Word: roosevelts
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...novelist who puts himself into his story is either a Postmodernist or uncommonly vain. Vidal is not a Postmodernist, but he probably deserves a place in his chronicle. He knew or met a number of the real, historical people - Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Alsop, Tennessee Williams - who move through the pages of "The Golden Age." He has been, for the past half-century, an uncommonly public literary figure: a near ubiquitous television guest and, twice, an unsuccessful candidate for elective office. Living well is Vidal's revenge, which he does much of each year at La Rondinaia, his spectacular house...
...question hums throughout Vidal's historical series, particularly as it applies to the biggest winners, U.S. presidents. Burr casts both Jefferson and George Washington in a harsh light. "Lincoln" portrays its protagonist as almost diabolically unknowable in his use of power; "Empire" makes merry with the boisterously ambitious Theodore Roosevelt. Vidal's fiction strives mightily to transform the faces on the Mount Rushmore monument into rubble and scree...
...second Roosevelt in the White House receives similar treatment in "The Golden Age." As the novel opens in 1940, FDR is shown secretly maneuvering the country toward a war in Europe that the people would, if consulted, totally reject. Sanford's Aunt Caroline, a major character in "Empire" and "Hollywood," is a friend of the Roosevelts and a frequent guest at the White House. She is charmed by the President but also chilled by what she sees as his inexhaustible deviousness. "There is a curse on power," she blurts out to the First Lady. Mrs. Roosevelt replies, "Not when used...
...Vidal's father was FDR's director of air commerce. His stepsister was Jackie Kennedy, and through her he became a friend of Jack Kennedy. Vidal himself was an unsuccessful candidate for a congressional seat in 1960, a race in which he was endorsed by friend and neighbor Eleanor Roosevelt. Some of "The Best Man" came straight out of this background. "I showed the play to Jack [Kennedy] and he gave me a couple of lines," Vidal recalls. "There's one I have Senator Carlin say :'I just want you to know I'm a hundred percent behind you. Just...
...immune system and get it back on a more normal track. (The injections don't generally trigger an overreaction because they are delivered not into the respiratory system but through the skin.) "The shots usually aren't given before age 4," says Dr. Ira Finegold of St. Lukes-Roosevelt Medical Center in New York City. "But it can be done earlier...