Lincoln

I love Gore Vidal's writing. Not only is the novel the best one he's ever written IMHO, but it's also the best novel I've ever read about Lincoln. I could never really understood the man and "Lincoln" helped me understand a possible version of him that was easily understood. I won't leave spoilers, so this is all I want to say.

If I could give this book 15 stars, I certainly would. It is the finest political novel by an American writer. It has few rivals, maybe "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God", both by Robert Graves, are as good, but students of history, political science or leadership will find "Lincoln" to be an exception work of literary art. There are several reasons why I so strongly recommend this book. First, this novel demonstrates exceptionally well the balance between self interests and loyalty, as exemplified in the Lincoln cabinet. Salmon Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, and William Seward, the Secretary of State are finely portrayed characters. They both were positioning themselves in the Lincoln presidency to succeed him. This required careful political skills to appear supportive but make every move in regard to self interests. The passages where Lincoln wins over William Seward into a real honest partnership are masterful and my admiration for Seward soared. Salmon Chase on the other hand continues to play a careful game of undermining the President behind his back while playing the loyal servant to his face. The passage where Chase is eventually confronted by Lincoln, who was never fooled in the first place, is a wonderful example of the careful interpersonal chess moves required in political life. Second, the novel does a wonderful job of demonstrating how difficult it is get someone to follow orders and do the job right. Lincoln remains totally frustrated with his generals, especially the handsome, charming General McClellan, with his own political ambitions. The man refused to engage the enemy. Lincoln eventually fires him and promotes General Grant. Mrs. Lincoln is somewhat scadalized by the Grants, but Lincoln finally has a military genius on his side and Lincoln offers minimal guidance as long as he sees the war turning around due to Grant's initiatives. Third, the novel does a great job of demonstrating the total hell that Lincoln occupied in the White House. The public came into the public rooms of the White House every morning to try to intercept the President on his way to his office. His wife engaged in questionable kick-back schemes with the White House staff. His older sons went to war and his younger son dies of swamp fever. Mary Lincoln was a burden to the President and her nervous breakdown after the death of their child, Willie, further burdened this exceptional political genius. Fourth, Lincoln practiced careful adaptive leadership, keeping his cabinet and officers focused on the grim realities they had to face every day without flights of hubris and fancy. Lincoln held our nation together at its darkest hour. Vidal was able to capture the amazing day to day reality that this feat entailed. Vidal creates a vision of Lincoln that comes to life in this fine novel.

Andrew Delbanco says of this novel: "This novel will, I suspect, maintain a permanent place in American letters." I can only hope so; it certainly deserves it. The historical detail is perfect, yet never tedious, and with Vidal choosing which details to give us, we get the juiciest ones. This is a novel that will please history buffs, but it will also transform a reader into a history buff. (I found myself checking out biographies of Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln from the library.)If there is anything negative to be said about this book, it is simply that it is very long (657 pages, and they make full use of each page). This should not deter anyone from reading it. It just means you should buy it for yourself for Christmas and read it over the break. Or take it to the beach. Though I imagine a cup of coffee or tea and a blanket are more suited for this novel.The Lincoln portrayed here is completely human, replete with humor, constipation, family quarrels, anxiety, wisdom--in short, a full and complex man. Scholars argue back and forth about whether Vidal has accurately portrayed Lincoln. This portrait is as accurate as any you'll find, but I promise you that no other will be this engaging and interesting. He even puts forth a believable theory about Lincoln's assassination (which he admits is largely conjecture in an afterword where he breaks down what parts of the novel are fictional and what parts factual).I recommend this book to every history buff, to every literature buff, to every American.

Even Gore Vidal can't take this icon down. Though he's done his best to submarine Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton, among others, he can't conceal his affection and ardor for our greatest national hero. He sides with his class on many occasions, primarily as regards Salmon Chase and William Seward. He treats both figures with even greater esteem than either of them actually merited. The secondary plot involving Chase and his daughter are particularly telling regarding Vidal's true feelings about class and ancestry. He is and always will be a snob, when it comes to family ties. Yet despite the fact that his protagonist is a social parvenue and a political bumpkin in many respects, Lincoln emerges as truly three-dimensional and heroic in this novel, just as he has in history in general. There are so many Lincoln biographies out there that I almost have a problem in highlighting this one; however it really is Vidal's most earnest, least cynical work; as such it deserves and earns high praise.

Not that there's any serious resemblance between Puzo's main character and Vidal's, but I make the comparison to suggest how Vidal has broken the mold on the plaster Lincoln, and revealed him as the brilliant and cunning manipulator of dramatic and violent events that he had to be-- rather than as the Huck Finn-like saintly bumpkin he is usually portrayed as being. This is Lincoln as a great politician in the thick swamp of a highly politicized historical moment; all around him swirl those who underestimate him and think they will control him and seize the reins of power-- until the book's true climax, when William Seward realizes, with a kind of ravishment, that Lincoln has always been far stronger, far more visionary, and far more ruthless than he could ever have been. (That puts Seward well ahead of Salmon P. Chase, who never figures it out and whom Lincoln plays like an old fiddle.)Historians quibbled with aspects of the book-- but Vidal doesn't say Lincoln had syphilis and gave it to his wife; he says Billy Herndon said so, which is something else entirely. Give him license to interpret the historical record his way, and what you are left with is a Lincoln novel that for once is alive to the reality of politics, and-- our cynical age should be reminded-- to the way a truly great politician can use all the tricks of his trade to appeal to the better angels of our natures and achieve greatness and great things.

People who prefer their presidents -- especially the "great" ones -- wreathed in hagiographical haloes had better look elsewhere for a view of the president who re-founded the United States. Vidal's portrait of this most interesting (and, given the sum of his achievements, our greatest) president accurately renders the Lincoln that I have come to know through a close reading of many of "Father Abraham's" own writings.That being the case, be forewarned that this novel came under fire from the academics who, having failed in their self-appointed task of shaping American history to fit their own political agendas, sought to discredit an artist who took Lincoln as he (and the historical record) found him. (For a complete discussion of this controversy from Vidal's perspective, see his wonderfully entertaining "United States.")From Lincoln's 1838 address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield (when he spoke of ambitious men who would eschew the path laid out by the country's founders, in order to carve for themselves an equal or higher niche in the pantheon of fame, whether it be by freeing the slaves or enslaving free men), to his farewell address to his fellow citizens of Springfield, we have historical evidence that this was a man with his eye on more than just a political office. So much so that one fair interpretation (such as Vidal's) could be that he did (and said, especially in his "House Divided" speech) more than a little of his own to bring on our nation's bloodiest war. This kind of thinking, of course, does seem to rattle the hagiogaphers of the Ken Burns school, who would have us think that the Civil War was about slavery. Period. End of sentence. End of thought. About slavery it certainly was; but there were other issues (labor and capitalism,for instance)that, for a variety of reasons, the hagiographers do not touch. Is it because by raising the question of "slaves without masters," to quote the pro-slavery apologi! st George Fitzhugh's critique of Northern capitalism, we remind ourselves of the very precarious economic world that we still inhabit, a world that the South fought to keep at bay as long as it could? To keep from asking such questions, modern-day mandrakes endeavor to divert our attention from the hard questions raised by the Civil War (and by Lincoln's own conduct and words) and keep our vision focused on the horrors of slavery, and the sainthood of the man responsible for ending it.Abraham Lincoln deserves his due as a great man, a great president, and a genius to boot. He did indeed supplant Washington in our minds, and it is fitting that he did: for the Old Republic that people thought they were getting in the time of Washington is no more. Perhaps it was inevitable that it died; certainly it is true that a polity based upon human exploitation and bias towards the big money men deserves to die. But that raises the question of what we have got in return. This book is a magnificent portrait of the man