mondojohnson

Part of Gore Vidal’s “American Chronicles”, Empire examines the dawn of both the 20th century and of America’s imperial ambitions.

The novel is dense with well-drawn characters, most of whom actually existed. Gore Vidal weaves their individual narratives into the broader tapestry of the story with a skill rivaling Thackeray and Dickens. Evidence of his genius is illustrated, for me at least, by the seamlessness with which fictional characters are blended with real ones. I often consulted Wikipedia to find out whether or not a certain character was real…. I was conspicuously wrong in the case of the Stantons, the central characters who are Vidal’s creations.

The plot straddles two presidencies, the end of McKinley’s and the beginning of Roosevelt’s, through the loyal perspective of John Hay, Secretary of State in both administrations. We already know Hay, in a younger incarnation, from Vidal’s amazing Lincoln; he was Honest Abe’s secretary. The nation is achieving its “manifest destiny” by consolidating its gains after the Spanish-American war.

A side note: Teddy Roosevelt is quickly becoming one of my favorite historical characters. Vidal’s excellent portrait of the eccentric leader led me to pick up Edmund Morris’s Theodore Rex, and reminded me of Chris Elliot’s wacky take on TR in The Shroud of the Thwacker (e.g. — did you know that TR, in addition to popularizing the phrase “bully”, was also known for coining “you can apply it directly to my thighs”?)