Clouds and Eclipses by Gore Vidal, 5 stars

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Seven of these stories were originally published in 1956 under the title A Thirsty Evil. The title story was written at about the same time, but at the request of his friend, Tennessee Williams, it was withheld from publication at that time. Vidal was reminded of this story by a Harvard archivist in 2005, and the collection was republished with its inclusion. These eight stories are a marvelous collection and I feel lucky to have found it by accident at the Friends of the Library book sale last fall.

Although I have his Myra Breckinridge on my wish list, I have not read anything else by Gore Vidal. Even so, I was looking forward to this and was not disappointed. His prose is wonderful. By that I mean that it is interesting, varied sentence structure, which moves along smoothly without having to study it but without its seeming simple and "dumbed down."

Vidal was a young man when these were penned. The stories themselves are varied but seem to reflect his life experience of his early life on the east coast and his opportunity to have traveled in Europe. They have little plot, as is typical with short stories, and focus instead on glimpses of a character in life situations. They are not life situations that I have experienced, but they were very believable.

I have so many books I want to read, but I hope not too much time passes before I find time for a Vidal novel, or even perhaps, one of his non-fiction offerings.

[Olivermagnus]

I really liked Burr. I remember reading Myra Breckinridge in the early 70s but probably wasn't mature enough to understand it.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Olivermagnus wrote: "I really liked Burr. I remember reading Myra Breckinridge in the early 70s but probably wasn't mature enough to understand it."

Thanks for that. I might be interested in that series!

[JoLene]

Gore Vidal has been an author I have wanted to try. He writes a fair bit of historical fiction, which I tend to like. Wondering if anyone else has recommendations by him --- short stories really aren't my thing.