Burr: A Novel [Paperback]

Not only does Vidal enlighten the reader by presenting mostly factual information pertaining to the early part of the nineteenth century, but he also allows the reader to identify with the characters by highlighting personality traits that are still recognizable today.

Even though it was centuries ago, I feel like Vidal, on a certain level, brought Aaron Burr into the present.

I am a person who finds straightforward factual history boring and laborious, but I was truly entertained and enlightened by this novel. The secret to Vidal's success is his ability to weave together education and emotion, making all of his writings revealing, shocking, and entertaining.

(If you love drama, I recommend this book for you. The ending will shock you. Also, if you enjoyed Vidal's Lincoln, you'll enjoy Burr even more, for it is an easier read.)

But this novel is even better than that kind of satire: I studied its structure and characters in far greater detail this time around, and came to believe that the historical details obscure a truly masterful performance by a modern writer. The narrative moves on two levels, including the present when a young writer begins to take down Burr's memoires and of course the past career of the charming and much vilified man. In many ways, the characters are more multi-dimentional than in many of his other novels. And this novel is also the start of a kind of longitudinal Balzacian literary experiment in which the reader sees characters and their descendants re-appear to make their mark over 150 years. After all these years of being a fan, I realise that I have perhaps under-estimated Vidal as a writer! I am now prepared to go back to the others in the series for a second read. It is so rare to meet a contemporary American novelist whose work ages so well.

Warmly recommended.

Alas, I should have given the book a little more time. When it picks up and the mythical autobiographical journal of Burr begins, this novel becomes entertainment of the highest order. Burr, through Vidal, writes a wickedly amusing first-hand account of many of the seminal points in our nation's young history, from the winter at Valley Forge to Benedict Arnold's early success as a general. In telling his story, Burr never passes up an opportunity to point out George Washington's ineptitude as a field general or his plumpness, Jefferson's lack of military duty and his resemblance to the mulatto children living at Monticello, Ethan Allen's lack of popularity with his superiors, etc. Nobody is spared, nothing is sacred in a Gore Vidal novel.

As for the historical accuracy, Vidal points out in an afterword that with a couple of very minor anachronisms (which he details), every character in the book acts as he or she did in real life - their speech and writings are borrowed from actual correspondence, and the historical events depicted are painstakingly researched (Vidal took 10 years to write the book). Even narrator Charlie Schuyler's girlfriend, the prostitute Helen Jewitt, is based upon a real life character. So while some graduate students might object to a phrase or two, and perhaps some Jeffersonians will object to the two-faced opportunist Jefferson portrayed here, for most of us with a casual interest in history the book educates as it entertains.