From Publishers Weekly
Gore Vidal admires Edmund Wilson, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, W.D. Howells, the recently resurrected Dawn Powell ("our best mid-century novelist") and the almost entirely unknown Isabel Potter. His praise, however, often seems a form of self-portraiture: when he remarks on Wilson's "powerful wide-ranging mind," one gets the feeling that he's glancing at a mirror. And in a public-relations first, he manages to extract a posthumous blurb of sorts from Thomas Mann 47 years after the publication of Vidal's novel The City and the Pillar (the German novelist had ignored the novel when Vidal sent it to him in 1948, but Vidal publishes here extracts from Mann's diary which describe the work as "brilliant" in parts but "faulty and unpleasant" overall). Vidal despises academics and the humorless, two groups apparently synonymous in his mind. There is a cautionary illustration here of the folly of answering a negative review: when Vidal trashes a Mark Twain biography and the author replies, Vidal's response is a crippling artillery blast. But that salvo is nothing compared to the tonnage he drops on arch-rival John Updike; Vidal devotes the longest of these essays to a merciless bombardment of Updike for being shallow and jingoistic, undeterred (or perhaps spurred on) by Updike's superior critical reputation. When not settling literary scores, Vidal turns to politics, where he belies his patrician background by consistently rooting for the little people in their struggles against an impersonal empire. In one especially choice paragraph, Vidal observes that two months after The City and the Pillar was published and its same-sex themes put an end to the political ambition his family had for him, his cousin Al Gore was born in a moment of "weird symmetry... whose meaning I leave to the witches on the heath." Commenting on Gore's central flaw, his Jimmy Carter-like obsession with flawless order, Vidal observes that the greatest presidents, such as FDR, knew that nothing really connects and that the best political minds simply adapt and move on. Vidal's ninth collection of essays, this one shows the mandarin populist to be at the height of his powers of both vituperation and sagacity. It leaves one impatient already for the tenth. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Beginning with essays about Edmund Wilson, Isabel Potter, Isabel Bolton, and Dawn Powell is a subtle launch, since many listeners haven't thought about these literary luminaries since college, if ever. But soon more familiar names and events from literature and politics ignite sparks of interest: Bill Clinton, FDR, Al Gore, Sinclair Lewis, Charles Lindbergh, Harry Truman, Mark Twain, the Bill of Rights, World War II, and the war on drugs. Whether describing events the public witnesses through the news media lens (one chapter is titled "Birds and Bees and Clinton") or as legend (Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's marriage), Vidal's perspectives are neither ordinary nor vernacular. The result is a satisfying intellectual workout for those who missed his original works in issues of The Nation, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the like. This, Vidal's ninth collection, picks up where his 1993 National Book Award for Nonfiction winner, United States: Essays, 1952-1992, left off. Narrator Dan Cashman's neutral and unbiased tone is the perfect trumpet for Vidal's snappy vocabulary and literary allusions. Recommended, but repackaging will be a must the original box is flimsy. Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo, NYCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
A prolific writer of novels, literary criticism, and social criticism, Vidal is considered by many to be one of the great American writers of the late twentieth century. Given Vidal's complex prose and acerbic wit, it is a daunting task to read this work. Dan Cashman performs this text in an excellent fashion. He deftly handles the pauses, parenthetical remarks, and asides in each essay and never falters on the many names and foreign phrases. Vidal excoriates John Updike, a biographer of Mark Twain, and most contemporary political figures, and Cashman clearly communicates Vidal's contempt. Cashman seems to understand the text so well one might think Vidal is reading his own work. M.L.C. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"The American tradition of independent and curious learning is kept alive in the wit and great expressiveness of Gore Vidal's criticism."
--Citation for the 1982 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism

Praise for Gore Vidal's Previous Essay Collection, United States:

"In 114 essays written over a period of forty years, Gore Vidal has shown himself to be a masterly, learned, and percipient observer of an unparalleled range of subjects. United States: Essays 1952-1992 assesses such diverse matters as modern French fiction, the Kennedys, underappreciated writers like Thomas Love Peacock, and the American attitude toward sex. He writes tenderly of authors and people he cherishes Eleanor Roosevelt, Tennessee Williams, William Dean Howells. Whatever his subject, he addresses it with an artist's resonant appreciation, a scholar's conscience, and the persuasive powers of a great essayist."
--Citation for the 1993 National Book Award

"Gore Vidal, essayist; so good that we cannot do without him. He is a treasure of the state."
--R. W. B. Lewis, New York Times Book Review

"Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age, and we should thank the gods that we still have him to kick us around. Long may he flourish."
Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"The century's finest essayist."
--Jonathan Keates, Spectator

FROM OUR EDITORS

Love him or hate him as a novelist, you have to agree that Gore Vidal is one of our finest and most provocative essayists. His last major collection, United States: Essays 1952-1992, won the National Book Award. This grouping contains some dandies, such as his tributes to Dawn Powell and Mark Twain; his scourging of recent American presidents; and "The Shredding of the Bill of Rights," his much-discussed Vanity Fair piece on the national security state.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Last Empire is Gore Vidal's ninth collection of essays. As in the previous volumes, Vidal displays unparalleled range and inimitable style as he deals with matters literary, historical, personal, and political."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

Vidal, one of America's most respected dissident, has over the years published many such collections of book reviews and historical and social commentary. Vidal, now in his seventies, occasionally appears to be self-consciously clawing for a place in history, but his themes bear repeating and his essays may be the only place one finds appreciation for authors such as Dawn Powell and C.P. Cavafy. Vidal is from an old political family (Al Gore is a distant cousin) and personally knows many of the political and literary figures he writes about. This unique position inspires pieces full of both original insight and catty gossip. ￯﾿ﾽKevin Grandfield

Library Journal

Along with his novels, Vidal comments frequently on the American empire in essays that appear in the Nation, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. This volume is the ninth collection of such pieces; his 1993 collection, United States: Essays 1952-1992, won the National Book Award. Ever witty, urbane, and knowledgeable, Vidal can be counted upon to skewer or praise his subjects with style. Figures literary, historical, and political are all fair game: included here are Mark Twain, John Updike, Charles Lindbergh, FDR, Bill Clinton, Vidal's cousin Al Gore, and many, many more. Not to be read in a single sitting, this volume serves to remind us to keep an eye out for the author's continuing commentary on the current political situation, in which "a powerless Mikado ruled by a shogun vice president and his Pentagon warrior counselors." Recommended for large libraries and comprehensive Vidal collections. Mary Paumier Jones, Westminster P.L., CO Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

A prolific writer of novels, literary criticism, and social criticism, Vidal is considered by many to be one of the great American writers of the late twentieth century. Given Vidal's complex prose and acerbic wit, it is a daunting task to read this work. Dan Cashman performs this text in an excellent fashion. He deftly handles the pauses, parenthetical remarks, and asides in each essay and never falters on the many names and foreign phrases. Vidal excoriates John Updike, a biographer of Mark Twain, and most contemporary political figures, and Cashman clearly communicates Vidal's contempt. Cashman seems to understand the text so well one might think Vidal is reading his own work. M.L.C. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews