Be Specific About Books As The City and the Pillar
| Original Title: | The City and the Pillar |
| ISBN: | 1400030374 (ISBN13: 9781400030378) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Paul Sullivan, Maria Verlaine, Jim Willard, Bob Ford, Ronald Shaw |
| Setting: | United States of America Virginia(United States) New York City, New York(United States) …more Los Angeles, California(United States) New Orleans, Louisiana(United States) Yucatán(Mexico) Denver, Colorado(United States) Hollywood, California(United States) …less |
Gore Vidal
Paperback | Pages: 207 pages Rating: 3.85 | 6909 Users | 478 Reviews
Mention Of Books The City and the Pillar
| Title | : | The City and the Pillar |
| Author | : | Gore Vidal |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 207 pages |
| Published | : | December 2nd 2003 by Vintage (first published January 10th 1948) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. LGBT. Classics. GLBT. Queer. Gay |
Chronicle In Favor Of Books The City and the Pillar
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. Defying his parents’ expectations, Jim strikes out on his own, hoping to find Bob and rekindle their amorous friendship. Along the way he struggles with what he feels is his unique bond with Bob and with his persistent attraction to other men. Upon finally encountering Bob years later, the force of his hopes for a life together leads to a devastating climax. The first novel of its kind to appear on the American literary landscape, The City and the Pillar remains a forthright and uncompromising portrayal of sexual relationships between men.Rating Of Books The City and the Pillar
Ratings: 3.85 From 6909 Users | 478 ReviewsAssessment Of Books The City and the Pillar
"Nothing is 'right.' Only denial of instinct is wrong." There is a great and epic, operatically tragic story of gay desire in The City and the Pillar and it is this:Jim Willard is uncertain and confused in his adolescent sexuality. One perfect summer night by the moonlight, he and his best friend Bob Ford, are romping about in the nude by the lake, splashing and shouting and reveling in their youthfulness. They begin to wrestle and suddenly the urge takes hold and they make out and make love.Be warned: Goodreads will "recommend" this book to you automatically if you've read OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS by Truman Capote. Gore Vidal and Truman Capote were both gay men, and both Southerners. Both became literary sensations right after World War II by writing about homosexuality with frankness at a time when it was still absolutely forbidden to discuss the subject in public.Granting all that, however, the two of them really have nothing in common. Not in terms of temperment, talent,
Yes, I'm sort of reviewing this backward, but the largest part of the book was the title story and thus deserves a bit more attention.The seven early stories were unique & entirely worthwhile. I'd expected more of the same upon having finished the novel portion, but Vidal clearly had a gift for exploring nuances in a variety of circumstances. I had to abandon expectations, and that's always a plus. The City and the Pillar was dark, unvarnished, and 'Come on, man, you really think that nothi
... Oooooof.This one's gonna leave a bruise. I don't usually go for the kind of spare, direct style, but this just cuts so close to home that no ornamentation of philosophizing is really needed. Jim's wishful delusions about sexuality - early on, that he's not quite so queer, and later on that everyone else isn't quite so straight - are painfully evocative of a couple-year period in my own life. So too was the weird noble-feeling but ultimately self-denying ideal of the Twin/Brother-Lover, with
Time had stopped. Head down to the visitor's attractions of earth open wishes. What were you dreaming when it hit. Asteroid eyes rove the green eyed monsters monumentally frozen into mountainsides. You get what you paid and sold. The secret smile cried into cold dead hands. Hold the palm shut to make stick in after life. Jim in the dark wonders that everyone doesn't know. What the bulges in trousers must have invited. They dance by tables in whirls of what to wear or does it always look that
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
"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
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