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35th out of 697 books
—
867 voters
The City and the Pillar
by
Gore Vidal
A literary cause célèbre when first published more than fifty years ago, Gore Vidal’s now-classic The City and the Pillar stands as a landmark novel of the gay experience.
Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defyi...more
Jim, a handsome, all-American athlete, has always been shy around girls. But when he and his best friend, Bob, partake in “awful kid stuff,” the experience forms Jim’s ideal of spiritual completion. Defyi...more
Paperback, 207 pages
Published
December 2nd 2003
by Vintage
(first published 1948)
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"هذه الرواية جريئة جدا، ولكن من غير ابتذال، حتى بالمقاييس الأمريكية، وقد أثارت جدلا واسعا حين صدرت للمرة الأولى سنة 1948، ثم صودرت ليس فقط لأن موضوعها يدور عن "الشذوذ الجنسي"، بل لأنها اقتحمت بهذا الموضوع المحرم مجتمعا محافظا يقدس الجيش والعسكرية"
ومن هنا رغبت في قرأة تلك الرواية التي اثارت ضجة كبيره في اوساط المجتمع الامريكي المحافظ في تلك الفترة و ربطها بما آراه الآن - بقرن الواحد و العشرين- و التحولات التي طرأت عليها المجتمعات الامريكية و اهمها وضع قانون يسمح بـ (الزواج المثلي) في ولايه ماساتش...more
"When the eyes are shut, the true world begins."
A haunting book. Written in straight forward prose (though I have added quotations that exemplify some lovely flourishes), this is the tale of a pre-Stonewall gay.
Jim discovers his love for a boy in high school which puts his life on a different path than everyone else he knows. He travels, meets some other people, and holds on to his early love. Not much more to say without giving away the plot.
Published in 1948, this is an incredible text. A rem...more
A haunting book. Written in straight forward prose (though I have added quotations that exemplify some lovely flourishes), this is the tale of a pre-Stonewall gay.
Jim discovers his love for a boy in high school which puts his life on a different path than everyone else he knows. He travels, meets some other people, and holds on to his early love. Not much more to say without giving away the plot.
Published in 1948, this is an incredible text. A rem...more
This book ruined Vidal’s carefully prepared political career, it brought him defamation and some tough words from the critics and the American readers because it is considered to be the first American novel to discuss openly the homosexuality. After its release, New York Times refused for many years to review any of his novels. I found the book ok, maybe I expected too much from it, but it was an interesting first meet anyway.
***
i-a ruinat minutios-pregatita cariera politica, i-a adus defaimare...more
***
i-a ruinat minutios-pregatita cariera politica, i-a adus defaimare...more
This book is considered a classic, and was one of the first novels to write openly about the gay experience, particularly in the pre- and post-World-War-II days. It was quite controversial when published in 1948, but seems rather tame now. It describes the lives and passions of the gay men in the story and the fact that they have sex, without giving many details of the sexual acts themselves.
Part of Vidal's stated intention was to present a homosexual man who was masculine, not a transvestite or...more
Part of Vidal's stated intention was to present a homosexual man who was masculine, not a transvestite or...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I loved the book because it is a great piece of writing and was a brave thing for Gore to do at that time in his life and in 'those times'. I imagine it was only the wealth and position of his family that stopped him being hung by the you-know-whats for writing the book.
I'll not delve into the plot except to say its a gay love story centred on a man's search for his childhood friend.
It's prose lends to a quick and easy read but the subtext is complex and challenging. I imagine in its day it upse...more
I'll not delve into the plot except to say its a gay love story centred on a man's search for his childhood friend.
It's prose lends to a quick and easy read but the subtext is complex and challenging. I imagine in its day it upse...more
So few of my GR friends have read this and other Gore Vidal classics, I have to pose the question: where does Vidal stand in the American pantheon? Do his historical novels about the Republic turn readers off for their political content and supposedly dry writing? Does his late career as polemicist and hired mouthpiece present him as a dusty old eminence, far too close to the rich and famous to have any worth as an artist of substance? Can someone born into a wealthy political family, close to J...more
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Dec 11, 2012
Cbj
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
alienation,
pompous-but-interesting
An intensely fulfilling erotic experience with his lookalike best friend leaves a young manly athlete scarred for life. THE CITY AND THE PILLAR is about Jim Willard (the young manly athlete)'s desperate search for his teenage lover and his relationships with various people after he begins his search.
Most of the characters in the novel are swells - people who are talented and do not find it tough to make money and can easily enter and mingle among the upper classes and can go on long holidays an...more
Most of the characters in the novel are swells - people who are talented and do not find it tough to make money and can easily enter and mingle among the upper classes and can go on long holidays an...more
A difficult book, and probably even more controversial today than when it was first published, given the attitude it takes toward homosexual love and character. It is anything but politically correct and cautiously unoffensive. I imagine many readers will find the portrayal of "feminine" gay men versus "masculine" gay men troubling.
I think this is an honest and interesting examination of a cultural set, with a great deal of relevance for people who prefer to be individuals rather than members o...more
I think this is an honest and interesting examination of a cultural set, with a great deal of relevance for people who prefer to be individuals rather than members o...more
Vidal's tragic gay love story was no doubt brave and groundbreaking for it's time, but imitators have diminished the story and contemporary readers will likely find the themes cliche. Like so many of his literary contemporaries, the character of Jim struggles to reconcile his physical desires with his yearning to live a "normal" heterosexual life, but Vidal doesn't belabor the point. Instead, he ensconces Jim within the pre-liberation bar scene without defining him by it. Vidal made a concerted...more
"Così si incontrarono. Occhi serrati contro un mondo irrilevante."
Nell'America degli anni Quaranta, come oggi, non c'è nulla di più scandaloso dell'attentare al concetto di "normale". Riscrivere le categorie, rivedere i confini, definire l'indefinibile, mettere a norma l'anormale.
La grandezza di La statua di sale, più che nella sua trama e nel suo contenuto, sta nell'impatto che la contrastata pubblicazione e l'incredibile successo ha provocato nel mondo. Gore Vidal era perfettamente conscio de...more
Nell'America degli anni Quaranta, come oggi, non c'è nulla di più scandaloso dell'attentare al concetto di "normale". Riscrivere le categorie, rivedere i confini, definire l'indefinibile, mettere a norma l'anormale.
La grandezza di La statua di sale, più che nella sua trama e nel suo contenuto, sta nell'impatto che la contrastata pubblicazione e l'incredibile successo ha provocato nel mondo. Gore Vidal era perfettamente conscio de...more
Written in a very straight-forward writing style, the style is a little too direct and at times comes off as amateurish. It took me a little more time to get used to this and the self-hating narrative that usual.
Written in 1948 and revised in 1965, I decided to read the revised version and then to re-read the last two chapters on the original to compare the endings. Much has been made about the revision, most people think it was censored at the time and revised later due to laxer standards, but...more
Written in 1948 and revised in 1965, I decided to read the revised version and then to re-read the last two chapters on the original to compare the endings. Much has been made about the revision, most people think it was censored at the time and revised later due to laxer standards, but...more
Does everyone realize how much Gore Vidal rocks?
Unbelievable that this book was written -- and that Vidal got it published -- in the 1940s. It enlightened me about the partial freedom available to certain classes of gay men in the 30s and 40s. The coming-out/coming-of-age story seems a little ordinary now, but nobody had done it in America before Vidal, as far as I can tell. His perceptiveness makes it feel fresh. The problems of identity that Jim faces are still common today, and maybe will nev...more
Unbelievable that this book was written -- and that Vidal got it published -- in the 1940s. It enlightened me about the partial freedom available to certain classes of gay men in the 30s and 40s. The coming-out/coming-of-age story seems a little ordinary now, but nobody had done it in America before Vidal, as far as I can tell. His perceptiveness makes it feel fresh. The problems of identity that Jim faces are still common today, and maybe will nev...more
Mar 23, 2009
Brent
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Brent by:
Chuck Dooley
This book does capture a certain human experience which I definitely relate to -- longing for someone who turns out to let you down and all your other experiences paling in comparison to the idealized experience which, as it turns out, really only exists in your mind. The book also captures a certain gay experience which I relate to -- coming into the gay world as a young adult and mingling with the older, richer, more powerful gays, while secretly wishing for someone more on your own level.
Rela...more
I found myself in the bookstore the other day with a few minutes to kill and the desire to find a new book to read. Ordinarily, I check books out of the library in order to be thrifty, but I came across this book in the gay fiction section. It appealed to me because of it's time setting - late 30's, early forties - and of course, the story of two young men and their personal sexual revolution.
This edition features a new introduction from the author and the background for his novel, as well as r...more
This edition features a new introduction from the author and the background for his novel, as well as r...more
The City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal
I’ve always been fascinated by Gore Vidal as a man over any of his writings. Born in 1925 into privilege and a well regarded Democratic family, with his possession of an enviable intellect and military background he could have, one might say should have, been Governor of an interesting state, or followed his maternal Grandfather into the Senate.
However, although an outspoken political animal all of his life, the young Gore chose to be a writer. His first book...more
I’ve always been fascinated by Gore Vidal as a man over any of his writings. Born in 1925 into privilege and a well regarded Democratic family, with his possession of an enviable intellect and military background he could have, one might say should have, been Governor of an interesting state, or followed his maternal Grandfather into the Senate.
However, although an outspoken political animal all of his life, the young Gore chose to be a writer. His first book...more
Gore Vidal’s groundbreaking classic of gay lit "The City and The Pillar" is very entertaining, not as awesome as "City of Night" or "The Price of Salt", but considering the writer's social status it’s pretty ballsy for the mid-Forties. This book has great deadpan humor throughout, much better than the humor in "Myra Breckenridge".
What makes it so bizarre is that it almost has a Ken-Doll fantasy world pulsating through the novel:
1. First Ken lives his Boy Scouts fantasy of camping with Mr. Drea...more
What makes it so bizarre is that it almost has a Ken-Doll fantasy world pulsating through the novel:
1. First Ken lives his Boy Scouts fantasy of camping with Mr. Drea...more
In the world of arts and letters euphemisms such as "trail blazing" and "groundbreaking" are too often bandied about by over reaching publicists and press agents. In the case of Gore Vidal's gay-lit classic "The City and the Pillar" (which is being reissued this December by Vintage International), these phrases seem like understatements.
Reading this novel again after more then twenty years, I was moved by the clarity and brevity of the prose. Vidal doesn't mince words, but rather cuts to the hea...more
Reading this novel again after more then twenty years, I was moved by the clarity and brevity of the prose. Vidal doesn't mince words, but rather cuts to the hea...more
Artfully written yet morally not fulfilling. I enjoyed the moments of interpersonal tension imparted in elegantly spare words. I luxuriated in the nuanced depictions of longings, denials, deluded hopes. I appreciated the "relate-able" characterization of a young American roaming the world while harboring secrets that even he can't decipher. I liked the "quest" aspect of this story.
Given all that, I'm underwhelmed by the arc of the narrative -- where it didn't go, and where it ended -- and can't...more
Given all that, I'm underwhelmed by the arc of the narrative -- where it didn't go, and where it ended -- and can't...more
I literally just finished this book and put it down with a feeling of solace. Vidal masterfully illustrates several years during WWII throughout North America in the life of the young, attractive and reluctantly homosexual Jim Willard. At times, Jim's self-loathing can be a bit much and you just want him to settle down already and get over his one-time teen love, Bob, so he can get on with his life. In the end, you inevitably feel for Jim, at least I did as a fellow white, East coast, gay man (w...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Първо, по време на прочита бях под въздействието на друга книга и всичко ми беше безразлично; второ, веднъж чела книга по дадена тематика, в следващи книги същата тема не ми е особено интересна, ако няма нещо изключително ново в стила или гледната точка. В случая, дори и да се отнася за гей-жени (а не за мъже, както е в книгата на Видал), „Mea Culpa” за мен остава много силна книга в тази област и „Греховете на града” ми се стори доста по-студена и повърхностна.
Видях и доста типични за американ...more
Видях и доста типични за американ...more
I remember being a young gay man, pretending to be straight, and reading this book. For the first time I can remember I was inundated by an image of a homosexual that wasn't a stereotype of femininity but instead masculine and average. This came at a time when every one of my mannerisms were compared to a character from Will & Grace, flighty and feminin or intellectual seemed to be the only thing I could be. Then I read this book and it made me feel better about who I was and who I loved. It...more
Vidal has a curious way of disclosing information and ideas through dialogue. Of most interest was when he chose to use direct quotations versus telling us how the conversation went. Overall, I appreciated the conflict of the protagonist, Jim, but couldn't quite embrace the ending. Vidal discusses in the introduction his own issues with the ending and at one point even changed it. I'm not sure which ending I read, the original or revised, but it seemed dramatized for climactic effect and as a re...more
Lo leggi col magone perch�� in fondo lo sai dove va a parare. Perch�� l'ingenuit�� di Jim �� disarmante e anacronistica, specialmente all'inzio (eppure per il resto di anacronistico il libro ha ben poco purtroppo). Perch�� ti vengono in mente tutte le vite che non hai vissuto, i viaggi che non hai intrapreso. Perch�� la verit�� �� che i rapporti idealizzati cozzano sempre con la realt�� prima o poi.
Eppure, anche leggendolo con un nodo in gola, l'ho divorato in pochissimo tempo godendo di una pro...more
Eppure, anche leggendolo con un nodo in gola, l'ho divorato in pochissimo tempo godendo di una pro...more
I finished the book this morning, and I have really been hit hard by it. It is really elegantly written. Very clear, straightforward, giving us the idea on how the gay world and community was in the 40's in the States. The main character appears (to me) at the beginning as quite dull and serious, without emotions, but little by little you really get to love him, and in a way, totally understand him in one of these situations where you have a tunnel vision where others see things so clear. The en...more
Wow, I don't even know what to say. Is it wrong I feel like the terseness of the sentences, the economic prose, matches the subject matter? That I see it as masculine? I suppose that's chauvinistic to say, but I guess I'm equating it to Hemingway? Does that make it okay?
I hate saying it, but I loved the end. I liked that he was brave enough to take it there, though I think it does kind of ruin the novel as a piece of gay advocacy lit. Then again, I'm not sure Gore Vidal was out to write that sor...more
I hate saying it, but I loved the end. I liked that he was brave enough to take it there, though I think it does kind of ruin the novel as a piece of gay advocacy lit. Then again, I'm not sure Gore Vidal was out to write that sor...more
This is one of those "I really should read that" books. I have had it on my to-read list since...well, a long time. There really should be a reading list as part of the "coming-out" process, both for those in process and for people who care about them. This book goes on both lists. It is an accurate picture of the reality of the 1940s.
Vidal sometimes tells instead of shows--which is partly an artifact of the style of the times in which this book was written--but it is still a bit annoying. All t...more
Vidal sometimes tells instead of shows--which is partly an artifact of the style of the times in which this book was written--but it is still a bit annoying. All t...more
This felt like a window into another time, another set of attitudes, someone else's life. That in itself should be praise - it's convincing - but I think it's more than that. I was thrown at first by the device of writing with the complexity of Jim's thoughts. After the opening chapter, we're following Jim as a teenage boy, who can only think in the limited terms of what he knows and understands, and the result is rather curt and choppy. Once I'd worked out what was happening, though (this proba...more
A moving, funny, thoughtful, emotionally engaging exploration of homosexuality during the 1930s & 1940s. I was pretty well captivated by Vidal's voice. Sort of a Candide style of story--a man sets out from his home to pursue the man he shared a glorious loving weekend with, and encounters a broad range of characters and situations before returning home and finding that time has changed everything but his memories. I found the wit and sorrow to be fresh. This novel, while less controversial t...more
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Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer known for his essays, novels, screenplays, and Broadway plays. He was also known for his patrician manner, Transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal ran for political office twi...more
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Vidal ran for political office twi...more
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“Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.”
—
8 people liked it
“We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.”
—
5 people liked it
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