Dark Green, Bright Red

Vidal had a good feel for his subject - mid-century Latin American banana republics and the plotting that went on, shifting alliances between local elites, military and the gringos (multinational banananeros and the CIA, which stays in the background). He doesn't plunge into the emotional depths of......more

3.5; rather more haphazard than other of his novels from the period, but still contains moments of penetrating depth and possesses a pleasantly surprising (if reserved) frankness and maturity about a number of matters not then commonly depicted or discussed in american fiction.......more

In Vidal's book, one finds a distilled version of what was happening across Central America in the mid-nineteenth century: authoritarian regimes, military juntas, and an American corporation (called simply the Company). He wrote most of this while living in Guatemala, a country which the US successf......more

“The General nodded absently, looking up at Elena who smiled at him, touched his shoulder, removed a hair” (p. 245). Vidal finished Dark Green, Bright Red a year and a half before I was born, and I can imagine him struggling with what he should write, while suffering under The Times anathema. This is......more

A fine little diversion. While not on the A-List of Gore's novels, it's an entertaining and capable book. It delivers all of Gore's hallmarks in a compact read. There are flaws in this gem, but it well worth the reader's minimal investment of time.......more