Gore Vidal, 2000 Date Read: 4/1/22
I've generally tended against spoilers in my reviews of novels, but there is a large one for The Golden Age: The author not only self-inserts starting at chapter 11, but the final chapter breaks the 4th wall.
The novel is mostly historically accurate and generally truthful about events. Bits and pieces are changed to make a better narrative. Obviously, conversations between fictional and historical characters were invented.
All of this said, (apart from the final chapter, which is in first-person POV while the novel has been up until then in 3rd person with an omnipresent narrator; not to mention that Aaron Burr - yeah, the one from Hamilton - appears for *reasons*) I enjoyed reading this novel. My area of special interest is Tudor England (though I am interested in the American Revolution, being as it was won in my hometown) and I didn't know a huge amount about the events portrayed. My husband's area of special interest is WWII, and he does know an awful lot about these events, which is how I know it was mostly accurate and not entirely accurate.
I'd like to add here that the novel talks about the attack on Pearl Harbor being part of a conspiracy run, partially, by the President and his intimates. My husband says this isn't true, but just a conspiracy theory. Some conspiracy theories did actually happen, though. I reserve judgement.
There are places that dragged a bit and some characters were really Mary Sue (especially the author's self-inserted version of himself). Nobody, and no novel, is perfect (excepting, of course, Jane Austin and all of her novels). If you are interested in WWII, the Cold War, or understanding why things in American government are the way they are, you could do worse than this novel as a means towards understanding. I'll say though, it was weird to see Franklin Roosevelt painted as a bad guy, when he's almost always shown as a saint in American History classes.
The author himself was bisexual and gay characters are represented fairly and openly, as they lived (despite it being illegal to have gay sex in American until the 1970s!!!!! because my country is literally 3rd World in a lot of regards). There are few disabled characters (President Roosevelt, Cole Porter, an invented person) but they're shown as just normal people who happen to have disabilities. Even the President, who, as we know, had to pretend he wasn't disabled because of his office, and the news media helped him to hide it. (Can you imagine that today?)
There is period typical racism, sexism, abilism, fat-phobia, and homophobia, however each are addressed and confronted as you go through the novel. I really admire that.
I have added this series (this is the final of seven novels) to my "Read Once I'm Done With Challenges" list.
Length: 464 pages
ReReadability: I will almost certainly reread this when I read the whole series
Classic: I'm still not sure what a "classic" is. In scope, range, and delivery, I think this novel almost gets there. To be completely honest, the final chapter is what killed it for me. Jarring.
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