especially noticeable in the 1991 interview with Harry Kloman. He makes a comeback of sorts in the next interview(with Larry Kramer in 1992). His performance in the last conversation, with Amy Goodman in 2003, is both sharp and scary. He discusses the 2000 election, in which Bush lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote in an...unusual way. The parallels to the present conditions are awful and depressing.
I’m a long-time Vidal fan, and thus pre-disposed to like this kind of a book. I’d not choose it as an introduction to him or his work, however.
There is some repetition, as various interviewers tend to ask the same questions with regard to Vidal’s views on his own work and career. (I imagine he found this tedious.) That would be the only real criticism of the book.
There’s some nice remarks about Norman Mailer, his long-time literary rival, but my favorite line, re Truman Capote: I can’t read him; I have diabetes.… (altro)

Gore Vidal reste assez peu connu en France. C'est un esprit brillant et caustique à l'intelligence percutante. Écrivain de talent reconnu, historien, romancier, dramaturge, scénariste, acteur, fin connaisseur de la politique américaine, critique de l'impérialisme américain, il fait partie de ces intellectuels qui comptent dans le paysage des lettres outre-Atlantique. Ce livre d'entretiens (collectés au fil du temps entre 1948 et 2004) donne l'occasion de tracer un portrait en continu de l'auteur et d'aborder des thématiques très différentes. J'avais eu cette référence de livre par un commentaire sur site internet dont je ne me rappelle plus le nom et qui estimait que la qualité littéraire de l'entretien valait le déplacement. Effectivement, on n'est pas déçu de la franchise désarmante de Gore Vidal qui ne baigne pas dans des propos soupe-au-lait. Pour ma part, tout ce qui traite de la vie politique des États-Unis m'a laissé de marbre. Le livre est bien plus intéressant lorsque l'auteur de "Julian" parle de son processus créatif, de sa discipline d'écriture, de la manière dont il aborde les sujets. C'est ce qui fait l'intérêt du livre. Pour les thématiques, je ne suis pas vraiment proche de Gore Vidal, que ce soit sur les sujets de l'homosexualité ou de la religion. Cela étant, ses propos doivent être entendus et le mérite d'un tel livre est de lui donner la parole directement sans passer par le biais d'un roman ou d'une pièce de théâtre.… (altro)

Buoyancy and Other Myths by Richard Peabody is a slim collection that gets at the heart of family drama broken into three parts: Shooting Myself in the Foot, Kissing Games, and Between Funerals. The narrator in these poems ages and matures from a young boy eager to help his father but afraid of falling short to an older man similarly worried about falling short, but more accepting of reality.

Unlike the young man in “Family Secrets” who is shaking sense into his brother, the man in the latter poems, like “Orbits,” comes to the realization that the past cannot be hidden and regrets do nothing but hold you back. You must roll with the punches. What is striking in some of these poems is the calmness of the narrator, even as violent thoughts or actions are being displayed. For instance, in “Family Secrets” (page 11) — which is a powerful way to start a collection — “Music isn’t enough tonight./Scratching, clawing, eyes like stones./If I erase him I will expand./His sins wiped clean. Nowhere/for him to leer from. No perch/or receptacle that can hold that/particular weight. He gives up./” Is his brother still living and he wishes that he didn’t have to remember him or is it what happened to his brother that he does not wish to remember and it would be easier to erase him entirely?

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/09/buoyancy-and-other-myths-by-richard-peabody....… (altro)